Holiday shopping season is almost here! Before figuring out what you should spend your money on, it’s essential to figure out how much money you can spend.
The time to do so is now — before the holiday madness takes over. We promise: If you set aside an hour to review your numbers, you’ll emerge in the new year feeling much, much better than if you hadn’t.
To make it a little easier (and a lot more fun), we’ve created something special just for The Penny Hoarder readers. Click here to get your free holiday budgeting worksheet!
And then keep reading to learn the five steps for creating an effective holiday shopping budget.
Analyze Your Debt
It may not be pleasant, but it’s necessary: Before you do anything else, take a good look at your debt — specifically, your credit card debt.
If you have more on your credit cards than you can pay off this month, we urge you to reconsider participating in the holiday shopping frenzy. A much better use of your hard-earned money would be to pay down your credit card balance.
Skipping the expensive gifts doesn’t mean you can’t shower your friends and family with love. You can make gifts by hand (here are some Pinterest-inspired crafts), or you can give them service coupons for favors — like cleaning their house or making them dinner.
After all, a gift from the heart often means more than something that will be out of style next year.
Project Your Total Holiday Income
Credit cards in the clear? Time to estimate the total amount you’re going to earn over the holiday season — between, November and January.
If you get the same paycheck every two weeks, this will be easy; just multiply your monthly income by three.
If your pay is irregular, it’ll take a little more effort. One option is to look at your paystubs or bank accounts from this time last year.
Or, if your job has changed since then, you can average the amount you earned over the last three months. (If you have a particularly high month, throw it out; it’s better to err on the lower side.) Then multiply this average by three.
Calculate Your Basic Holiday Budget
Once you know how much you’ll earn during the holiday season, it’s time to calculate your expenses.
Before determining how much you can spend on holiday extras, you need to create a basic budget for essentials like rent, groceries, car insurance and other expenses.
(If you don’t have a monthly budget, stop what you’re doing and make one here.)
Multiply your monthly budget by three, and you’ve accounted for your basic expenses.
But you’re not done yet — we still have to add the fun stuff.
Find Your Holiday Spending Budget
So, you’ve figured out your projected income and basic budget for the holiday season — but what about the extras? How much can you spend on gifts and parties?
To find that magic number, subtract your basic budget from your projected income. Voila! You now know how much you can comfortably spend on fun stuff over the next few months.
To further derive your holiday gift budget, simply subtract the amount of extra money you’ll spend over the holidays — on things like flights, special foods, party outfits, etc — and you’ll know how much you can spend on gifts.
Fill Out Your Holiday Budgeting Worksheet
Alright, Santa, who’s on your list?
Record your friends and family members in our handy holiday budgeting worksheet and assign a gift budget to each.
The amounts should add up automatically — if the total is less than or equal to your official total budget, then you’re good to go. If not, tweak the numbers until they work. (Remember: A little extra wiggle room never hurts!)
Next, brainstorm gifts for each person that are at or below each price point. If one of your gift ideas is a bit more expensive than what you’ve budgeted, see the following step…
Check Black Friday Predictions
You really want to buy your sister a new makeup brush set for Hanukkah, and you’ve budgeted $20 for her on your master list. But when you check the price online, you see it costs $39.
Before getting discouraged, remember Black Friday and Cyber Monday are fantastic opportunities to purchase gifts at lower prices.
Check Black Friday websites (like ours!) to see predictions about what items will be going on sale, and at what price. If you’re vigilant, there’s a good chance you could get your gifts at lower prices than currently advertised.
(Remember, smaller items go on sale at this time, too, not just electronics. For inspiration, here are 50 gifts under $10.)
Start Tracking Prices
One of the keys to smart holiday shopping is patience. Well, patience, and research.
Before making any purchases, check prices at multiple stores. Price-tracking and comparison tools abound, which makes the process nearly effortless.
PriceZombie is a useful browser extension that compares and tracks prices at more than 100 online retailers. It also shows you price history graphs, so you can see if the current sale is really a bargain.
If you’re on-the-go, use RedLaser to scan an item’s barcode and compare its price to thousands of retailers both online and off. Or try ShopAdvisor, which alerts you when the price drops on one of your wish list items.
Stick to Your Budget!
This step may be last, but it’s one of the most important (and is definitely the hardest to follow). Sticking to your budget is the only way you won’t end up with a holiday hangover — at least financially.
To help, create a “holiday” expense category with an all-in-one tool like Mint, or an app like Santa’s Bag, which helps you manage both your gift list and holiday budget from one platform.
If you prefer something more tactile, withdraw your holiday shopping budget in cash and keep it in a jar.
If you buy anything online or with a credit card, take that amount out of the jar and put it into a separate envelope, which you’ll later redeposit in your checking account. Once that jar’s empty, so is your holiday budget.
One bonus of carefully tracking your holiday spending? If you find great deals, you may have a little extra cash for yourself at the end. (Guilt-free shopping, here we come!)
Avoid going into the red this holiday season by having a plan — and sticking to it. (Here’s that link to our holiday budget template again.)
You might curse us when you can’t buy every single thing your heart desires, but you’ll thank us when the new year arrives!
Your Turn: Have you made your holiday budget yet? How do you plan to stick to it?
Susan Shain, senior writer for The Penny Hoarder, is always seeking adventure on a budget. Visit her blog at susanshain.com, or say hi on Twitter @susan_shain.
This post originally ran on our special Black Friday site.
The post The One Thing You Need to Do Before Going Holiday Shopping appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.
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