Financially Successful Christmas
This is a guest blog from David Maguire who teaches Financial Peace University classes at NorthRidge Church in Thomaston. I will be posting this at least twice! Good stuff!
Merry Christmas!! By now, you’re probably used to hearing about all the shortages of every product in the galaxy. We’ve all lived through toilet paper shortages, lumber shortages —and about a thousand others. The global supply chain has been a disaster since the pandemic first hit, and that’s flowed right on over to shoppers with things like higher prices, shipping delays, and even empty shelves.
So what does all this mean as we get ready to celebrate Christmas? Turns out, you don’t have to be the Grinch to actually steal Christmas—the global supply chain is about to get in on the action too. Economists are saying to brace ourselves (and our budgets) for the most expensive holiday season in over 30 years. Yikes!!
But, here’s the good news: It’s not all bah humbug! You don’t have to be a sitting duck and let yourself get hit by the massive inflation, supply chain, and product shortages. It’s true that a lot of it is out of your control, but the amount of money you make and choose to spend is in your control. So before you break into your kid’s piggy bank or dip into your personal savings to help you buy gifts for Christmas, here are some ways to save.
1. Shop American made.
Buying local goods from a small business not only supports them but also can help guarantee you’re not waiting weeks for an item to show up on your front doorstep. Bonus: American-made products can help you avoid the shipping container mess at the ports as well. Buying local is indeed a great way to make your shopping more fun and less stressful this holiday season!! Give it a try!!
2. Order early.
The early bird gets the worm and the early shopper gets the product. If you’re worried at all about your gifts not getting here in time, put your mind at ease by shopping ahead of time. Like way ahead of time. The earlier the better. And when it comes to the holiday food, if you get that shopping out of the way early, you won’t have to worry about price gouging, empty shelves or inflation going up even more.
3. Get a seasonal job.
Who doesn’t want extra spending money for Christmas? If you haven’t noticed, jobs are everywhere these days. Literally everywhere. You could throw a rock and hit a banner that says “Now Hiring”. And that’s especially true if you’re just interested in a seasonal job to make extra money for Christmas.
For example, Amazon is doing its part to combat the supply chain issues by hiring 150,000 seasonal workers this holiday season. They’re even dishing out a $3,000 sign-on bonus to sweeten the deal…seriously!!
4. Stick to your budget.
Maybe you can already see the writing on the wall—Christmas gifts might cost you more this year. To offset that, adjust your budget. Cutting back on a few budget line items can help you make up the difference. Or maybe that means you need to spend less this year and stick to it. You can still have a Merry Christmas without spending an arm and a leg. Discuss ahead of time with your spouse and figure out exactly what you can afford this year BEFORE you start swiping the debit card. If you ever needed another reason to make a budget, Christmas 2021 is a pretty good one. With so many moving pieces and price jumps, it’s more important than ever to know exactly where every one of your hard-earned dollars is going. Jesus even said in Luke 14:28, “…first sit down and calculate the cost to see if you have enough money…”. Making a budget is the wisest thing you can do to be a good steward. If you do not tell your money where to go, you’ll always wonder where it went.
5. Don’t go into debt.
If you’re wondering about debt this Christmas, you’re not the only one. In fact, research shows that more than 70% of shoppers plan on using credit card debt to purchase their gifts this year. Uh oh….that doesn’t sound like a very Merry Christmas to me. Last year, U.S. consumers spent a record $789.4 billion on the holidays, according to the National Retail Federation, and that was 8.3% higher than in 2019. Now don’t get me wrong, I love spending during the holidays just like everyone else, but I’ve learned that the best way to be a good steward is to only spend what I can pay for in cash. Using debt makes you a slave according to the bible. Proverbs 22:7 says “…the borrower is a slave to the lender..”. Nobody desires to become a slave…in fact, the opposite is true. We all desire to be free. I’d encourage you to save up and pay cash for all your Christmas items this year so that after the holidays, there’s no stress, monthly payments, or interest knocking at your wallet. The wisest and fastest way to shop is at the speed of CASH.
