I use a good chunk of my money over the Christmas period and when the times comes that I know I am done it's a huge relief. I usually start putting a little money into my savings account afterwards as I know I can afford to do that. Do you put money aside once you have stopped spending over Christmas?
I don't spend "too much."Generally speaking, I am always reusing decorations, reusing gifts (reusing the gifts from past year, or shuffling the gifts I receive), reusing clothes (there is no need to buy clothes as long asd I have holiday clothes from past year). My saving begins by cutting te spending.
I don't really spend on very extravagant things during festival times, but yes a sizeable chunk of money is spent on food, clothes, flowers etc. I don't start saving after each such season as a rule, but consciously try to reduce spendings after that. Actually, saving consciously and seriously after such spending seasons is prudent and useful too. we must start doing that seriously and compulsorily.
The question is did I actually stopped saving because Christmas was around the corner? And the answer is practically no. I never stop saving in my life, in as much as Christmas involves lots of spending but I have already planned myself on how I save and that never changes no matter what season it is.
I start saving money whenever it's new year. New year is a great start for saving money because the spendings on gifts for my loved ones are over. I usually have a piggy bank on my room. I have no bank account because I'm still a student after all but a piggy bank is a great alternative for saving money without a bank account.
I spend much for food. I have prepared a budget for it especially during Christmas. I am a pensioner. My wife is the one making the budget for I am giving all my pension money to her. I always save or have left money to my ATM account when I made a withdrawal and that is intended for the Christmas. When Christmas is over, I do still maintain that savings so that I could have enough money to get when there is a special occasion or holidays to observe or celebrate.
The name of this forum of don't pay full! So it is very obvious what I do post holiday season. I have a week worth of leftovers so I won't be buying groceries after holidays. I have a refrigerator to keep all those food fresh. I go back to being thrifty after the holidays.
My saving habits never stopped even before and after Christmas. I have made the savings of Christmas already in December when my monthly salary came in. I made it a point to take out 10% of my salary out as monthly savings, so even with the spending in Christmas festivities, my savings still remains a top priority.
Christmas didn't affect my saving habits as well. Whatever I spent for the holidays were money that I saved up for months before December. I still saved the same amount from my salary and was able to save even more in December because of the year end bonus. In the first place, our Christmas and New Year celebrations were never extravagant. My siblings and I shared the expenses for our get-together and it was purely a family affair. My online gigs have amply provided the extra funds for our Christmas spending and more. I had the opportunity to join a very profitable online site by a stroke of luck, something that was unexpected but had turned out to be a surprise financial blessing.
Piggy bank account at home , I actually did this when I was still in college and I did saved a huge amount of money without realizing until I broke my bank piggy vault. This is really a good way to develop a saving habit because it's actually what made me be very good with saving in this stage of my life. I'm never comfortable any mouth I don't make a reasonable savings for myself.
This is normally how I make my savings as well by having a cut off from my monthly earnings, it easier for me without having to struggle too much to save. The moment my monthly earnings are dropping from their various sources, I already know the percentage I'm having cut off as my monthly savings, nothing ever changes or stop that cut from going into my savings.
I did not spend much last Christmas but I was so amazed of the many offers. I have been saving and I will continue doing so. I also realized that saving some dollars every month from January will leave you having enough to spend next December when the Christmas offers come again.
Reducing the way we spend after Christmas is as important as anything you're going to think about when it comes to the celebration of that period. One thing is to develop the act of not spending much as the period.
Christmas was a period when people tried all they could to spend as they like and that was the reason some almost spent what they have at the end of the period. My goal was to relax and mind how I spent and the way I did that was by ensuring that I didn't go to parties often.
I totally agree with you on this @Barida, habit is everything and it's very important to have the ability to control the urge to spend even with you think you are buoyant enough to afford wasting the cash. Once you have the inner mind to say no to lavishly wasting money, then it's going to help with one's savings outcome.
@mildredtabitha It's just what the culture of savings offers to those that partake in it. Once you have the ability to drop in a few bucks as saving either on daily or weekly or monthly basis, it's definitely going to be something big at the long run without you realizing how much you have saved up by such act of putting out small amount of money aside.
After Christmas, I call it over-fatigue in the pocket since almost nothing is left in my bank account. I actually start saving again by February since there are lots of expenses in January. After the new year, there are birthdays and anniversaries that I couldn't miss so that's spending for gifts again. And this time I would be buying on credit already. That is the cycle of my budget for the year, save money from February to November and spend it all in December.
You are so correct with this statement @Alexandoy, every January is regarded as a tough month for everyone all around the world because almost all have depleted his budget after all the spending during the festive seasons. You are lucky to have the means of making use of your credit card to purchase on credit, consider the predicament of those with no means of credit cards.
It is a quick transition but yes my saving starts almost immediately, and that includes returning things I may not have use for if it comes to that. The good news is that there are some good deals right after the holidays are done.
I try to save all the time. You can see that some of the time saving requires you to go through cashback sites. And some of the time you have to pay attention to the amount you spend. Either way I make sure to spend and save the money through the right sources. That way things work out.
