Holiday spending can be a drain, both on your wallet and your mental health. But fear not—you can still celebrate Christmas within your limits while having a jolly time.
Americans spend about $789.4 billion on Christmas shopping—amounting to a mind-boggling amount of gifts, photocards, customized stockings, Douglas Fir trees, candy canes, and sparkly ornaments. But unless you don't celebrate the holiday, you'll likely find yourself contributing to that $789.4 billion figure, too.
Luckily, there are ways to indulge in the season of giving without any shameful feelings of overspending. You simply have to set up a Christmas budget, save money in a dedicated Christmas fund, and then stick to it.
Once you set up your plan, you can shop, spend, and feel the season's cheer without feeling guilty for going overboard.
Holiday shopping doesn't have to bust your budget—let's cover some ways you can cut back on holiday-related expenses and still bring your loved ones joy with the help of Braid Money Pools.
In this post, we'll learn:
- How to create a Christmas budget
- Why you should keep next holiday season in mind
- How to split Christmas expenses
- How to think of cheap and creative gift ideas
- The best way to collect money for holiday-related expenses
Create a Christmas budget
Holiday spending often gets out of control when shoppers fail to match their budget with their shopping list.
To avoid overspending, consider how much you can afford to spend this season and then make a list of all your holiday obligations, including Christmas parties, travel, decorations, gifts, and groceries. Then, note a dollar amount next to each item, slightly overestimating.
Pro-tip: You can simplify your Christmas budget and finances with Braid Money Pools. Braid is an app where you can collect, manage, and spend money solo or with others.
In the app, you can set up a Braid Money Pool dedicated to putting aside money for holiday-related purchases.
For example, you may set up a pool called "Christmas Gifts" and aim to contribute $350 by a specific date.
Have other holiday expenses you need to save for and want to organize them into separate pools? No problem—you can create as many pools as you want, like "Neighborhood Holiday Party", "Christmas Eve Dinner", or "Holiday Decorations." It's up to you.
Braid Money Pools are a fantastic budgeting tool because the money you contribute to each one stays there. So, you won't be tempted to spend the money you save for the holidays the next time you go out for drinks with your friends.
Ready to try Braid Money Pools for your holiday budget? Start here!
Keep next Christmas season in mind
You'll be spending money anyway this holiday, so why not challenge yourself a little? Consider setting some money aside for next Christmas, too.
At the end of this upcoming holiday season, analyze what you spent on food, gifts, travel, and decorations—then think of ways you can save even more. Start putting a little money aside in a Braid Money Pool to pay for those expenses.
Split holiday expenses with others
One of the best ways to stick to your holiday budget and make your loved ones feel special is by splitting gifts with others. After all, you can buy more expensive, extravagant, and spectacular gifts that people really want when you pool your money together.
Let's say you want to treat your parents to a vacation of a lifetime this Christmas. You can set up a Braid Money Pool for airfare and send the Pool Link to your siblings and any other family members that want to contribute. They can easily send money straight from their phone—anyone with a debit card can!
You can also split other holiday expenses with others with the help of Braid—everything from holiday dinners to party supplies. You can even set spending permissions within the app, so no one person has to do all the shopping.
Think of cheap and creative gift ideas
On the other end of the spectrum, you can stick to your budget when you just spend less on gifts.
Since gift-giving is such a big part of the holiday season, it's easy to fall into the trap that more expensive is better. But that's not always the case!
Creative, meaningful, and thoughtful presents are always appreciated—even if they are less costly.
If you have a particular skill or talent, consider offering those up as your gifts. For example, if you have a green thumb, you could offer to start a garden for your loved one. Or, if you are an artist, you could paint a portrait of your friend's beloved dog.
The options for creative gifts are endless. Some other cheap gift ideas are:
- Baking mixes
- Plant cuttings
- Dog walking services
- Handwritten letters
- Coupons for homemade dinners or quality time together
- Anything delicious and edible (hello, sugary sweet Christmas cookies.)
Some people are even bigger fans of non-physical gifts because they're more likely to get used and will not add extra clutter. Food for thought!
What is the best way to collect money for upcoming holiday expenses?
There's no need to open a new bank account for the upcoming holiday season—just use Braid.
Braid Money Pools are where you can collect and manage money for everything you need to make Christmas bright. Create pools for gifts for your loved ones, decorations and wrapping paper, food for candlelit holiday dinners, and winter escapes at the beach or the ski slopes.
You can also pay for every holiday-related expense directly from the pool quickly and transparently.
You've already seen how to implement Braid into your Christmas budget management. Here are five more reasons to use Braid for your holiday expenses:
1. Braid is easy to use
Set up your free pool and invite other contributors to join in minutes.
For example, someone in your friend group or family may want to send you money to split gifts or groceries for Christmas dinner.
When it's time to collect holiday-related contributions, everyone pays into the pool using debit cards. They don't need a Braid account; they just need your dedicated pool link.
And because you don't have to move money in and out of different accounts, you can easily track transactions and stay within your budget.
Ready to try Braid Money Pools? Start here!
2. Each pool you set up is free
Set up your pool and use it for as long as you want without paying any maintenance or service fees. Braid is free—simple as that.
Friends, family members, and other contributors can pay into the pool with their debit cards without incurring fees. That goes for contributions toward extravagant gifts, roast turkeys, advent calendars, Christmas trees—you name it.
There are also no balance limits, so you can accrue as much or as little money as you want for your Christmas budget.
3. Share admin roles with fellow Christmas contributors
As pool admin, assign admin roles to anyone you want so they can share pool tasks with you.
Admin can view all transactions, receive notifications for pool activity, invite others to the pool, spend with the Braid debit card, and more.
For example, you can give your sibling spending permissions so they can buy that Peleton for Mom and Dad while you take care of picking up the fresh apple pies from the local bakery.
However you divvy up the holiday tasks, everybody can see these various activities in the money pools you create.
Your Christmas budget is sorted with Braid Money Pools. Start today!
4. Create as many pools as you want
Together with your fellow holiday revelers, you may decide to create multiple pools for different expenses relevant to the season.
For example, you may collect Christmas tree fees in one pool you share with your housemates. You may create another pool with your family members to buy more expensive gifts for loved ones. And you might dedicate one pool for Christmas Eve dinner and share it with the attendees.
You can decide what works best for you to make your season merry. Braid is flexible.
Another reason why people love Braid is that it keeps holiday money separate from personal accounts. And you don't have to start a new bank account or transfer money in and out of other money apps.
Your holiday-related money comes into your pool and stays there until you spend it with the Braid debit card.
5. Pay for holiday purchases with the Braid debit card
Every pool has a free digital Braid debit card to use anywhere Mastercard is accepted. You can also request a physical card to pay for in-person purchases—perfect for shopping mall trips.
As pool admin, you can set spending permissions so trusted loved ones can spend with you and lighten your load.
And don't fret about staying within the Christmas budget—set spending limits per card user so everybody stays within their means.
Real-time notifications display your card activity instantly, and you can view all transactions in the app.
If you ever need to freeze the card, you can do so seamlessly in the app. And since the Braid card doesn't include transaction or overdraft fees, you get to spend all of what you collect for the best holiday season ever.
With Braid—the money app that simplifies budgets and makes holiday buying a breeze, Christmas can be jolly and bright.
