5 IMPORTANT STEPS CHRISTIANS CAN TAKE TO BUDGET FOR THE HOLIDAYS
The holiday season is here and it always brings a lot of excitement and hustle and bustle. Our lives will be filled with lots of fun during this season. There will be dinner gatherings with friends, family get-togethers, parties, and of course, giving gifts to our loved ones. While everyone is having fun they tend to let the costs for this season pile up. This is the time of the year where Christians want to bless others more, but not all have figured out how much to spend.
I know that the holidays are typically a time for joyous celebration (as they should be!), but they can also be stressful.
The question you ask yourself is how much to spend this season?
Sometimes you fear that you may not have enough to cover the costs of the necessities. When you are running low on money, holiday expenses can cause extra headaches. Holidays don’t need to be expensive. There are things we can do to budget for the holidays so we aren’t breaking the bank.
Here are five steps any Christian can do to help not go overboard with holiday spending.
Prepare your holiday timeline
If you want to get through this season successfully, it is always best to think carefully, create a plan and stick to it so you can manage your spending well.
Don’t be like many people who go into debt just because they failed to plan ahead of time. You don’t want to rack up the debt and end up with something negative to start with in the new year.
Start creating your master plan which includes your Christmas budget, the gifts you plan to have, the places you will visit, the guests who you will be inviting, the food that you will be preparing, the reservations you have to make, and other things you usually do over the holiday season.
Preparing your timeline will help you to be on track with your plans without leaving important details behind.
Create a detailed plan for staying within your Christmas budget
Maintaining a budget for the holidays is even more important than maintaining one for the rest of the year.
Do your research and find the perfect gift for everyone on your list but be realistic when assigning a budget. Set an overall budget for each family member.
A holiday celebration will not be complete without food, decoration and some activities for the family. Plan the menu so you will not go on impulse buying. Remember to keep a simple meal.
Keep your household decoration simple. You can re-use the previous decors from last
year, do some DIYs, and find ideas on how you can uniquely design your home.
Use cash and avoid using credit cards
You often hear that one of the important keys in money management is the use of cash instead of a credit card. Swiping your card will give you an illusion that you are spending less when in reality you are spending more. Think about using an envelope system for your holiday spending. That way you can easily track where your money is going.
Go easy on the Holiday sales.
Who doesn’t love a good sale? But don’t get too excited about the good deals that you see. A 50% off sale may give you the illusion that you are saving money, but if you didn’t plan to buy that item in the first place, then you are definitely not saving any money!
If there are items you already had planned on getting try to get them when they are on sale, BUT don’t just buy extra stuff you don’t need. This is a sure path to going into debt.
Start saving early for next year’s holiday.
Saving for a big expense is one of the basic components of healthy money management, and one of the principles of biblical money management. This applies to the holidays as well. Start putting away a little bit each month so you can have a great start on your holiday budget even
before next November arrives.
Nothing beats a well-prepared budget for the holiday season.
Bonus tip!
Remember to give.
But as you know Christmas, it’s not all about gifts you receive.
Christmas is a celebration of Jesus’ birth. God has given His only begotten Son in exchange for our sins so we can come before Him. God loved us first so that we can love too. You can honour God by expressing your love for others in a way that reflects the love God has for you.
Share what you have to not only the people that matter but also to those who are in need. God is a God of promise. Christmas is the time to remember what God has done for us through the life of Jesus Christ.
More than the expensive gifts, gathering of families and friends, this is time to worship God not just with our hearts but also with our lives. Let your worship to God reflect with your action through the areas of your giving, money management, relationship with other people, and many more.
Let this season be a time of reflection of God’s faithfulness in your life all throughout the year.
