How To Get Your Finances In Order After the Holidays
If you over-spent during the holidays, read this blog post to learn how to get your finances in order!
Has the holiday season come and gone, and now you’re realizing you spent more than you wanted to? Are you feeling a bit overwhelmed and financially behind? You’re definitely not alone! For many, the holidays can result in a serious hit to your financial progress.
But, with the new year around the corner, now is a great time to get your finances back on track. It’s time to review your current status, set some new goals, and plan for a successful financial year!
This post is all about how to get your finances in order after the holidays.
9 Tips to Get Your Finances In Order
1. Don’t Dwell on Your Holiday Spending
If you over-spent during the holidays, don’t dwell on it. There’s no use feeling guilty over what’s already happened, you can only change moving forwards.
When you’ve gone over budget, it’s really easy to slip into the mindset of “since I’m already over budget…what’s another $20 here and $50 there?”. But if you have this mindset, you’re going to dig yourself into a deeper hole. It’s never too late to get back on track! If you’re reading this blog post, you’re already taking the right steps to get back on track.
2. Analyze Your Holiday Spending
While I don’t recommend you dwell on it, it’s a good idea to review your recent holiday spending so you can learn from it. Take a look at how much money you spent on all categories including gifts, travel, food, etc. You may be surprised by things that cost more or less than you expected.
Use this “holiday spending review” to help you make a plan for next year. Did you have a bunch of unexpected costs sneak up on you that you weren’t financially prepared for? Or was it overwhelming to have a ton of extra costs all in one month? Maybe next year, you could set aside money each month to help pay for the spike in holiday costs. This year’s mistakes should be used to improve next year’s plan!
3. Review and Update your Budget
I personally believe that maintaining a budget is the best way to get finances in order. If you don’t have a budget yet, pause this post for now and go check out my post on How to Make a Budget: Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners.
In that blog post, I mention the importance of regularly reviewing your budget. Say you set a budget of $200/month for groceries. Throughout the year, were you usually way over or under? Adjust your budget as needed, so you can go into the new year with realistic expectations.
4. Set New Financial Goals
Having solid financial goals can do wonders to help you stay focused with your day-to-day spending and savings. I find that I’m much less likely to impulse-buy if you know the purchase will put me farther from a goal I really want to achieve. It can also help boost your motivation to get back on track coming out of the holiday! These goals could be include things like:
- Build an emergency fund
- Pay off all credit card debt
- Save for a vacation
When it comes to financial goals, the more specific the better. If you do decide your goal is to build up your emergency fund, exactly how much money do you want in that emergency fund by the end of the year? Decide on an amount, and break that down into monthly or even bi-weekly savings goals. You will be more motivated to reach your goals if they’re specific, and in smaller, manageable chunks.
Take it one step further and automate these savings to ensure you will meet your goals. Rather than just wishing to save $200 per paycheque, set up an automatic deduction from your paycheque into a separate account to make it happen!
5. Return or Sell Unwanted Gifts
It may sound harsh that I’m suggesting you get rid of gifts so soon after the holidays. But, truthfully, there’s no point holding onto something you will never use. Maybe you got a random gift from a co-worker you don’t know very well, or were gifted an Instant Pot from an extended family member when you already own one! These gifts will collect dust on your shelves.
If you were given a gift receipt, you can either return or exchange the gift for something you want! Or, selling items online (e.g. Facebook Marketplace) is a great way to earn some cash.
6. Unsubscribe from retail emails
A very important step to get your finances in order is to stop spending money. This may sound obvious, but it’s really easy to get drawn into spending more money, especially during a time of year when there’s tons of sales!
The last thing your stretched budget needs is MORE temptation to spend money. Companies love to keep trying to squeeze every last dollar out of customers’ wallets with Boxing Day, New Year, and “last-chance” deals! Remove this temptation by unsubscribing from emails.
7. Use Gift Cards, Points, and Cashback
Did you receive any gift cards over the holidays? Or do you have some gift cards around your home that have never been touched? The new year is a great time to use up some of these gift cards, before spending your own money.
You could also use cash back balances, or rewards points to reduce your costs after a heavy spending month. During my holiday shopping, I earned $67.04 in cash back from Rakuten (sign up here if you don’t already have an account- it’s free!), so I plan to use that money towards some of my essentials this month! It’s an easy way to reduce expenses this month as you recover from a high-spending month.
8. Try a Low-Spend or No-Spend Challenge
The new year tends to be a time where we’re motivated to make a lot of changes. So, why not try to harness that motivation in the financial world? Low-spend or no-spend challenges are a great way to save money fast.
There’s tons of different ways you can approach the challenge. Traditionally, it means you spend no money unless it’s for essentials (bills and foods) for a few weeks or even a month. If you’re up for an intense challenge, go for it!
But, I don’t believe that drastic changes are always the best way to make change. If a month of only-essential spending sounds a bit extreme to you, challenge yourself to a low-spend or no spend challenge in one category (ex. buying clothes or eating out)! Or, try the challenge for a shorter period of time (ex. 1 day or 1 week).
9. Save Money on Everyday Expenses
Maximizing your savings on everyday expenses is a great way to get your finances back on track. I wrote an entire blog post on Easy Ways to Save Money, so that’s a great place to start if you’re looking for things you can start today to save extra money. I also wrote a blog post all about How to Save Money on Groceries.
This post was all about how to get your finances in order after the holidays!
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