We are edging closer to the season to be jolly so to prepare your finances do this:
Have the talk
How do you want to celebrate, who will you celebrate with and how much money will you spend? Have a talk with your family, partner, friends or whoever you usually celebrate with and remember you will never see everything eye-to-eye but that’s okay. The idea is to have everything out there so that there are no surprises or you end up not enjoying any of the celebrations.
Talking about the money now and the style of celebration is important if you want to enjoy yourselves and if you want to set aside some money for everything you decide to do. Most important you will avoid quarrels and fallings out that could put a damper on the celebrations.
Audit your circle or friend-list
Sounds horrible as friends are great and a really important thing to have but let’s face it some friends are a real drain on finances.
Take a look at who-is- who in your friend list and make certain which friends are draining your bank account and negatively affecting your financial well-being constantly. And basically weed them out.
The friends that are usually preventing you from hitting your financial goals are the ones you should start with first. You know who they are. They are the ones that always make you exceed your budget when you hang out with them. They constantly pressure you to spend outside your planned budget or do not pick the tab when it falls on them to and are always full of excuses.
Start saving now
Yes you have other commitments, you are young and can barely keep up with monthly bills or you are saving for something else. All good excuses but excuses nonetheless. Truth is you are setting yourself up for a really terrible end of year celebration if you do not save now.
And saving does not only mean cutting costs or putting money away now in an envelope marked “Christmas” or “New Year” (though this in itself is not a bad idea!); it also means looking out for where you can save now.
Look out for special offers and mark downs on clothes, food and drinks and buy what you can now and lock it away.
Do remember to check the sell by dates for certain foods and any fruit juices! And NEVER buy anything that is bulging, leaking or has been marked down so much that it sounds too good to be true. It usually is too good to be true and means it was stored in the wrong conditions and is probably off! You do not want to have every one sick after the party!
So have the discussion, whittle the numbers down and forego some things now; so you do not have to resort to borrowing to pay for your celebrations.
