There is nothing like seeing a child’s eyes light up on Christmas morning when they discover all the presents that have appeared beneath the tree. At our house that feeling is just finally getting to the place where it is in full swing. We have three daughters, an almost 5 year old, a 2 year old, and an infant.
The older two girls know enough to be excited, and are still not to the age where the things they ask for have begun to dramatically climb in price. Some of you remember those days. Some of you are living them now.
It is a joy to buy for your children as well as other members of your family. I am a person who loves to give gifts, so I fully appreciate how great it can be to see someone truly excited about something you’ve selected for them.
Even those of us who normally spend carefully can sometimes be persuaded to throw that same kind of caution to the wind and allow our spending to balloon during the lead up to Christmas. Buying gifts for our loved ones can end up in a blind spot where our budget is concerned, and that is a big problem.
If you are someone who has woken up on a cold January morning to the cold reality of credit card debt accrued through frivolous holiday spending, you are not alone. So how do you avoid making that kind of mistake? There are several ways.
Include gifts in your spending plan.
Christmas is the same day every year. Did you know this? Don’t get caught by surprise! It shouldn’t sneak up on you. Start planning for your Christmas spending early. Build your gifts into you monthly spending plan and start doing it as early as September if you are really motivated. That will spread out your spending and allow you to lessen the burden as well as the likelihood of choosing to rely on debt to pay for gifts.
Also, set limits on how much you will spend and stick to them! It sounds simple, but going above budget here and there for gifts can add up to a lot of extra spending if you are not careful. When you add in all the cost of food and travel during the holiday season it is very easy to overextend yourself and that can lead to the temptation to use your credit card.
Learn to say no.
The holidays are a great time for giving, spending time with family, and eating delicious food. The word no is not one we think of often during this time of year. Perhaps that is where the spending problems originate. One of the most important lessons to learn if you want to stop bad spending habits during the holidays is to learn to say no to things that simply are not in your budget.
Whether you are saying not to attending gatherings that are costly and far away, participating in a gift exchange that stretches your budget to its limits, or just saying no to those expensive gifts your kids are just dying to have, saying no can be the right decision. It is not always easy to do this during the time of year where doing so is significantly against the grain. However, being the weird one who opts out of those situations means you get to be the weird one in January who is not scowling at that credit card bill as well.
Give of your time.
Time spent with family holds a much greater value than anything you can buy. Your time is finite. For example, in our house, we make and decorate sugar cookies in the weeks leading up to Christmas. I remember as a kid when my dad would start this process. He would roll out the dough, we would help cut the cookies out, put them on the sheet, and then decorate them when they had come out of the oven and cooled. It was a family tradition that took place every year.
A few years ago, I did this for the first time with my kids. I hated it. The dough was a mess, the kitchen got trashed, and it took a long time. For the next couple of years I didn’t make any. Then I started to think back about what things I personally remembered about Christmas. Do you know that I can count on one hand the number of truly significant and memorable gifts I received as a child? What I do remember was our tradition of playing awful card games after opening presents. I remember at Thanksgiving when we would throw the football around. And yes, I remember making those sugar cookies.
Needless to say, we made cookies this year. It still was not my favorite activity, but the girls enjoyed it. What’s more, I am fairly confident that they will have more memories of those kinds of traditions and quality time spent together than they will of what Hatchimal they received for Christmas or which doll or toy was their favorite. So if that is the case, why would I be willing to go into debt to buy those things they won’t even remember years later?
Conclusion
Giving gifts to your loved ones is a wonderful thing. For those of you who, like our family, have small children, it is one of the truly enjoyable parts of Christmas. It is important to remember, though, that when you leverage your future to buy those gifts, you are giving them something else. Children pay close attention to everything their parents do. When you let debt into the driver’s seat of your spending it teaches your kids to do the same.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with spending money on your family and friends. It is even totally fine to spend a whole lot of it on them! But what is important is that you don’t spend money you don’t have just because you think you should. That kind of short-sighted perspective sets you up to fail. Instead, plan ahead, stick to that plan, and teach your kids about how to do the same. That is the kind of gift that keeps on giving long after they’ve forgotten about that present they just couldn’t live without.