Your Holiday 2023 Budget Guide, Part 4
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Last year, Americans took on a record amount of holiday credit card debt, averaging $1,549 per household. And it gets worse: it took most people an average of 5 months to pay off their holiday-related credit card debt, leaving them with extra debt and stress well into the spring of 2023.
Keeping our credit cards paid off just keeps getting more challenging with inflated prices still around, especially for things like groceries and housing costs. You may be going into the holiday season with existing credit balances, only to keep adding to them with holiday shopping. Here’s Part 4 of your guide to preventing the holidays from becoming a debt gift that keeps on giving well into 2024!
1. Shop for Christmas presents, décor, etc. throughout the year, especially during sales. If you’re super-organized and like to plan ahead, this can help make the holidays far less stressful! The only drawback is that you have to find somewhere to store all the presents for months. You can also watch for seasonal items like holiday décor, Christmas cards, and holiday-themed gift sets to go on sale in January, and stock up on those for the following year. Christmas décor is pretty timeless, and doesn’t really go out of style from year to year.
2. Go through your current stash of holiday décor and see what you already have before buying more. Since our holiday decorations gather dust in dark corners of our attics, basements or garages the rest of the year, it can be hard to remember what we actually have in those holiday boxes. Fall is the perfect time to do a big home clear-out anyway, because anything you find hanging around your house that you don’t love can go to the thrift store just in time to decorate someone else’s home or become a Christmas gift for someone in your community! Many stores in your area will be running Christmas toy drives over the next few months, so while your tidying up keep an eye out for any gently-used toys your kids may be finished with, and consider donating them to charity drives like Toys For Tots.
3. Shop the thrift stores for Christmas presents & holiday décor. You will probably score some great deals, and your money will go towards helping charitable causes in your community. Double win! Thrift stores often put out their Christmas décor in November, so start checking then to see what’s in the store. Garage sales and estate sales can also be great places to pick up holiday décor at a discount, some of it perhaps even vintage!
4. Prioritize the holiday(s) that means the most to you. Maybe in years past your budget has stretched to candy and décor for Halloween, food and décor for Thanksgiving, AND gifts, food, and décor for Christmas & New Year’s, but not this year. That’s okay! Our cultural expectations of how to celebrate the holidays can put unnecessary strain on both us and our wallets from October through the New Year. Personally, Christmas is my favorite winter holiday, so I prioritize 100% of my holiday budget towards it and just skip Halloween, Thanksgiving, and New Year’s (for the most part). Nobody in our family seems to mind, and it’s made my holiday season a whole lot easier! You don’t have to abandon any of these fall/winter holidays completely (unless you really want to). Perhaps just scale back your investment of time and money in the ones that don’t really bring you joy.