If you blew the budget on vuvuzelas, T-shirts and World Cup tickets earlier in the year, but you still want to get your family gifts for Christmas, you’ll be feeling a little pinched right now.
Melody Redman, general manager of Budget Insurance Brokers, has come up with some tips that might help you get through the next two weeks of gift shopping. It’s important that you budget for gifts and stick to the budget.
- List whom you want to shop for, and see if you can cut down your list at all.
- Review your finances to determine how much you can afford to spend on gifts.
- Look over your gift list and decide how much you would like to spend on each person. Then add up the expected spending for all gifts and make sure it does not exceed the gift budget that you established in step two. Rework your figures if necessary.
- Brainstorm novel or possibly home-made gift ideas.
- Track your spending. As you purchase gifts, note their cost.
- Tweak your budget to cover any instances of overspending. Don’t panic if you overspend on a gift; just scale back your spending on another present to make up for it.
- If you plan on using your credit card to buy gifts, be prudent and don’t get yourself into the debt trap.
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