What is the best way to budget finances so that around christmas, it doesn't hurt your wallet as much???
154055
Buy things throughout the year as they get more expensive at Christmas time. I buy things on sale, even buy new packaged stuff at yard sales and thrift shops. Also right after Christmas things are marked down really cheap in the stores. Some families celebrate the holidy after Christmas when things are on sale.
795543
Well, if you think about it, you're not relying in a bank, you're relying on yourself to manage your own personal finances.  Believe me, i've had my share of financial problems. i.e. overdraft charges, payday loans, etc.  What i've learned is you HAVE to take the time and sit down and come up with a budget.  I know it's easier said than done, but, think of it this way..... it's not going to get better on it's own.  Can you manage your money/bills w/o a bank acct?  Of course you can.  But, and i'm not trying to make you feel bad, if you're having fees with banks now, what makes you think you'll be able to be responsible enough to stick money aside for your bills as they come in?  You're going to had this wad of money everytime you get paid.  Can you handle that kind of self control?  \nThere's a paperback book out there called The Budget Kit by  Judy Lawerence.  It'll run you about $14.00 at Barnes & Noble.  That alone has helped me in a big way. Dedicate the time to read the book, do the few exercises, there's even very resourceful CD inside called; MyEnvelopes.  \nTry it out and best of luck to you!  Mary
1162167
If you have just enough money to pay for the bare minimum of bills, then take a look at what you pay and consider wheather or not what you are paying for is "bare minimum".\nDo you have cable TV?\nDo you have a pet?\nDo you participate in an expensive hobby?\nthese are examples of things you don't need to have, and you need to deciede which you prefer, fun this weekend, or a larger savings account.\n\nNow line up all of your "essential" bills and see if there is a way you can cut costs.  All of these may be costing you more than they should. \nElectric\n  -when a light bulb burns out, replace it with a lower watt bulb.\n  -set your a/c 5 deg. warmer in the summer/and 5 deg cooler  \n   in the winter.\nWater \n  -when you take a bath/shower how many gallons do you use?\n  -how often do you wash your vehicle?\nGas\n  -Try to combine trips so you can travle fewer miles per month.\n  -Accelerate slowly and brake slowly the less work your engine \n  does the less fuel you will use. \nFood \n  -when you eat do you cook or go to a restaurant? \n  -when you shop do you buy the name brand, or the "off brand"?\n   ..and do you buy prepackaged or whole foods?  \n   Tip: in most cases the greater the quantity you buy the\n   cheaper it is per unit. (use this on things that you can store for \n   long periods of time i.e. rice, dry goods, canned food ect...) \nRent/mortgage  \non the cost of rent, if you own your own home you may consider refinanceing before the rates start going back up again.\nif you rent maybe you could move to a smaller place.\n\nif you have a car payment, do you need to be paying on that praticular car?  Could you not take a slightly lesser car for the next few years while you build yourself a little nesteg?  Also if you own your car out right, you can legally cut back your insurance to just "liability coverage" ( much cheaper than full coverage).\n\nSo far we have covered ways to save money.  But there is also the opption to try to increase your income.  Some ways of doing this would be: working some over time, taking a second job, asking for a raise, or finding a new job all together.  They are all worth a look.  \n  Of course I don;t know your exact situation so it can be hard to give real good direction.  These are some of the things I do to help me and my wife get along together with our two low paying jobs.  And while we do not live extravigantly now, I do plan on being rich one day.  This year I was able to put away about 75% of all my earnings.  And next year I am going to look in to putting that money into buying a second house as a rental property. It seams hard at first but as you start to put money away you will find it becomes easier and worth while.  I hope that you can at least use some of this.  And good luck with your financial situation.
873108
What I would do is wait until December and go to the store [if your area does it] and pick a child or two from the charity [like what Kmart does] and buy them some presents.  A lot of families don't have money for presents.  One year I bought presents for a little girl.  It was fun because I have just boys, so it was nice to buy dolls and stuff like that.  I also put in ten dollars for the parent [s] to buy a little something.  I didn't have a lot of money and my son and I agreed that some of our Christmas fund would go to help another child.  Turns out that his teacher put his name on a list like that and he got a couple new outfits new shoes and a couple toys.  We were not well off at all but it does make you feel good to wake up on Christmas and know that somewhere a child is smiling and happy and you made that happen.
215201
Pay yourself first!  Start by sitting down and budgeting out your essentials, with costs as accurate as possible.  Then take a look at the money you have left over, and designate how much you can afford to save.  Tell your bank to set up an automatic debit to your savings account for each time you get paid.  When you do this, you pay yourself first, and you know that your bills are paid, you have savings, and the rest is yours to spend as you wish!  When you can't have access to the money, you can't spend it, and it works great for me.  Good luck!
907875
Pick one. \n\nLook at your local shelters. Battered women's programs. Salvation Army. Check with your Church. Be creative.\n\nI put on Santa costume and deliver presents to children in hospitals on Christmas eve. There are endless ways you can make a contribution at Christmas time.  \n\nMy question is: what about the other 364 days?
849310
That $5,000 will put a pretty big dent in your credit card debt.  You should pay that down.  Or save it.  \n\nYour credit card debt likely has the highest interest rate of all of your other debt, so it would be the best to pay that first.\n\nBut, if you are going to just charge the $5,000 back on your card to do Christmas shopping, just use it for that.  Better to pay cash than to charge : )
110431
put a little aside every day. i just took $5 out of my wallet everyday, before i left for work. if you do that for a week then you have $35. for a month that's $150. if you do it for a year then you have $1825. it may not sound like much, but it worked very well for me.
655841
You should write out a budget. Budget for everything. Bills, car payments, entertainment etc. And try to save a little every paycheck.
442463
Dont spend money before you make it?
46541
Creating a budget would be ideal, but it can get boaring and eventually you will stop keeping track of your spending, if budgeting is not interesting to you. \n\nOne easier way would be to estimate the total amount of money you allocate to entertainment(anything that considered to be a want not a need) then take 10% of that amount and save it.\n\nExample if you spend $250 a month on entertainment save $25 a month. Be sure to put the money is some form of interest bearing savings account.
458650
Yes I do. First thing is take your credit card and hide it somewhere that you would have to break something you like open in order to get access to it. For example, your makeup compact that costs a lot. Hide your credit card in there and make sure the only way you can get it is if you break your compact open. This way everytime you are tempted to spend, you wont want to because you wont want to break your compact. Also when food shopping get coupons and look for bigger packages with speacial deals. A few penny's here and there makes a huge difference. Lastly, every paycheck you get set aside $50, even when you owe bills. This will help you out in the long run and remember only get what you need because what you dont have you dont need at all.
99145
You're a step ahead of most people.  By now, you have a good grasp of what you're spending money on.  Take a good hard look at how you're spending your money.  Some expenses are "fixed" - meaning they don't vary each month.  Some expenses are essential (food, gas, housing, etc), while others are not (morning latte, manicure, movie tickets, etc).  Take a look at where you can cut back on those "wants" rather than "needs" and you'll find that saving money is not that difficult.\n\nNow set some goals for how much you'd like to save.  Start each month by paying yourself, so to speak, and put money in your savings account in order to build a nest-egg.  Some people find that having money automatically withdrawn from their paycheck is the easiest way to "force" them to save.  \n\nYou may want to check out this cool calculator that can help you manage your budget:  http://www.fuzeqna.com/smcu/consumer/kbdetail.asp?kbid=1929\n\nYou might want to use a software program such as Quicken to help manage your finances and goals.  But the system isn't as important as the action.  You're on your way!
124636
I am also a 27 year old female, and I've learned some harsh lessons about financial realities.  I'll share with you what worked for me.\n\nI have a binder full of lined paper.  On the first page of the binder I have a budget.  You may ask yourself, how does one create a budget?  \n\nThe way I did it was to first list the things I have a fixed amount I need to spend per month: Rent, Car payments, Magazine subscriptions, Car insurance.  Then I figured out how much I would need PER PAYCHECK to save for this (don't say per month - if you do this, you're setting yourself up for failure).  I need $400 per paycheck for rent, $200 for car, $50 for insurance, $5 for registration, etc.  ANYTHING you spend money on goes down on paper.\n\nNext, I put down the things I need, but that aren't fixed.  For instance, groceries, gas, car repair, health (SO very important to have a large reserve, as I recently found out).  I guess how much I'm going to spend on this per month.  Don't forget, that a budget is ALWAYS evolving.  You get raises, bonuses, and (hopefully not) pay cuts all the time, so be prepared.\n\nFinally, you need to have some money to yourself.  I seperated these into clothes, gifts, massage, and books for myself, but you can always change that around.  Put a fixed amount per check into these funds.\n\nHere's the most important part: RECORD what you're spending on the other sheets of paper.  If you buy a pair of shoes, that goes in the clothes budget.  If you buy a gallon of milk, that goes in the groceries budget.  I guarantee you'll be shocked by some of the purchases you make. (I was spending $500 on groceries for two people in a month - that's absurd.  I now REALLY watch what a shop for, and I make sure I'm not throwing things away because they got old - I use everything!)\n\nOk, now we're ready to set aside some money to save!  Generally people say to save 10% of your gross income.  With the above method, the car repair and health funds are sort of "oh no" accounts that you're not going to be touching unless you have a situation, so I count that as part of the 10%.  Aside from this, calculate 10% of your net income ($800 = $80) and have it direct deposited into a different account.  This should not be accessable by check OR atm card!!!!  Once you have about $2,000, you should be able to move it into a money market (some people call money markets "High Yield Savings Accounts") without having to pay any fees.  You'll earn about 2%-4%, depending on the rates at the time.\n\nDon't forget that you'll want to fund some sort of retirement account out of this!  Make sure you try to set asside the maximum possible into retirement accounts so you don't regret your misspent youth.  I'll let you know that I've done calucualtions that say I need 2 million (caluculating for inflation) dollars to retire at age 65.  Yes, that is $2,000,000.  I urge you to look for a program called "Smart Women Finish Rich" in your area.  You'll learn TONS from it, and hopefully be inspired to start saving money.
715134
Don't worry about it and don't lower yourself to their level.  Get something small for the grandparents from your kids. Stick to your budget or what you can afford.  If someone doesn't want to get you a present chances are if they were made to pick something out it would be crap anyway.
100668
Budget. Figure out how much money you need to spend. Make liberal estimates, and save everything else. Then, little bit little, find ways to lower your spending (find better prices for the things you need, avoid extras like eating out, movies, etc).
163045
best way to settle them is to sit down and go over your monthly budget together, pay bills together.  do it the same time every month, have one household account that you both put in the amount you need to keep the account open and pay for all the household expenses.  Do it in equal amounts.  what's left at the end of the month from you individual paychecks is spending money and you can do with it what you want to.  ie save it, spend it, put it in your individual checking accounts or saving accounts.  (btw, household expenses includes food and clothing for the house ie yourselves and the kids.  gas for your cars needs to come out of your individual spending amounts.)  NOW KISS AND MAKE UP.