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The holidays are always a special time of the year when families and friends get together to enjoy each other’s company, eat good food and exchange gifts. Being able to budget for the holidays, however, can be challenging. Here are just a few tips to help you get started.

Know Your Limits 

We all wish we could give our family and friends fancy gifts, but our budgets don’t always allow us to do so. The financial goal for the holidays should be to not go into debt. What can you afford to set aside each month for the holidays? Can you set up a Christmas Club Savings account, or set aside your spare change throughout the year?  

Remember to include other money sources, such as a year-end bonus (as long as you don’t have plans to put that towards a more important financial goal) or really squeezing your monthly household budget for a couple of months. 

What’s on Your List? 

Once you know how much you can spend, make a list of all the things you will need during the holidays. This isn’t just a list of the gifts you want to buy.  

Are you inviting people over for a holiday feast? Make sure to budget for the food and drinks you’ll need, and any extra decorations you want to make your party more festive. Will you be traveling? Factor in those travel costs. Don’t forget about wrapping paper, holiday cards and charitable contributions. All of those things add up. 

Once you have a list, prioritize it. What are must haves, and what can you live without if you can’t afford it? 

Track and Adjust as You Spend

Keep track of everything you get from your list and adjust as needed. For example, did you save $100 on a necklace for your mom because it was on sale? You can either add that savings to a different budget you have in place, or take that $100 to bump up the priority of something else on your holiday list.  

If you start to see things costing more than what you originally thought, you will need to revise your list and possibly bump down some of your high priority items to a lower priority. 

We hope these tips gets you started on your holiday budget.