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You’ve probably gotten a fair start to your holiday shopping, or maybe even finished it. If you’re still shopping, it’s not too late to take another look at your shopping budget.

My husband and I used a very simple way to estimate what gifts would cost us this year. We looked up everything on Amazon.com. From that, we have a list of what we’re after and what it would cost online. Makes for easy price comparisons.

While not everything is available there, it did allow us to look at what it was we really wanted to buy, and what it would cost. Much better than adding up individual receipts to see where you’re at.

Many people go far overboard with their holiday shopping, and regret it as they pay the bills off for months to come. Improving your control over your shopping habits at this time of year can limit the damage you do to your finances.

Technorati Tags: christmas shopping budget, holiday shopping

Especially if you’re shopping for children, one very important factor to consider is how long the gift will actually last. I can’t find the statistic right now, but in some places I’ve read that the average Christmas gift toy is broken or no longer used within 3 months.

That’s pretty sad, if it’s indeed accurate.

That kids get bored with all the toys they get does not surprise me in the least. Many kids simply get too many, and really cannot maintain interest in them all. It also teaches them to value their toys less.

One of the smartest things you can do when shopping for children is to figure out what they really will enjoy. And then, rather than buying a ton of toys, get just a few that are better quality.

The many toy recalls this year have simply emphasized the need for better quality toys to many parents. Many are looking to more natural toys, such as those offered at Magic Cabin and similar stores. Such toys do more to promote creativity without resorting to familiar television characters.

Cutting back on the usual holiday excess of toys can help your kids to value what they do get more, as well as allow parents to spend less money. It can be quite a good deal for everyone.

Technorati Tags: holiday shopping, smart shopping, christmas gifts

We’ve made it past Black Friday, one of the hottest shopping days of the holiday season. But there’s always the talk of the Monday that follows, nicknamed Cyber Monday, as another big shopping day. How big is it?

In past years it really hasn’t been all that big. In fact, retailers such as Amazon.com haven’t always even bothered with it. Then again, the term is only a couple years old, so it can easily be seen as more hype than reality.

Other sites do have a more open view of it. Better to take advantage of the heavy traffic that will be present than to ignore it, gaining what sales are possible. And this can be good for online shoppers.

I strongly prefer Cyber Monday shopping to Black Friday. Worst thing you get is a crashed server, but more likely you’ll be able to shop just fine. The sites are busy, but most won’t be much slower than usual. Smart retailers should be ready to cope with the high level of traffic.

It’s interesting to see how sales go for Cyber Monday. Basically, sales keep peaking every Monday through the season. I would assume this to be due to people shopping online after trying to shop in stores over the weekend. Can’t find it in your area? Check it out online.

Be willing to bargain shop if you want to save on your holiday shopping. A lot of places online have better prices and/or free shipping of products, so that you can save yourself a lot of time and inconvenience by shopping online.

Technorati Tags: holiday shopping, cyber monday, christmas shopping, bargain shopping

A lot of people get up very early for Black Friday deals. They stand in line waiting for stores to open, then fight the crowds for potentially highly limited supplies of whatever is on their list.

Is it worth it?

This is a very personal decision. I’m not a Black Friday shopper. The deals can impress me at times, but I really dislike the crowds and the tension in wondering whether or not a particular item will still be released.

One plus these days is that many of the deals can be found online as well. Not all of them, as many stores really want to get you into the door, but if you can make the purchase online (especially if shipping is free), why fight the crowds? It’s worth checking out in advance, even if you have to get up early to make sure the website doesn’t sell out. You probably won’t have a big crowd at your computer.

And of course some sites such as Amazon have Black Friday deals too. Check your favorite online merchants and see if they’re advertising anything.

Technorati Tags: black friday, holiday shopping crowds, christmas shopping, online shopping

I read a report on Motley Fool today on how bad an idea it is to spend a ton of money on weddings. I have to agree. My husband and I had a wonderful wedding, yet spent under a third of the average on it.

The report on Motley Fool notes that if you take the average $28,000 that people spend on weddings and invest it, in 40 years it could be worth over $1 million, if well invested. Not a bad deal.

Saving money on a wedding can be tough, but it can be done. I started out with a $250 dress, which is much less than most people spend. My favorite was $600, but I couldn’t justify more than doubling my cost for a one-use dress just because I liked the more expensive one a tiny bit more.

Decisions like that are challenging if you’re stuck in the idea that your wedding day should be utterly spectacular. But is it really worth going into debt for, whether you’re paying for it yourself or having your parents go into debt over it?

Some expenses are harder than others to control. Wedding cakes are generally just outrageously priced. Locations may charge you for every little thing, from food servers to corkage fees for wine and champagne to slicing the wedding cake. You really have to pay attention to what all is included.

The location can be expensive, and sometimes you have limited options. Some faiths, for example, only allow you to get married in the church building itself, rather than allowing you to choose a location more freely. On the plus side, many churches are quite affordable, even if you use their reception hall.

Cutting the costs is not easy, but you can do it. Simplify your decorations. We had simple bowls with floating candles for centerpieces, and rose petals scattered on the tables, and these cost less than we could have rented centerpieces for. Considering how often centerpieces go home with guests, I’ve often thought renting centerpieces was a risky decision.

A great way to cut costs is to involve your friends and family. You may well know someone who would be delighted to do your wedding video or photography as their gift to you. Someone else may be good with flowers or decorations.

A beautiful wedding doesn’t have to mean years of debt. You can have a wonderful, memorable celebration of your wedding without overspending.

Technorati Tags: wedding, marriage, wedding budget, wedding expenses, simplify wedding

Credit cards are very tempting during the holiday season, but too many people spend months paying off their holiday expenses. It’s really not the smartest of financial moves.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t use your credit cards for your holiday shopping. It just means you should be considering your overall budget as you do so. Credit cards are very convenient, after all.

Figure out your shopping budget. You want your finances to be prepared for the holiday season. Think about how long you want it to take to pay off whatever you put on your credit cards for Christmas and other holidays.

If you choose to spend more than you can pay off immediately after the holidays, work out how you’re going to pay things off beforehand. Think about what you will be willing to pay each month and how many months this will take. This can also help you to decide if all the spending will be worth it.

Credit cards are the easiest way to shop online, of course. Remember as you shop online that many sites such as Amazon offer free shipping if you spend a certain amount. Don’t try for that amount if it’s not in your budget, of course, but if you have to ship the gift anyhow buying online means you don’t have to stand in line at the post office. The trick can be deciding what to do about gift wrapping, which is not cheap through most sites.

Sanity about spending can be difficult to maintain at this time of year, especially if you have high expectations of what you want your holiday to be. But keeping the fact that you will have to pay your credit card off at the end and planning your budget ahead of time can help to keep things under control.

Technorati Tags: credit cards, credit card use, holiday spending, holiday budget, personal finance, christmas shopping

It’s beginning to look a lot like… the holiday season. A most expensive time of year for many people, and one in which overspending can be rampant.

It’s pretty clear why a lot of people spend the way they do this time of year. It’s a time you’re supposed to be showing your appreciation for your family, celebrating and overall having fun. The way many people do this is not cheap. But you should not stretch your finances so badly that you’re still paying it off months later, especially if you’ve been having money problems.

Look at Your Financial Situation

The first thing you need to do is to be honest with yourself about what you can afford to spend on the holidays. If it’s not much, the people you love will just have to understand. There are gifts that don’t cost money you can give.

Think of Alternatives

Gift giving doesn’t have to mean breaking the budget. If you can’t afford gifts, give time. Help out with something that needs doing. This can be especially welcome to elderly relatives who really don’t need more clutter, but will appreciate having a little extra help or possibly even just extra visits.

If you are good at making something, consider handmade gifts. These often cost less money, although some are time consuming to create.

You can also discuss who all should be involved in gift exchanges. Many families draw names to cut down on shopping or agree that adults don’t need Christmas gifts. Things like that really help to control holiday expenses.

Technorati Tags: holiday expenses, christmas, gifts

When disaster strikes, your finances will probably be impacted. How badly depends on exactly what happens to you and your property. But you can prepare and try to cope as best as possible when it happens.

I got thinking on this topic while watching the California wildfires from my mother’s house. Yes, I had to evacuate due to one of them. Fortunately, I got to come home to a home that is still here. Feeling pretty lucky.

Of course, when you lose your home and/or job due to a disaster the financial impact is huge, often overwhelming. Just how bad it is can depend on things like whether or not you have sufficient insurance to rebuild, and how possible it is to find work if your place of employment burned. These are real things people have to deal with.

Buying homeowners insurance is one of the things you should do if you own a home, so that you can rebuild after a disaster. It’s harder to get in some places than in others, but if it’s in the budget, potentially very much worth the money. You won’t know until you need it desperately.

But even just having to evacuate and come home a few days later can have a huge impact. Just think about all the people who are paid hourly. I know a lot of businesses closed for the duration, or employees chose not to come in due to the stresses of evacuating. Kind of makes childcare hard to obtain, after all. But that can be a huge financial hit.

These are the times where having something of a savings account comes in handy. If not that, then emergency credit cards, so that a lack of money coming in doesn’t instantly ruin you. Whenever possible you need some sort of backup plan for these difficult times.

Let me tell you, even my mother felt something of a financial impact, albeit at her choice. She was feeding 11 people at her home, 9 of which had been evacuated from their homes. Those groceries weren’t cheap, although various people did contribute financially to them. Mom still took the brunt of it, deliberately. You can be impacted by a disaster even if it doesn’t come directly to your home or work.

The bottom line is to always think about what might happen, and be prepared for that which it is reasonable to prepare for. Think about how you and your family will get by during an emergency. Take the time to plan for it and you will have a better chance of coping well financially, so you can recover sooner.

Technorati Tags: personal finance, disaster, disaster planning, california wildfires

We all know we should save for a rainy day. Money problems can happen to anyone, no matter how stable their life appears.

And sometimes the troubles just keep on coming, beyond what you had saved up for them. What then?

What you do depends on how bad it gets. Sometimes things are bad enough that bankruptcy is your only answer. Given how much more difficult that has been made in recent years you’re best off trying to avoid it, but there are times that it is the only option that will get you out of financial trouble.

But whether or not bankruptcy is your answer, you will need to rethink your current financial plans.

Cut Back 

Take a look at your current spending habits. If things have been bad a while, hopefully you have long since started cutting back on luxuries. If not, get going on that, and yes, cable television and even internet access can be considered luxuries.

Look at where you live. Can you really afford it now? It may be a good time to move to a smaller home or apartment, and use the extra money to help with the bills that are giving you so much trouble.

What about your job? Is it really enough? Do you have the skills to get something better? What about the time to take on a second job to help make ends meet. Even if it’s flipping burgers, a second job will help.

Where do you shop? If times are tights, now is not the time to try to keep up with current fashions. When you absolutely need more clothes, thrift and resale shops are generally better choices than department and specialty shops. Just look around and find out which ones in your area tend to have the best selection.

Work on Your Debts

But of course spending less money only does so much good if you aren’t getting rid of your debts.

Start by talking to creditors and seeing what can be arranged. If smaller payments can be permitted it will extend the life of the debts but help keep you from falling behind completely. Ask for lower interest rates too. It could happen.

Pick a debt and focus on paying it off, paying just the minimum on the rest. Once it’s gone, that’s one less bill to worry about. Pick another and do it again. Repeat as necessary.

Technorati Tags: saving for a rainy day, debts, personal finance, debt, credit, money

You get a phone call about your credit card. It’s your credit card issuer, and they’re checking up on your account. Maybe there’s a transaction they want confirmed.

Is it really them, or is it a scam?

It can be hard to tell. Credit card companies do sometimes call when there has been unusual activity on your account. In my experience, this is an automated call rather than a human.

However if you get a call from someone saying they think that there has been fraudulent activity on your account what do you do? Do you give them the information they ask for? Even if it’s that little 3 digit code on the back of your card because they say they want proof you still have the card in your possession?

I wouldn’t recommend it. That little number is the final piece of information scammers need to do online transactions with your credit card at many websites.

If you get a call like this, the best thing you can do is say you will call the company back, look up their phone number either online or on your bill, and call them yourself. Once you have initiated contact, you know you are talking to a legitimate person, and they can tell you whether or not the first call was legitimate.

If it was not, then you know you should be concerned about whether or not someone has gotten your credit card number. Talk to the agent you called about the call you received. They will be able to help you decide what to do about it.

Technorati Tags: credit card scam