Budgeting Money for The Holidays

Budgeting money for the holidays can be tricky for some, while for others, it seems that they always have extra cash and a little bit of spare change. Okay, so it is the end of the summer, school is out, the house is empty, and there are no more of those pesky holidays that you are going to have to contribute for coming up any time soon.

If we are honest, there are also going to be times and occasions when an emergency situation happens, and those may coincide with your local holidays, putting you in a position where you need to find money fast, and at the same time, only making your money matters even worse.

Some people seem to have a knack for budgeting money and always seeming to have enough in their saving account to do whatever has to be done, and to face every financial challenge, but a vast number of Americans do not even have enough money in the bank in order to handle a one-thousand-dollar emergency.

One thing that will be equally as important as learning about budgeting money, is learning how to save money and all the different ways you can save money in your daily life. Oddly enough perhaps, the average American also spends (and could save and be budgeting) around five thousand dollars per year on things they did not even want or need.

This added expenditure comes in the form of what are commonly known as impulse buys, and happen when you grab that pack of donuts sitting so conveniently by the cash register when you are paying for your gas, or grab that daily extra cup of coffee because the coffee machine is right there at the door when you walk in.

There are marketing firms that spend literally billions of dollars to learn how to set up stores so that you spend money on things you never meant to buy at all, and never wanted in the first place in some cases. If you had an extra five grand a year, would it help you to start getting your money budgeting and financial savings in order?

There are also other ways to save money on things you buy if you are willing to be a little adventurous and explore a little. The very idea of learning how to save money is not some distant foreign concept, but many of the foreign markets offer people an excellent way to save money that most people will never even consider.

Granted, not everyone is going to want to spend a lot of time in the local Asian markets or Latino markets and stores, but when you discover what we are talking about, you may be shocked to learn how much money you really can save. If you really want to be shocked though, just wait until you begin building your first budget and start actually budgeting money in this “new normal” and see how much you can really save.

The key to budgeting money properly and accurately is learning how to write everything down. Yeah, you already know how to read and write, we get that, but not everyone is willing to write everything down. Worse still, some people will lie to themselves and not write down those little expenditures for all those things they weren’t going to buy when they went in to the store.

Lying to yourself may work for a while, but such practices will literally cause you to lose track of thousands of dollars each and every year. If you drop some loose change out of your pocket, you should be able to look back at your budget and determine exactly how much it was that you dropped.

Until you can do that, you are probably not going to enjoy all of the same benefits that you could from budgeting your money properly. Once you have begun accurately and completely budgeting money, you can begin to start saving all those “insignificant amounts” which can quickly add up to real money and a real savings.

We have all had times and occasions when we want to purchase something, regardless of how practical it may be. These however, are not the best times to empty out the savings account and go on a spending spree. Any money that you manage to save should be used carefully and responsibly if you are to build a better day financially and work on a brighter lending future.

Such considerations are exceptionally important, especially if you wish to buy a home or land out in the country, or wish to be able to purchase any of the goods so expensive that they need to be financed in order to make them feasible.

Rather, you should use any savings you have managed to gather by properly budgeting money in your expenses to pay down high interest debts as you can. However, you should also be sure to keep at least fifteen hundred bucks or so in a savings account for those times when you may have financial emergencies.

Virtually all of us will be strapped for cash at some time, and will experience financial emergencies, no matter how careful we may be, and they will likely be expensive. We will all still have emergencies no matter how well prepared we are and no matter how good we are at budgeting money.

It is always best to ensure that you save at least enough to ensure you can get some kind of signature loan for a small remaining balance than to be caught with absolutely no savings. This is true even if you are being smart and using that extra free money in order to pay off your high interest debts and to build equity in your investments.