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Health & Fitness

3 Money Success Tips For Stress-free Holiday Shopping

3 Ways to save money and keep your stress to a minimum while enjoying holiday shopping.

 

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With Thanksgiving approaching, this is a good time to talk about holiday shopping.  During the shopping season, how often do you find yourself stressed out and short of cash?  Do you end up charging your purchases?  While wrapping gifts last year, did you realize you spent more on Susie than you intended?  Do you avoid opening your credit card bill each January?

 

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The holidays can be both stressful and expensive.  Perhaps the first happens because of the latter.  It is not too late to set up a stress-free holiday shopping plan that will save you money too!  Let’s put some joy back into the gift-giving season.

 

The following 3 Money Success Tips will lower your anxiety, keep your spending on track, avoid excess costs and save you money!

 

Money Success Tip #20  - Create a Spending Plan

 

Look at your available savings as well as how much you can save between now and the middle of December.  Determine how much you can afford and are willing to spend on gifts. This will assure that you don’t overspend.  You may wish to put a small amount on a credit card to carry over into January BUT make sure you will have the savings available then to pay it off in full. 

 

Let your family and friends know that your spending plan may be tight this year but you don’t care about them any less.  It is just that big gifts are NOT in the spending plan this year.  If you give them a head’s up, their feelings won’t be hurt when your gift are smaller than in the past.  Honesty and humility can go a long way, especially with those you love.

 

Money Success Tip # 21 – Make a Gift Giving List

 

Write down the names of all those you want to buy for. Then go back and write the $ amount you wish to spend on each. This will be hard at first, because the total amount you wish to spend must equal the amount in your Spending Plan.  I suggest you do this in pencil because you will probably adjust the $ amounts as go down the list. 

 

Don’t underestimate the value of homemade gifts and/or personal services you may provide.  They offer a personal touch that is often more appreciated than a store bought item of little use.  It is also a great way to stay on your Spending Plan.

 

Once you have completed your list and your total Spending Plan balances, transfer the list to your Smart Phone or an Index card for easy reference.  Keeps tabs on your spending while shopping.  This will keep you accountable and will get easier with practice.  Remember, if you keep to your list, you will avoid interest costs on your credit cards, as well as eliminate that sick feeling you get in January when the bills come in the mail.

 

 

Money Success Tip #25 - Always Shop for the Best Price

 

One way to have more money is to SPEND LESS.  This is a great way to stretch your Spending Plan farther.  With the economy struggling, there are a lot of very good deals out there.  The question is – where can you find the Best Price on what you want?

 

I have found a powerful tool that always finds me the best deal.  My gift to you is free access through my portal on Shopping Sherlock.  This is a comparison-shopping site that searches the web for the best deals on retail items, travel and also local offerings.  This powerful search engine always saves me money and can do the same for you!  It will cost you nothing to use this site. 

 

As a member of Shopping Sherlock, I can share this awesome tool with my family, friends, clients, and readers with no strings attached.  Either click on the link above or go to the Shopping Sherlock icon on my money coaching website (right side-bar) and sign up. Here’s the link to my money coaching site. If you need help, there are videos available or contact me so I can walk you through it.

 

Wishing you Stress-Free Holiday Shopping and Lots of Great Savings!

 

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