With much of this month dedicated to purchasing gifts, decorating your home, cooking meals for guests, reaching out to the less fortunate and sending holiday greetings, all these seasonal activites can become overwhelming and the joy of the season lost if our sense of control is impacted.

May I encourage you to take time in your own way this holiday season to plan and prioritize your shopping and spending so that you can give and be your best this holiday season.

Remembering the reason for the season,

For weekly expenses such as groceries, shopping and spending habitually go together and for larger items and holiday gifts, we are conditioned also to get this all done in one trip. However, it is wise to consider unraveling these activities. The internet is a powerful tool in helping you you achieve a full understanding of value, price, availability and while you are at it you are able to check your available funds before purchasing anything. I have made it a new routine to shop for items, even groceries via the internet and then go to a local store to purchase them, eliminating a shipping charge. The great part of this new routine is accessing coupons and prices through websites like Valpak and The Grocery Game which even further boosts my savings when I get to the store and do the spending.

According to the Institute for Consumer Financial Education, consumers who do not take the time to comparison shop usually end up paying about 20 to 30% more, over the long term, for goods and services than those who do. I find that comparison shopping is a great way to stop or greatly reduce impulse spending. Impulse spending is an obvious budget buster and unless you rein it in especially during the holidays, it will rob you of joy in the season.

In the Shopping & Spending lists above, we often carry out only the first bullet point of behavior and we do it on the same shopping trip. However, if you try to separate shopping from spending and carry out some or all of the behaviors listed more often in your routine, then you will gain more self control, reduce stress and place yourself in a better postion to maintain your overall financial goals.

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