Top 5 for Beating Christmas Spending Bloat

Monday

Dec262011

Top 5 for Beating Christmas Spending Bloat

Monday, December 26, 2011 at 9:28PM

It's the day after Christmas. If your living space looks anything like mine then it's probably a war zone of tattered wrapping paper and empty boxes. Hopefully the holiday blitz has not done too much damage to your financial situation. If you are a little nervous now as you start to review statements and receipts you should start to formulate a game plan. Getting your financial fitness back should be really important starting off in a new year.

Step 1: Take a look at your current budget and now how any spending, planned or unplanned, are now going to affect it. I'm willing to bet that your income hasn't dramatically been increased so working with the holiday bloat is going to take some strategy.

Step 2. If you haven't started automating yet now is the time. Time to start automating. Go to the bank/credit union and carve off at least 10% to be automatically deposited from the pay check to the new account. If you are already doing that then carve off another 5% and start transferring to a new account. Work on your emergency accounts, goals, whatever you want but just start saving.

Step 3. Take away the temptation. Carry only what you need for the day/week. Cash is king and restricting - so a Driver's Lisc. and your green backs. The idea is that you can protect yourself from yourself as far as spending goes and minimize any temptation for post holiday sale spending...unless that was already part of your budget because it is hard to avoid the temptations.

Step 4. Automate as many bills as possible - from a strictly bill paying account. Most bills these days can be automatically paid straight from your checking account. If you set up these payments not only will you avoid the possibility of a late payment but you will always know where you're checking account stands. One thing that even small businesses have trouble with (one that I'm working with at the moment) is keeping the checking accounts balances, accounted for, and positive. Having bills come out separately insures that you won't overspend and make sure that payroll checks clear appropriately.

Step 5. Make it fun. If Excel is fun for you then use that - not so much for me. I'm a huge fan of websites that add colors and pie charts to what's going on. Places like Mint.com are great because it makes the process interactive. It makes it fun to see your finances grow and change - and to see it from different angles/perspectives.

It's silly to ask you to stop getting your morning coffee or daily lunch to shave off a few extra dollars from spending. Instead account for those and plan accordingly. Behaviorally it will take time to get used to the extra possible tightness on the purse strings but that's way automating and being without helps a lot!

Take some or all of this info and get yourself out of the holiday bloat. Starting the New Year with a plan sets a great tone and will help you focus on all the other resolutions - so they don't fizzle out mid-February.

Nunzio Bruno |

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Reader Comments (4)

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