Buying Christmas Gifts On A Budget And How To Set This Budget

Setting a realistic budget is the best place to start. Once you know what you can actually afford and how much you can afford to spend on each gift, you'll have less of a chance of running over budget and spending too much money.

Shopping throughout the year is another way to address any financial worries you may have. As Christmas gets closer, many of the most popular gifts become scarce or sell for inflated prices. You have a better chance of finding a bargain during the year. If you are buying holiday gifts throughout the year, you can spread payments for these items over a number of months instead of all at once. The following will discuss ways to set a budget for your Christmas shopping.

First of all, you need to get a clear picture of who you will be buying holiday gifts for. Start by making a list of people including family members, work-mates and friends. When your list is complete, you must then draw up your budget. The easiest way to do this is to calculate how much your overall spend will be. Once you decide this amount, divide the amount by the number of gift recipients. If you will be spending the same amount on each person on your list, this makes things more manageable. However, you may need to adjust this if you will be spending more money on some of the list members.

If you are not happy with this approach to your budget, you could decide how much money you can spend, and then divide the Christmas gift recipients into various categories. Family members and close friends might make up one category, while those you are not as close to you make up another category. Close friends and relative would receive gifts of a higher value than the other recipients. Once you know how much you have to spend and categorize your list, you can find out what you will be spending on each person on your gifts list.

Another way to set your Christmas gifts budget is to figure out how much you can spend. Once you know this amount, decide how much you will spend on the most important people in your list such as family members and close friends. Then divide up the remaining money for the remaining people on your gift list until you reach your budget amount.

As you can see, some organization and planning can help make buying Christmas gifts on a budget less of a hassle and help you ease the financial pressures that exist for Christmas shoppers during the weeks before the holiday season.

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Creating a Christmas Budget

There are certain times during the year when your bank account takes a formidable hit; vacation, tax time and Christmas are three of the most damaging. Planning ahead for these events can help you limit your reliance on credit and remain out of the red.

For most Canadians, the next big spending season is Christmas. With gifts, food and decorations to be bought, Christmas is by far the most expensive holiday of the year. NPD Group, a market research company, estimated in 2010 that the average Canadian will spend $599 dollars on Christmas related spending. That is a considerable amount of money for one day of the year.

A separate survey, reported in Home Cents magazine and published by Environics, found that 23 per cent of Canadians will use credit cards for their Christmas purchases. This can be attributed to the ease of credit spending and the growing increase in online shopping.

Unfortunately, with credit use comes interest, an unnecessary addition to Christmas costs.
Planning for the winter holiday, even though it is months away, can save you bundles and reduce your reliance on credit cards.

Organization is at the heart of saving for the Christmas season. Start with a list of the people you plan to buy gifts for. Then order them according to how much you want to spend on each person (this may seem like a move out of Scrooge's handbook, but it will help you realize who you need to save for). Once you have your list and a rough idea of how much you want to spend on each person, tally the gift prices. This is your gift budget. Stick to it!

Next, factor in all your additional costs; food, travel, decorations, exterior lights and any other cost you can think of. Add this tally to the gift sum and - voila - you have your estimated Christmas cost.
If your bank account is able to absorb this tally with little or no impact, then you are in the minority. If you are like most Canadians, seeing this number will give you cause for concern.

One way to reduce it, is to go back to your list and lower the amount you plan to spend on shopping.
Once you have a reasonable number, start making a savings plan. You can start the saving process by deciding on a manageable sum to set aside each week. Count the weeks left till Christmas and figure out how much you will have the week before St.Nick makes yearly visits. Is your sum less than your estimated Christmas cost?

If it is, start looking for ways to reduce your everyday living costs. A great way to save before Christmas is to adopt a 'lent' like approach. Make a strong commitment to give-up some of your vices. Try not drinking for two months, attempt to quit smoking and or reduce your entertainment expenditures.

Still not satisfied? Use the Internet to your advantage this year. Look for deals online well ahead of the Christmas shopping season. Give yourself time to comparison shop. Last minute shopping can often lead to impulse spending. If you do use your credit card online, pay off the bill early to avoid interest payments. Buy gifts one month, decorations the next and save your food costs for December. This will make your payments more manageable.

When the 25th finally arrives, use Skype to call friends and family abroad.

Follow these tips and enter the New Year with a positive balance.

Dorian Blinko writes about debt consolidation in Canada, for more information, click here: http://www.debtconsolidationcanada.ca/

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Simple Budgeting Tips - What Are Some of the Items Found in a Typical Household Budget?

If you're new to budgeting, you're probably wondering where to start. That's easy, you should start by looking at your typical monthly expenses and create a master list of every expense. Budgeting can be overwhelming, but if you take simple steps and start with a list of your expenses, you're much more likely to have a more comprehensive and accurate budget model. Here are the top categories that you must include in any household budget, starting with the largest costs.

Housing Expenses

This list is by far the biggest part of most people's budget. Housing expenses include your monthly mortgage or rent, as well as the utility expenses such as gas, electric, water and sewer. Other related costs of housing include any homeowners or renters insurance, property taxes and private mortgage insurance. Monthly or annual homeowners association fees are also part of your housing expense, as well as any maintenance on your home or home improvements. Make a list of all your expenses related to where you live and that should complete the budget items for this category.

Transportation Expenses

Transportation is typically the second largest budget expense for most people's household budget. Transportation costs include any type of travel related to everyday life. For example, any car payments, drivers license fees, registration fees, bus passes or taxi rides would be part of your transportation expenses. Other budget items include any car insurance or parking fees. Plane trips are included here if they are part of your everyday life, but would fall into vacation or entertainment if they are for pleasure. And don't forget to add the cost of your car's maintenance, oil changes, and of course, gas.

Food

Food is the next largest part of most household budgets. When preparing your budget, you'll want to include any costs related to the food that you eat on a daily basis. This includes any grocery store trips and wholesale club visits, however, you'll want to remove any non-food expenses from these bills. Other food budget items include dining out, coffee, snacks and the cost of any vegetable or fruit garden.

Entertainment

Entertainment can mean a lot of different things. Basically, anything that you do for pleasure that is not a required expenditure. Big ticket items in this category include such costs as boats, campers, snowmobiles and ATVs, as well as the costs that go along with them such as insurance, gas, maintenance, and any trailer costs. The day to day entertainment expenses that you'll want to add to your budget include such things as movie theaters, dinner theaters, social events, parties at home or away, going out with your friends, trips to museums or sporting events, and anything else that you do for pleasure that isn't a vacation. Other expenses that fit this category include your TV, satellite, cable, Netflix, or Hulu subscriptions, as well as any video game costs.

Vacation

Although it can be considered an entertainment expense, vacations should be broken out separately in a household budget. Vacation expenses include the travel, lodging, dining and entertainment expenses while you are on vacation. Make sure you include all of the little expenses like gas, taxis, souvenirs, airport shuttles, and tips at hotels and restaurants.

Communication

Communication expenses also make up a substantial portion of your monthly budget. These include costs for Internet access, your home phone, and any cell phone and cell phone data charges. Also, make sure you add in the cost of your phones and even computers if you use them primarily for communicating with sites like Facebook or skype.

Holiday and Gifts

While collecting the items for your budget, don't forget to include a monthly allowance for holiday and gift costs. Holidays include all of the extra food and entertainment expenses, as well as decorations, costumes and sweets. Gift costs include all the gifts you buy each year, for holidays, birthdays, and for all the parties you may attend.

Miscellaneous

Everything not covered above can be lumped into miscellaneous expenses. Once you've collected these expenses, you can break them into any budget categories that you want to include in your budget.

These are all of the typical expenses found in a budget. Notice that income is not included, but will be when you create your budget. And now that you know what type of items are found in a typical household budget, you can start collecting and tracking your expenses to get ready to create your own personal budget.

Free Financial Advice offers financial help on personal finance topics and offers a download of a free household budget worksheet for Excel.

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