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Yes! The festive season is here which means that it’s time to set up our houses with lights, wrap up the gifts, bring out the sweets and spread joy to everyone around us.
Every shop around us has hoardings of bumper sales, the biggest festival season sale, unbelievable discounts, etc. offering us tantalizing deals which tempt us to buy even those things which we do not need.
In between these joys and excitement, there is also stress and frustration when we try hard to manage our finances along with gifts, travel and shopping expenses.
This is because we spend before we even plan our budget for the festive season and we end up going broke by the end of the season or sometimes even before! So, what’s the hurry? Let us manage our finances first, plan a budget and then go shopppingggg!!
This festival season we do not want you to be broke or stressed about your finances like the previous years.
So, in this week’s blog, we will discuss 7 Smart Strategies for Managing your Finances this Festive Season!
7 Strategies for Managing your Finances
Strategy 1- Make a budget!
You may have heard this quote- “A budget is telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went!”We always wonder where did all our money go at the end of the festive season and we find ourselves with empty pockets! But this won’t happen if we make a proper budget at the start of the festive season that will also help us in managing our finance too.
As the festive season is all about indulging, wearing new clothes and gifting, we need to decide in advance how much we are planning to spend. We can make a list of every person we need to buy a gift for, including yourself and then set a budget.
Then, we need to brainstorm ideas on what to buy as there are discounts everywhere. Otherwise, our impulses will take over our spend and we will end up making purchases outside your planned spending.
Also, if we make purchases well in advance, then we are less likely to spend out of desperation as we didn’t have time to look around. But not only making a budget will help us in managing our finances, let us read the next strategy to find out what else needs to be done
Strategy 2- Track your spending!
After making a well-planned budget it’s time to spend and buy gifts for our relatives and friends.
But while spending money, we should not forget to note down each expense which will help us to adhere to the threshold that we had set while making the budget and also help us in managing our finances.
Tracking down the expenses also helps in estimating your remaining spending capacity, so that you can use the remaining money for high priority things.
Strategy 3- Avoid Impulsive Shopping!
Who doesn’t like shopping especially when it is the festive season and there are big festive discounts everywhere! We may get things at great discounts, as it is the best time for business houses and brands for making money.
Stores and online shopping portals come up with many offers to increase their sales and once we see these offers, we start shopping impulsively as it is very difficult to resist such tempting offers!
But we should control ourselves from getting into such a situation. In this way, it will help us to be on track with our budget and will help us to manage our finances this festive season.
You can also read our ELM School Module on Savings and Investments
Strategy 4- Try to maintain sufficient liquidity!
We must not use the funds which we have set aside for our daily expenses in our festive season shopping.
If we use our daily expenses in the shopping then we may find it difficult to pay for our regular expenses. Also, we should not use emergency funds.
Till now we have discussed expenses, now let us discuss what should be the best spending tools for our festive season shopping that will also help us to manage our finances.
Strategy 5- Choose the right spending tool!
We should also decide in advance which spending tool can help us in managing our finances this festive season.
There are usually attractive discounts on credit cards like HDFC credit cards, Axis credit cards etc. but we must make sure that we do not spend more than the planned budget.
Rather than paying with credit cards, we should pay with our debit cards as the amount is immediately deducted from our account and save us from unplanned debts.
Nowadays there are discounts offered by debit cards too! This will help us not only reduce credit card debts but also in managing our finances.
Strategy 6- Monitor your budget!
During the festive season, we all get busy shopping, greeting our relatives and friends and we forget about our finances and budgets.
So, we need to keep monitoring our budget once in a while so that we are on track of how much has been spent and how much we could spend further down the road.
In this way, we will not able to spend the funds which we have set aside for our daily expenses and emergency funds.
You can also join our course on FINANCIAL PLANNING MADE EASY
Strategy 7- It’s the time for pot-luck parties!
Yes, it’s time for the potluck parties!
The festive season is a time when we have our friends and families’ gatherings around lunch and dinner. If we are planning to host Diwali or card parties at our places, then this can often bring on the extra expense of arranging food, decorating, or organizing these parties.
So, when organizing these parties with our family or friends, we should consider hosting a ‘potluck’ gathering. In this way instead of putting pressure on one person, we can organize the events collectively with food and drinks, so that each person attending can bring something to the event and share the burden.
By doing so, we can also ensure that all your guests are contributing to a fun gathering and this way no single person bears the pressure of hosting an event themselves.
Also, potluck parties are really fun!!!
Bottomline
By adopting the strategies as discussed above, one can surely manage their finances and won’t end up going broke before/after the festive season ends.
What strategies do you adopt for managing your finances during the festive season, let us know by commenting below? Till then have a great festive season but don’t forget to manage your finances while having fun and as always Happy Investing!!
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