Rethink Your Holiday Spending

By Candace Bahr and Ginita Wall


Happy Thanksgiving, Ho, ho, ho! Turkeys and cookies are baking, bells are ringing, and sounds of holiday cheer fill the air. The holiday season is fast upon us. In this “most wonderful time of the year”, It’s easy to slip into the holiday mood and buy just one more present for an acquaintance, one more outfit for a holiday party—and wake up with a splitting-headache spending hangover in January.

The holiday season is a time of renewal and fellowship—and also time of wild consumerism. We seem to worship the mall and the Hallmark store, instead of our faith, our traditions, and our connection to our families and the world. Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or simply “the holidays”, it’s important to develop your own personal meaning for the season. Instead of spending money this season, consider spending time with those you love.

The above is an excerpt from the curriculum (wife.org) for the INATM Money club. Each month we discuss a topic or money zone to help women become financially educated. If you would like more information about a new club starting next year click here

The following questions may help you focus on some of your beliefs around money and the holidays so you can make conscious and helpful decisions about your Christmas spending.

• What were the holidays like when you were a child? Were they lavish or low-budget?
  Were they well-planned or last-minute?

• What were your parents’ gift-giving rituals? Was there a spending limit per present? A
  resolution to only give presents to the children? At what age did you start giving presents to your parents?

• What interesting traditions do your family and friends have for the holidays? How have
  they saved time or money or added additional meaning to the season?

• What new traditions for the holidays have you started in your adult life? Why did you choose these?
  

You might need a "fine tuning"

Does your spending support your values? It’s the blended coffee drink, lunch with a friend, that extra pair of shoes, the new TV, ice cream for the kids, a bicycle….

Every item you purchase should be accounted for somewhere specifically in your spending plan. A client of mine was tracking his spending in his “eating out” category and found that he was spending $200 a month on eating out for lunch. This gentleman likes to eat out but he doesn’t really want to spend that much on eating out for lunch. He decided he would limit his lunch account and transfer some of his spending on eating out to dinner where he can enjoy a nice bottle of wine with his meal.

He recognized through the tracking of his spending that he isn’t going to change how much he spends eating out but spend it more consciously on where he eats outs. Enjoying a nice bottle of wine with his meal supports his likes and values.

I encourage you to review a category in your spending plan and fine tune it by asking yourself if the amount you spend in this category and where you spend it supports your goals, likes and values. You may be surprised!

Key Ingrediant #3-Leavening Agent

Next key ingredient to a mouth-watering spending plane is: The Leavening Agent.

Key ingredient #3 to a winning recipe is- Leavening Agent
You will have some pretty flat cookies without baking soda or baking powder! Just like you’ll have a “flat” spending plan without that leavening agent.

The leavening agents for your budget are the values, dreams, aspirations, people and things that are essential and meaningful to you living fully alive. You identified them in Key ingredient #1-the sweet stuff!

Get your list out (your 3x5 cards or the hearts) and look at how you can tie your leavening agents to the categories of spending you have. For instance most of us have a spending category that covers housing. That can feel like a huge monthly expense that seems to drag on forever. Try tying or labeling your housing category to a value or dream of yours. Example: “My Sanctuary” or “Our Family Safe Haven”.

Here’s another example:
Car Insurance: “Protection when needed”
Debt Reduction: “Future Home” or future (whatever an aspiration or dream you have)

Do this with all of your categories of spending in your budget. Don’t forget to include “spending” of savings, retirement and self care. A well rounded spending plan includes all of the key ingredients of your unique winning recipe. Enjoy!