Holiday Gift Fund: It’s Never too Early to Start

Posted on July 11, 2008 in Holiday Cheer, Saving ideas 7 comments

A couple of weeks ago Frugal Dad reminded us that there are less than 200 days to save money for gifts this holiday season. We have never had a holiday fund, but we have always been able to pay cash for any presents we buy for the season. This year I want that to be different. This year I want to have a holiday gift fund and accumulate that money with as little impact to our budget as possible.

First, let’s analyze our needs. Let’s go over my husband’s side of the family: we need to buy presents for his parents ($75), and his three nephews and niece ($25 each). We have an agreement we don’t gift the adults but the children. This same applies for my family, present for my mom, already bought for $4 at CVS this week, gift for 7 nephews and nieces ($140). Then gifts for husband’s coworkers 6 of them at $10 each=$60. Gifts for friends’ kids: $80, four of them 20 each. Oh wait! I forgot gifts for our kids: $50 each and just for the heck of it $50 for presents for each other. The grand total I need is: $630. Because spending during holiday season usually tends to become inflated, for good measure I will pad our fund an extra 15% and set my target at $720. This is what I need to save over the next twenty weeks. It comes out to $35 a week. That’s not chump change now that I think about it.

Now, how am I going to get there? First, any money I get back from rebates or surveys will get saved for this purpose. Right now I have $15 in rebate checks I need to cash. I have other $25 already cashed. But mainly what I will do is withdraw $35 in cash right after my husband gets paid. That way the money is already deducted from our budget and we need to adjust our spending accordingly. This is my archaic version of automatic savings.

I will be putting the money away in cash in an envelope. I also intend to purchase gifts from now until then to take advantage of sales and clearances. I will save those receipts so that at the end of this period I can see how my plan worked out.
How about you? can you draw a quick holiday gift budget in your head? Can you plan where the money is going to come from? How about start saving now to lessen the blow later?

Making your Online Shopping Experience Safer

Posted on November 26, 2007 in Holiday Cheer, Money talk 0 comments

Black Friday is behind us now; is it time to hit the online malls? Tomorrow is considered the beginning of the holiday shopping season for online retailers or Cyber Monday. Approximately two thirds of online retailers will offer special sales tomorrow. If you will be looking for bargains remember to keep your online shopping experience safe.
Here are a few quick tips to ensure that:

  • Always use a credit card when purchasing items online. It protects you from identity theft and fraud and also facilitates returns or any disputes you might have. Speaking of returns make sure you are familiar with the company’s return policy and that you have contact information for customer service.
  • Keep a record of your transaction. Most online retailers will give you a purchase number after your transaction is completed. I am guilty of not printing this page many times, but at such a busy time as right now, things are bound to fall through the cracks. So keep a printed copy of this page for your records. This will also be useful at the time you receive your monthly bill and it will help you reconcile your purchases with what hit your credit card.
  • At the time of ordering make sure the site is secure. You will see a yellow closed padlock symbol on the right lower corner of your Internet browser. Also, the web address instead of starting with “http”, should start as “https.”

We do a fair amount of shopping online and have yet to have a bad experience (knock on wood). It just takes a little bit of self-diligence to make sure you are protected when shopping online. Happy Shopping!

Oprah’s Favorite Things

Posted on November 21, 2007 in Holiday Cheer 0 comments

OK, so I have a question here, should most of America really care or go by what Oprah’s favorite things are to do their Holiday shopping? This is a woman whose net worth is over $2.5 billion and had estimated annual earnings last year of $260 million?

So, should the average American consider her shopping list as a guide for their own? I just totaled the price tag for her 20 item list and it’s, at the low end, $7,200 for 20 gifts!! So, yeah tell me how is that for average. I am sure she takes into consideration that the average American won’t be shelling out $42 for a set of 3 soaps (or so I hope) but still. I guess that was one of her “affordable” gifts on the list.

I know most of the hype for this show is that people who are in attendance get the items for free. But at the price tag most items are; the show is just another advertising ploy and I am sure you guys had already figured that one out.

Keeping Holiday Spending Under Control

Posted on November 10, 2007 in frugal living, Holiday Cheer, Saving Tools 0 comments

The holiday season is the time to give and stores sure like to put you in that spirit. Retailers couldn’t wait for Halloween to be over so they could put out their holiday decorations. Oh! and it’s not retailers only, one of our local radio stations has already started playing holiday music! I thought the earliest they got started was after Thanksgiving. The incentives are clearly there to put us in the spending spirit. And it’s so easy to spend isn’t it? store catalogs, store sales, manufacturer’s promotions. It feels like the making for a perfect storm. To help you keep your spending under control consider the following tools:

1) Before you do any more gift spending this season, sit down and figure out how much you can truly afford. I found a guideline online to spend 1.5% of your annual income ( I am not even going to go into how little sense that makes to me considering the national savings rate is negative, but whatever). However, figure out how much it makes sense for your family to afford. Consider your particular situation: if there has been a layoff in the family, income lost, additional expenses, or maybe you have a nice bonus coming to you soon. Maybe you are counting on a nice tax refund to help pay for this year’s gifts.

2) Once you have determined how much you can afford to spend, make a list of all of the gifts you need to get and how much you would like to spend. Reconcile this list with your budget and determine if you need to make any changes to your list in order to meet your budget.

3) Do not be afraid to cut back on the number of people you are gifting or the amount you are spending on some people. Some ideas are:
-Instead of giving gifts to each one of your siblings and their children consider drawing names. In my family, we only give gifts to the children, no longer to my siblings.
- Consider cashless gifts. With a newborn coming soon to my household the best gift anyone could give me is the gift of time. Offer to bring me a homemade dinner for my family, or maybe just come and visit while I get stuff done around the house. Consider doing this also with older relatives. They probably appreciate more you coming over to visit and helping with household chores or maybe doing their holiday shopping for them. Help is an often overlooked gift and it’s probably one of the most appreciated.
-Consider homemade gifts. I know a lot of people are considering this in the advent of all of those toy recalls. For more frugal gift ideas check here and here for additional information.

4) Consider cheaper shopping alternatives: Online retailers can offer significant savings this time a year. They know they are at a disadvantage with brick and mortar stores because it’s more difficult to draw you in to their website or put you in the holiday “spendy” mood. Also, another advantage of online shopping is that it can help in controlling how much you spend. You are more likely to look just for the item you are interested in, instead of wandering around retail displays and picking up additional impulse buys. Also, try shopping outlets. I personally love outlets. I do most of my clothes shopping there.

5) KEEP TRACK OF YOUR SPENDING. This is very important if you want to stay within budget. The purpose of a budget is to serve as a guideline. If you set one and don’t come back to see how you are doing against it then it’s purpose is lost. Reviewing your budget will help you make adjustments and stay on track.

I hope these ideas help you stay on budget this holiday season and make sure above all you spread love and cheer all around.

Straight from the Headlines

Posted on November 10, 2007 in Holiday Cheer, News 0 comments

We’ve been reading about it in the news from a while: Get ready for $4 per gallon of gas, Grocery costs through the roof, Real Estate Market is Tanking, The Value of the Dollar is Falling. Yet, the average holiday shopper will spend more than $900 on gifts this season. The proportion of people saying they will spend more this year is lower, but so is the one saying they will spend less!
Has the current economic outlook changed how you are spending your money this holiday season?
In our case, this year we have decided to make a contribution to our nephews’ and niece’s college fund. We do not know if they have any set up but if not maybe this will get them started. I know giving money is not as “romantic” as giving a gift, but I’d much rather contribute to someone’s future than room clutter.

Smoking mirrors, or the lies we tell ourselves

Posted on November 10, 2007 in Holiday Cheer 0 comments

It’s the beginning of the holiday season and store catalogs are pouring in our mail box. The thought of the list of people we have to get presents for has been in our minds for weeks now, together with how much we’ll end up spending on all of this.

The holidays are the ultimate time for gift giving. But why do we feel the pressure to one-up one another? How many of us are writing gift giving lists more out of a feeling of obligation than actual desire to give? Or how many of us are figuring out how much we will spend on said gift not based on what we can afford but what we “must spend” on that person? Most importantly how many of us will end up spending more than we can afford because we are trying to hold up an image in front of people?

Do you really think your parents will be thrilled about the gift they got if they knew you paid for it with a credit card with an APR close to 20%? Or do you think, that by the time your children reach college, they will be more grateful for the wii game they got this year than for the fact that they are able to apply some of your savings to their college expenses?

My point is not that you don’t spend anything on your loved ones but that you do it responsibly. Every time you make a spending decision you are making a choice. Will you make the choice that will contribute to your future or will you make one that undermines it?

Just call me Grinch

Posted on October 11, 2007 in Holiday Cheer 0 comments

Ugh!! It’s only October 11 and I am already sick of the holiday season. Not only have retailers started showing their bright holiday decorations but the whole thing has become so stressful with toys being showered in lead before they leave the manufacturer shop or figuring out what to get the in laws who have everything. Maybe it’s because I am having to prepare in advance because I am due in December and need to be ready for it in advance since I don’t see myself decorating/shopping/writing cards with a newborn. I don’t know, but I wish it was January already.
So, here are a few things I am doing to *try* to keep the anxiety levels down:

  • Make a list of all the presents I *need* to buy. Figure out which ones need to be mailed
  • Since I have a list, how about getting ideas of what I would like to get those people and try shopping in advance.
  • Set a limit on how much I would like to spend on each person. Consider drawing names. I personally wish people would ask me what I would like to get or what I would like them to get for my son because, seriously, we don’t need anything. Anything you give me will just add to the clutter in the house. Send your $10 or whatever to my son’s 529 plan. He’ll get much better use of that than the $10 toy that will only be recalled come mid-January.
  • Divide and conquer: I don’t need to figure out what to get the in laws. Get the person who knows them the best (spouse) to figure it out.
  • Leave the perfectionist behind. I am not Martha Stewart, of that I am sure. It doesn’t have to be beautiful wrapping, magnificent decorations or gourmet cooking. Whatever it is will be.
Click Here for Newer Deals &rarr