The holiday season is approaching and if you're anything like me then you love giving presents. I tend to get carried away with how much money I'm spending around the holidays and loose track of my budget. I have constructed a guide to help you stay on top of your budget this holiday season.
Here are my 5 tips:
1- Decide on your total budget (the maximum amount of money you are willing to spend on all the gifts combined).
2- Use the Excel template linked at the end of this post and write down each person's name that you are going to buy a gift for and your gift idea(s).
3- Set a budget for each person on your list and see if the budget lines up with your ideas. Example, don't budget $100.00 for an Apple Watch.
4- Once you have decided on a gift go online and browse through different stores to get the best deal. Take advantage of Black Friday and cyber Monday deals.
5- Start early, the last thing you want is to have to change your idea multiple times because you're unable to find it in stores.
Here is a template you can use to keep track of your spending: