By Aaron Allen, The Seattle Medium
Tis the Season! It is the season of giving and as wonderful as this sounds, during the holiday season we can spend a lot of money but when the new year approaches people can find themselves saddled with leftover expenses and debt.
Brittney Elder, a corporate responsibility market manager with Chase, says that there are ways to avoid incurring additional holiday debt, and she recently sat down with the Seattle Medium to talk about some helpful tips that can help people stretch their money during the holiday shopping season.
As people prepare their holiday shopping list – and their budgets – Elder says that it’s important for people to remember that “a little bit of planning can go a long way to achieving a financially healthy holiday season.”
“The holiday is time that focuses on generosity and giving,” says Elder. “And there is a great way to do that without extending ourselves.”
With that in mind, Elder offers the following money saving tips for consumers to consider this holiday season.
Build a holiday budget – and stick to it. There’s so much pressure during the holiday season to buy and it’s easy to spend more money than you planned. Elder urges consumers to consider using tools like Chase’s Budgeting app, or another money management app, to help you stay on track and prevent overspending.
“[Having a budget helps us be] mindful on how we are allocating our spending dollars during the holiday season,” says Elder. “Its really about taking the time and mapping out who you want to give gifts to, how much you’d like to spend on each gift, and so, it really about being intentional about how much and who you’ll be spending money on this holiday season.”
Open a dedicated savings account. Consider opening a holiday-specific savings account to put money aside each week throughout the year. Saving for later will help make a difference when it’s time to buy gifts for your loved ones.
“I encourage folks to open a dedicated savings account for the holiday season, and to continue to keep it open throughout the year,” advises Elder. “If anything, it can definitely create a foundation to continue healthy saving habits throughout the year beyond the holiday season.”
Explore your credit card offers. Many credit cards have special offers based on your previous purchases that can help save money on holiday gifts, while others give special cash back deals for online purchases. Take advantage of those discounts and be flexible. If you can’t find a good deal on the gift you originally planned to buy, see if any of the special offers you qualify for might appeal to someone on your list. Use credit responsibly. Credit cards are handy financial tools, as long as they’re used responsibly. Make sure you pay the balance each month by the due date to avoid interest charges or pay at least the minimum payment to avoid late fees. Resist the temptation to spend more than you can pay in any given month.
“When utilizing your credit, you can leverage the benefits that are available through using credit,” says Elder. “Often times you can get cash back or exclusive offers and discounts through retailers, and sometimes credit cards will offer a sign on bonus.
“It’s really about looking at how you can leverage those free benefits or those discounts that are made available but keeping in mind your relationship with using credit and making sure you use it responsibly because this tends to be an Achilles Heel and you may not want necessarily want to leverage this as a way to make sure that your successfully or responsibly spending during the season,” continued Elders. “For those who can handle credit responsibly this is a great way to get those additional bonuses that come with using your credit card during the giving season.”
Take advantage of coupons and discounts. Retailers have already started holiday sales and, of course, all of the popular discount days – Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday – present opportunities to save. You can also use money-saving apps like RetailMeNot, Honey and Rakuten to get cash-back deals and discounts automatically when you shop online.
“We have transitioned from the days of clipping paper coupons and there are so many other avenues and resources that will give us the ability to get discounts on the things that we want to buy,” says Elders.
“This is a great opportunity to use our technological resources,” she added. “There is a plethora of apps that are retail specific and sometimes you can find exclusive coupons and discounts through the use of apps. There are also browser extensions that you can use to get savings as well.”
One of the overriding principles that Elder emphasized is that people should not be afraid to cut back on expenses, impulse shopping and frivolous spending during the holiday season.
“An example of cutting back could mean a family creating experiences was prioritized over individual gift giving,” says Elder. “So instead of parents spending money on individual folks, for example, my parents pick one really great experience we would like to have and that would be our Christmas gift.”
Finally Elder encourages people to sign up for credit monitoring. Millions of people fall victim to fraudulent activity every year, especially during the holiday season. Making sure that you monitor your credit report, score and identity can give you peace of mind going into the new year.
