Take our quiz and find out if you got carried away by holiday shopping or if you stuck to your budget and credit repair plan. The higher your score number, the more you are a holiday over-spender. If that's you, come back to see 10 ways to change your holiday spending so you don't make the same spending mistakes, no matter which holidays you celebrate throughout the entire year.
Relying on your memory is a clear path to over-spending, never accurate and definitely doesn't take into account what your partner is spending either. Always make a list and check it twice.
You will miss the best prices buy just going to the closest store or your favorite store and probably overspend by 20 percent or more. Retailers are all vying for your dollars by offering daily and weekly discounts, coupons and online coupon codes.
The most reliable way to halt any holiday over-spending on a debit card or credit card is to stop using them and instead put the budgeted cash you want to spend (for both you and your partner) in an envelope for each of you. When the cash is gone, the holiday spending stops.
The easiest way to reign in holiday spending and enrich your life at the same time is to pare down your gift list to just those for the kids and keep the holiday focus on celebrating family traditions, crafts, baking and making memories for the kids whether Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Easter or the December holidays or any in between.
The average person spent $767.27 in 2013 during the December holidays on gifts for family, friends, co-workers and others plus holiday decorations, food, cards and postage, according to the National Retail Federation. Do you have an extra $750 in cash lying around to spend? Have you already spent way more than that this December? Use that number as a gauge for over-spending.
You never know why or when retailers are going to offer a flash Twitter sale or other discounts. Always price-check local store savings and search for coupon codes for any gift items online using the retailmenot and other price-checking Smartphone apps to save 20 percent on average, or more.
If you are on a credit repair plan, re-commit to the bigger goal of freedom from bad credit while you forego buying other people a lot of "things" they probably don't need, no matter what the holiday.
Retail research has found when you shop with friends, peer pressure makes you spend more while spending less time evaluating price, quality and whether you truly need an item. So, definitely stay away from store parties (The Nordstrom Shoe Department Christmas Party), house shopping parties (Silver Palate, Tupperware, Pampered Chef, etc.) and social media crowd-sourcing when making shopping decisions.
Better to invite everybody over to your house to cook together and drink there as it will be just as fun and not as expensive.
Do you deserve bad credit, maxed out cards and an unmanageable financial life just to get more "stuff" for yourself? Or, do you really deserve to stick to your credit repair plan and a holiday shopping budget so you can have better credit and the financial freedom you crave?
Just wait and see how much more merry January will be if you don't over-spend during December!
