festivals are the time when you will be spending lot of money in gifts, house decoration, and food. How do you manage to cut your spending. Normally, I don't spend to much on gift. I give gifts only to those who gift me (I take a cue from previous festival), I try to cut expenses on food by giving more emphasic on venbetarian food. I also reuse decorative items that I used last time.
I think there is no need to buy every time something new to decorate and there is no rule that says we must give gifts to lots of people. I try to make my list as who matters to me regardless of if they have given me something, but I think that is really personal. On the food I try to make practical food like spaghetti with chicken and herbs in Christmas or some sort of salad when the weather is warmer. One thing that helps is to request the guests to bring something along even if it is something small so there can be many options and the amount spent by the host is not over the roof.
Festivals are exciting times to enjoy the season and is a lot of fun. I'd limit the ones I go to, go full so I'd not eat too much at the festival, bring my smartphone and take pictures to email so you don't have to spend on gifts just send pictures with happy whatever the festival time and just enjoy the time! Save money, enjoy the time and have a pleasant memory of a picture!
I think cutting those types of spending at a special time is a bit of na exaggeration. What I usually do is review what is priority and what is not. Ok, this is not always a very easy activity, but it's something that needs to be done.
What a coincidence. This is our topic last night about Christmas spendings particularly for the gifts. I understand that it’s not a good idea to scrimp on gifts but there is a way. For example, the tokens we usually give to the neighbors worth 200 pesos that we buy in the mall. We plan to bake cassava cake for them that will only cost half that amount. We have a trip to Taiwan next week and maybe we can buy souvenir shirts and other personal items there that can serve as gifts to relatives in lieu of the expensive signature shirts here. And this Halloween, we are not celebrating much except for the treats to the kids who will knock on our gate for the traditional trick-or-treat.
It's a festive season, definitely one is bound to spend but it's doing it in an excessive manner that is completely wrong from whatever angle that you view it from. The way I try cutting expenses during festive periods is by simply traveling to the village out of network and have a lovely, peace and quiet time with my grandparents. Also, if I happen to be in town, from the previous celebrated festive season, I would try get some props that will be helpful which was used before and still in good condition to be used again and as such, it directly reduce the cost to be spent on that before.
Like so many people, I get carried away during festive periods and spend more than I intend to. Especially at Christmas (my favorite holiday of the year). I think if one can have a detailed spending plan and budget and keep to this, you can save a lot during festive periods. You can also save by making some presents instead of buying them and by re-using decorative items from the year before.
I am glad that my family has come to somewhat understood norm of gift giving where it is mostly little things anymore, which helps for the budget. There are several other little ways though too.
We used to spend a lot on festivals but not any more, we have learned to reuse decoration items which is not a big deal with little bit of extra care. We have not cut on one thing that is gifts for loved ones. We used to spend a lot on sweetmeats but we buy sweets only as much as we need them. We have stopped buying new clothes for every festival but do it only when must.
I agree with you. Halloween just went away. If you had saved halloween decorations that you bought last year, you could have saved a lot of money by reusing those items. If you bought new decorations this year, you can safely store them and re use them next year. In this way you can save a lot of money.
I'd say stick with the cashback sites. And I am sure you'd be able to save a lot. You can also make use of the coupon sites where you can get products delivered early. Though watch out with those rush stock type of sales. Here you may notice that you don't gain much from buying early and in fact end up spending on wrong stuff. Another thing check out the comparison websites for the festival shopping.
It is really hard to cut the expenses when we are organizing a festival. The only way of doing this is to use the old decorations and for you to decorate and do all the things that are needed for the festival without paying anyone. You can create homemade gifts that are cheaper and unique.
During festival expenses are general, but to keep them lower and in a pocket-friendly budget then you need to purchase the products either from Sale or from a coupon store.
Our festival celebrations have always been simple but my siblings and I make sure that Christmases are memorable time for the kids in our family. We also do out bit to make it a happy time for other children. However, in keeping with the virtue of simplicity as exemplified by the humble birth of Christ, we always keep our Christmas eve meals simple. My son always looks forward to having chicken congee, chicken and egg sandwich, and grass jelly drink. We used to attend a large family reunion every 25th of December, but since we've lost most older relatives and the younger ones have already migrated to other countries, we've stopped going to the ancestral house for parties. My siblings and I are just starting to build our own family tradition of meeting together on Christmas day itself during which time the kids get to bond together in one house, usually at my sister's. We have quite a small young family and it doesn't take much to make everyone happy. My siblings and I share in the cost of the get-together although my sister always insists on paying the bigger share because she has a larger family and she's working abroad. Overall, our budgets don't really go overboard during the holidays.
