Holiday Budgeting

The holiday season is here! While I for one am on Nordstorm's side of not starting to celebrate Christmas until after Thanksgiving, the holiday shopping has begun! The season is pretty stressful, and adding in packed shopping malls to the equation and it could ruin anyone's good cheer. There are many different ways to help out when it comes to holiday shopping for friends and family.

1. Swagbucks or any other gift card earning site or app. With sites like these, you earn points toward gift cards. You could literally give the person you're shopping for the gift card or you can use the gift card to buy your gift. This way, you're not spending any of your own money and the person really doesn't know that!

2. Baked goods. This might sound silly, but you can literally go out and buy a box to make bread, muffins, or brownies with and then give away whatever baked good you created as the present. Every year, we make some muffins and bread for friends, bank tellers, doctor and nurses, teachers, etc. While this means you're investing a little more time, it's something they'll appreciate. This is getting a little tricky with the increase in gluten, peanuts, and other allergies.

3. Prioritize your money and gift receivers. This might sound harsh, but one of the best things to do is write down who you definitely want to give a present to (parents, siblings, best friend, significant other, littles, etc.), and then how much you want to spend on each person. For instance, I would prioritize my parents, grandmother, brother, and my two best friends. Then I would shop for my littles, other relatives, etc.

4. Use the internet. You can often find some great deals online, and it's much easier to price check online than it is in store (unless you have an app for that). I often shop from home during the holiday season, because I get too anxious being in the overly crowded mall (and quite frankly, I work retail so my store is open the same time others are open and that doesn't leave me a lot of time). I highly suggest Amazon if you want to find some good deals.

5. Go to "discount" stores/shop local. By discount stores I mean TJMaxx, Marshall's, Homegood's, Sam's Club (depending on the item you're looking for), etc. Not only do these stores have great items, they always tend to have a good return policy for the holiday season. Same goes for local shops. You can often get better return policies when shopping local than in large chain stores (unless your wallet allows for you to buy your presents at Nordstrom). 

How do y'all like to budget for the holidays?

with southern grace,

Lindsey

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