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Who doesn’t like to plan a holiday and spend that time relaxing with families?

As per statistics around 100 million Americans plan a vacation every year to free themselves from stress.

But is planning for a holiday a stress-free event?

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Certainly not, prior planning is required with a proper budget.

If you are planning for the Christmas holiday, you need to arrange gifts also for your friends and relatives along with the basic expenses of traveling.

These days, you need to focus more on your family than yourself.

You could easily spend thousands of dollars on your holiday and create a huge amount of credit card debts.

Lest it be late, and your outstanding bill amount will get increased.

Start planning with these 10 simple holiday budget survival guides and beat your holiday spending crunches.

Contents  show 

1- Plan a budget

The process of planning holiday budgets is the same as planning a household budget.

Begin working out your budget well in advance.

Try to find out your total spending and then work out how to divide the money among the things on which you want to spend.

Avoid relying on credit cards, aim to set aside a certain amount each week so that you do not get overburdened at the end.

Get your bank app and checkbook out, find your calculator or budgeting app, and start planning.

2- Prepare a shopping list

List all your expected vacation expenses, including traveling, meals, shelter, etc., before proceeding to further arrangements.

It will give you a basic idea of the things you will need to pay.

Nowadays, many people spend unnecessarily while buying gifts and other traveling expenses.

Therefore, shop according to the list you have made so that you do not have to deal with annoying debts later.

3-  Pack carefully

The most important thing you’ll have to do is pack the right things for your holiday. 

If you start early, you’ll have plenty of time for packing and it can be tempting to take a lot of things.

However, be aware that many airlines charge for extra baggage.

So, pack accordingly to avoid spending extra money. 

4- Be safe when planning holiday

Try to protect yourself from robbers and home invasions during the holiday season.

According to the FBI, the robbers invade home more during the holidays.

Try to protect yourself with a home alarm; 60% of thieves drop the idea of invading when they see that the house is protected by the alarm.

5- Be creative

Buying expensive gifts is an easy way to impress your pals but if you are going on holiday, instead of spending more, try to be creative.

Be more informed about your friends’ and families’ likes, so that it can be easy for you to choose a gift.

Instead of buying a gift, the better option can be to arrange a small get together and have more fun with them.

6- Look for the discounts and coupons

Look for discounts offered by the stores at certain times throughout the year.

Before shopping online, do a quick web search for a coupon code for your favorite online store.

Before you shop in local shops, comb through the coupons received in your mailbox.

However, be sure to compare the shops for the item you are interested in.

7- Take benefits from online shopping

If you have an interest in online shopping, then you must also keep this information on which day online shopping can benefit you.

Free Shipping Day is an annual one-day event held usually during Black Friday and mid-December.

On this promotional holiday, consumers get the convenience of shopping from online merchants who offer free shipping with guaranteed delivery.

8- Keep in mind about weather conditions

It is necessary to plan the holiday according to the weather.

If you are going upstream, you have to be prepared for cold temperatures.

Icy roads can make the holiday season a challenging one.

Stock up on ready-made clothes and proper supplies to deal with bad weather conditions.

9- Make it exciting

Give yourself some time to have fun a few days a year.

Take time to relax with your family.

Many hotels offer special Christmas lunches and dinners during the holiday season.

So, take note of them and plan well in advance.

Consider those costs while planning your holiday budget.

10- Avoid buying a gift for yourself

Many of us get distracted while shopping for gifts.

Keep a list of the things which make you go crazy.

If you do not find them during the holidays or if they’re expensive, search for them after the holiday season.

The things might be offered on discount after the holiday season.

Understand the budget for your holiday, be clear of your requirements, and stick to the plan you have made.

If you want financial stability throughout the year, then try to plan holidays in advance to reduce disappointment and keep debt worries away.

However, even after following the tips and strategies, if you incur debt, then repay it without wasting time.

You can enroll in a debt consolidation program to repay your multiple debts through single monthly payments.

But, it is always better to avoid incurring holiday debt and remain stress free all the time.

Let me show you here how to catch up on bills even if you are behind

Are you behind on bills? I know it is an unpleasant feeling

I confess to you I missed paying my credit cards on time before

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This happened once or maybe twice

It is very intimidating especially I had enough money to pay it

How to get caught up on bills and not hurt my credit score again

I realized I was missing a bill tracking sheet

Also I made a promise to review my bills and setup twice a month a paying session

I plan to always pay all my bills if I have enough money to cover them

Sometimes if you have a bill to pay with due date to come later

Mark it on the bill tracking sheet and pay it after you get paid

Anyway, below I will share with you my experience on how to catch up on bills

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1) Create a budget if not having one

In order to know how to catch up on bills

You should learn how to create a budget in the first place

Why is that?

Because creating a family budget allocate some money to all bills on your budget

So step one you realize how much you pay for all your bills

2) Make a list of all your bills

If you really want to know how to catch up on bills

Let me tell you the following

There is nothing better than listing them on a sheet of paper

Also marking them on your monthly calendar

That’s why I came with these control your bills and bills on calendar PDF

I have the above two PDF files under the Ultimate Budget Binder

Visit my ultimate budget binder product page

Also I have many free PDF files for you to download on my products page

3) Prioritize your bills

Once you list all of your bills, you can do so many sortings like

You can sort them according to flexible and non flexible bills

Flexible bills are those bills you can pay late without incurring high interest rate or late fees

Example of flexible bills are a debt to a relative or friend where you can state the fact of delaying your payment

Other example are cable subscription or IPTV and GYM membership where you can pay it later and get back the service

4) Negotiate your bills

It would be hard to cancel some bills like the internet but you can negotiate it

In US, try using AskTrim, BillSmart, BillCutterz, BillFixers and Bill Shark

While in Canada, you can use Bill Busters

These companies will negotiate the bills for you and bring a better deal

5) Build an emergency fund

One of the top things on how to catch up on bills and not hinder paying your bills on time is to build an emergency fund

You don’t want to face a sudden emergency and use all your money to cover your emergency

Then you figure out you are not able to pay your bills

6) Increase your income

Another solution to avoid missing your bills is to increase your income but how?

Well I discussed in many posts how to increase your income

You can read how to make an extra 1000 a month from home doing easy side hustles

And how to make 500 dollars fast cash free today within a week

Also how to make 300 dollars fast online or offline

7) Cut your expenses

There are 3 types of cutting expenses

First type is to cut completely or partially on discretionary items like your morning coffee

I found myself buying a cup of coffee from Starbucks on a daily basis

So I decided to keep it for once or twice a week

Second type is to cut unnecessary expenses

Actually most of them are useless bills like magazine subscription

Or home phone where you can replace it with VOIP – voice over IP phone

Third type is to lower some expenses you cannot cut completely like gas or grocery

For this type, I recommend to read how to save money on groceries with 38 smart ideas

And cheapest foods to buy at grocery store – best food to buy on a budget

8) Pay off your debt

It feels great when you finish paying off all your debt

Having debt to pay like credit cards and student loans, this would compete with your bills that are due

That’s why you have to act smart to pay off your debt without impacting your unpaid bills

I have this post to read about how to pay off debt fast using these 26 simple hacks

It is highly recommended to use the snowball method

Which dictates paying the minimum for all debts and add more to the first small debt

Once you finish your first debt, use its amount plus the minimum you used to pay for the second debt

Doing that will encourage you to continue tackling your debt like the snowball effect

Do you maintain a family budget?

Are you looking for the best budgeting tips?

If so, then you are in the right place

In a previous post, I talked about the common budgeting mistakes and how to avoid them

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Now I found there is a need to cover more tips on budget techniques

In my post below, I will show you some tips on how to budget your income and save money

Contents show

Best budgeting tips for beginners

I will start with the basic budgeting tips every beginners should go through

Although they are simple but they require commitment and self control

Automate your savings

You go to your bank and ask them to deduct specific amount or percentage automatically from your income when you get paid

It is called pay yourself first, which means save your money before you start spending

Separate your saving account

When I first started saving money, I found it is a kind of temptation to deduct some money and I still have access to it

Best way is to separate your saving account into either a locked investment account or different bank account

Build an emergency fund

You can never tell if you will face an emergency situation

Those that happen and you are not prepared for like fixing your roof after a sudden storm or your car stops working

That’s why it is crucial to build an emergency fund to face any crisis

Eliminate your debts completely

There are so many ways to tackle your debt

I like Dave Ramsey’s method in his book Total Money Makeover

He advices his readers to sort all debts in terms of smallest and going up

Assuming these debts don’t have a mandatory to pay like taxes

Then pouring most of the money into the smallest debt and maintaining the minimum for all the rest

Doing that gives you a great energy to continue fighting your debt

Get rid of non essential expenses

Now let’s say you already built your budget

Look at the expenses, don’t you see anything to cut

Number one advantage of having a budget is to look at all expenses and find some expenses to cut

It can be a GYM membership, you can replace it with a used treadmill from Facebook Marketplace

Or your home phone as cell phones are enough

Or it can be your cable, you can replace it with IPTV

Cut back on discretionary spends

I am a coffee addict especially Starbucks coffee

Spending more than $2 daily for my morning coffee is not acceptable

So I reduced it to once or twice a week

Actually I wouldn’t notice that with a proper budget that tells me where I spend my money

Track your daily spending

To keep your budget on track, it is highly recommended to track your daily spending

You need a simple sheet of paper to write what you spend daily

It would be easy as you won’t forget

You can use the weekly spending sheet below

Click to download for free from my products page

Setting your financial goals

I always describe the person who does not set up his/her financial goals with whoever going for fishing without a fishing rod

Setting your financial goals will urge you to take actions

I also recommend writing them on a sheet paper and hang it on a place in front of you

Choose a budgeting method

There is no right or wrong when it comes to choosing your budgeting method

You have to check what suits your best or what you think it is possible to achieve

There are so many methods like

• The zero sum budget method
• Cash envelope method
• The value based budget
• The half payment
• 50/20/30 as known as the balanced money formula
• And few more

I recommend to learn all of them under budgeting method

Best budgeting tips for adults

Once you finish your college or university and start looking for work

First thing that comes to your mind is prepare yourself to get married

Actually marriage is the beginning of your journey

But also you should consider to

Save money early – save as much as possible

You need to save money as soon as you start working

If you start saving money early then you will never regret it

Saving money for your future home will build you wealth

Think about saving for retirement

To retire with good saving, you need to save for at least 35 years

The more you save early the better for you

I have met so many people who think about saving for retirement when they reach 40

They regret not saving earlier in their twenties but I also say it is never too late

Even in your forties and you do it persistently

You can save 10% or little it bit more that would be great

Best budgeting tips for common laws or those about to be married

Are you about to get married?

I hope you already know your spouse well especially when thinking about financial aspects

Agree together on your future financial plans

One of the best budgeting tips also crucial for you to consider making sure you agree with your spouse on your future financial plans

It is very frustrating to discover you tend to save and your spouse splurges

Don’t tell you it was a surprise for you

There are so many signs to tell you if you both have the common financial values

Best budgeting tips for couples or newly married

Let’s say you both share a good common financial values

Below is what to do next

Create a joint venture spending account

I don’t see any reason to have separate accounts for each spouse

You should both have one joint account unless you want to hide something

I talked in a previous post about why you need fun money?

So you agree to have a room for your own spending but other than that you are supposed to agree on what both can spend together

Combine your finances together

You have to combine your finances together

Don’t think what will happen if we get divorced

It doesn’t work like that, you are not supposed to get married worrying about what if you get divorced

Combining your finances help both of you share the right decision on your money

Budget for fun/vacations and romantic time together

Thinking about retirement by saving money is a good thing

But if you think that you can save thousands on what you will spend on vacations towards your retirement

Let me tell you, if you don’t enjoy your life while you are young

Do you think you will enjoy it when you retire?

I believe there is money to save and money to spend for fun

Set some time to discuss your budget together

I know talking about budgeting and planning your finances can be boring

But if you both agree to set up a 15 minutes every week to look at your spending and check your budget – trust me it is really worth it

I discussed in a previous post, how to work with a spouse who refuses budget commitment?

Best budgeting tips for parents or family

Budgeting for a family is an experience that is totally different from empty nesters couple

I believe you both sacrifice for your children and you don’t feel like sacrificing

Below is few points on what you need to do

Save extra money during the 9 months pregnancy

You know a new baby is coming

Till this happens you have got 9 months to save money

Budget extra for food

One of the budgeting tips for family is to budget extra money for food

It is really hard to deprive your kids from what they like to eat

Build zero-sum family budget

Use the zero sum budget method

In simple words, you assign a task for every dollar you earn from your income

It is called giving every dollar in your income a job to do

You get a budget with net value of zero

Pack your lunches

When I was single, I used to buy lunch most of the days

It is really tough to keep this practice when having a family

There is nothing wrong if you pack your lunches every day from your left over dinner

Budget activities and spots for kids

I had once a big bill because I did not plan for my 2 kids swimming lessons

That caused me to pay around $700 but because I know now that I will pay this amount twice a year

From now on , I decided to plan for it throughout the entire year

Save for kids education

I will speak about myself, I know it is hard feeling to see my son not able to join the college/university he likes because of money shortage

Before it is too late, I decided to save for my kids education by maximizing the annual contribution and leave their money to grow in a well selected mutual funds investment

Consider buying used items

I have sold so many household items I stopped using on Facebook Marketplace

Also before buying anything new, I go and check it there

If I find it in a very good condition, I buy it without hesitation

hen use your allocated fun money for the week to compensate you for your success

Do you have to track where your money was spent on?

Some people think if they never go beyond their allocated percentage for fun money

Why do they care to track where their leisure money was spent on

I highly recommend to track where you spend your money on fun

This can be beneficial for you, but why?

Well, if you spend money hanging out with your friends on alcoholic drinks

You can arrange with your friends to visit you at home and spend time together

You can rotate the visits, all of you would save money and still enjoy your time together

What are the fun things to spend money on?

You are not tied to specific things to buy

You can buy anything you want for yourself

Don’t feel guilty as long as you are spending your leisure money within the agreed range

You can save it for a big purchase you are dreaming of

Is budget review something you consider every now and then?

Do you know how many times I perform my budget reviews per year?

Well, I complete 5-6 budget reviews annually

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In the lines below, I will show you why it is important to consider reviewing your budget and how often to review it?

I will start with the below

Contents show

What is budget review?

Reviewing your budget is like maintaining your car by changing oil to perform better on the road to financial success

Great words, ignore the above

I will keep it simple, the review process is to revise, assess and reconsider your allocated amounts you assigned before to your expenses

This practice – I consider it a 5 minutes task that will give you a great intuition for improvement

Why reviewing budget every now and then is important?

Imagine you are invited as a speaker in a conference

You start speaking only to find that your audience started checking their cell phones

Some of them, started to close their eyes for a nap

Finally, your friend at the end of your long session told you that you should have engaged your audience

By asking questions, stoping every 2-3 minutes to make sure your audience are still following you

This is exactly the same way if you setup a budget and leave it without reviewing, you will forget your allocated amounts and definitely will drift out of your plan

Similar to speaking and audience start napping

Your assigned amounts would not make any sense if you don’t tweak it as you go along

It is important to revise and check your budget to find possible ways to increase your saved money and put yourself back on track for your long term financial goals

When to revise and reassess your budget?

There are few cases that cause you to consider reviewing and changing your amounts in your current budget

Review your budget based on life changing events

• Getting married
• Getting a newborn baby
• Changing your job or getting promoted
• Changing your home which means low or high mortgage amount
• Inheriting money or asset
• Losing your job
• Losing a spouse or household member
• Going to retirement

Reviewing based on financial changing events

• Getting an increase in your income like the annual increase
• Getting a newly added expense(s) or even getting rid of few
• Finishing one of your debt or your mortgage
• Refinancing your debt with less interest
• Refinancing your mortgage with low interest rate
• Renewing your mortgage by changing terms, interest or duration

Reviewing based on financial changing events

• Weekly – to make sure you meet your weekly expenses like grocery and adjust accordingly if there is any deficit
• Monthly – to make sure you meet your end of month budget numbers
• Quarterly – to check if you are able to adjust any expenses according to occasions as you may know in every quarter we have at one or two occasions
• Yearly – to adjust your numbers for the next year

Below I will show you how to budget money on low income

If you don’t believe me, I will prove that it is possible for so many reasons

First of all, most of the families don’t really know where their incomes go

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They don’t know how to budget their income

Also what causes deficit in their day to day expenses

For example, do you know you mortgage/rent percentage to your household income?

You will be surprised to discover you pay 50% or more of your income in your mortgage/rent and you don’t even notice that

That’s why according to CNN one third of Americans didn’t their rent in April, 2020

I know it is because of COVID-19, it also indicates a fact they don’t have any reserves

Convinced now, if so let me list the top 10 tips on how to budget money on low income

Contents  show 

Start using a budget and stick to it

You have no way to balance your life on low income without sticking to a budget with your family

A budget can tell you the percentage of how much you spend according to your income

Also it can help you to focus on keeping your expenses to stay the same

Keep your housing costs minimum

This is the core, the meat and butter and mother of controlling any household budget

If you control your housing costs you are 9 out of 10 on the right track on how to budget your money on low income

In 2010 and 2011, me and my wife were getting paid 52% of our current income

We were really living very good, many months we doubled our mortgage payments and still have a lot of room to breath

Right now our household income got doubled but life is not like before

Very simple, we were living in 170 K Condo and moved to 480 K townhouse

Back in 2012, it was my first time to know that banks have a mortgage lending criteria that housing costs should be around 40% threshold of your income

I asked the financial adviser why it is like that

I remember he told me if you reach the 40% threshold you will be living paycheck to paycheck

Although all banks would agree to lend you with 40% threshold but learn from this lesson

Housing costs eat up your income so if you are single, I would say there is nothing wrong if you live with your parents

You can contribute by paying them a reasonable amount for using your room

If you are married or living with significant other, check how much you pay for mortgage/rent and downsize if it is beyond or near 40% of your total income

Build an emergency fund

Yes, building an emergency fund is added here in the list for a reason

This is not a typo or mistake, I will tell you why

Usually if you are living on low income, I assume you are barely making ends meet

What if you encounter urgent bill you cannot afford to cover with your low income

For example, all of the sudden you start your car in the morning heading to work

You find your battery is dead, you have to call a towing company if not a member of AAA or CAA

Surprise, you have a new bill for car battery to replace

If you set aside an emergency fund, you will protect yourself from falling into debt

Eliminate your debts completely

Right after having a minimum of $1,000 saved in your emergency fund

You start the snow ball process of working towards paying off all your debts

Best approach as per Dave Ramsey’s book Total Money Makeover is by tackling your debts based on using the debt snowball method

You have to list all of your debts starting from the smallest payoff balance to largest

Ignore the home loan and list all debts the way mentioned above even if you have a money taken from friends with no interest

It doesn’t matter here if it is zero or 24% interests and pay the smallest debts first

The only exception to this rule is a money you owe to the IRS in US or CRA in Canada

The reason I asked you to work on paying off the smallest first because you need to feel the small wins that boots your energy towards the largest ones

Get rid of non essential expenses

Original title was get rid of entertainment expenses

Then i realized there are so many expenses that are not an entertainment but you still need to cut them completely

Like GYM membership or the expenses of owning a pet

Perhaps speaking about owning pet is considered crossing the lines

Anyway I will list some expenses for you to cut as many as you can

• Dinning out and going to restaurants
• Going to theaters
• Culture events you pay for
• Attractions
• Performance arts
• Playing in Casinos
• Buying tickets for sports
• GYM membership
• Owing a pet
• Paying for cable – replace it with IPTV

Cut back on discretionary spends

I always refer to my personal coffee addict story

After realizing I cannot stay one single day without ordering my Starbucks morning coffee

I analyzed my monthly take away coffee orders and I decided to keep it to once or twice a week

Bottom line, you have to fight temptations and look for your needs over your wants

Use cash envelope method

Living on low income puts you in a situation where sometimes you have no choice but to use a cash envelope method

If you don’t know what is cash envelope method

It is simply you work with cash only where you don’t carry credit cards at all

You leave your credit cards at home

There are few people who cut their credit cards and carry the cash envelopes whenever they go shopping

If you assign let’s say $550 for grocery then you pay for your grocery from the grocery envelope

You manage to distribute the amount of groceries throughout the month

Once you are done with your envelope you cut your spending on this expense

Build zero-sum family budget

If you are not aware of what does zero-sum budget type means, simply you employ every dollar you earn from your income and give it a job to do

By doing that you prevent waste, maximize your income and help you to save money

Again, if you still don’t know how to build your personal budget

This is the best time to click the link above and leave it for me to put you in the budget mode

Increase your income with side hustle

You know I am discussing here different ways on how to budget your money on low income

But what I really don’t understand, if you are on low income why don’t you take an action and change your situation

You have no excuse if you think you have no skills or talent to use

Let me tell you that you have tons of things to do

I encourage you to read my post how to make 200 dollars a day

Automate your savings

Definitely you wonder what savings automation has to do with how to budget your money on low income

Simply, if you don’t deduct even little amount of your income when getting paid, then how do you expect yourself to save money

Saving on low income will never happen for you if you pay all of your expenses first

It works the other way around by deducting little amount

If you still have money left after paying your expenses then add more to your savings

Say No for lease or rent to own products

I have to admit I made a mistake buying a new car where I incurred paying around $530 with interest for 5 years

It completely exhausted me and my wife financially, I wouldn’t do it again

If you plan to buy anything for your home, I urge you to stay away from rent to own products

Exception if you have an offer to pay for a product for 6, 12 or 18 months with no interest, make sure you confirm that there are no hidden fees

Regarding lease for driving a vehicle, I don’t get it why you pay for using a car

Then after 2 – 3 years you ask to own it they change you inflated price compared to the exact same used car in the market which forces you to start a new lease with different car and the cycle goes on and on

Take advantage of tax credit

The only advantage for low income families is the fact that they fall in a low tax bracket that they qualify for a tax credit called EITC which stands for Earned Income Tax Credit in US equivalent for WITB Working Income Tax Benefit in Canada

Question is what you can do with this lump sum of government tax credit money

First, start by building an emergency fund if you don’t have one already

Start with the $1,000 emergency fund baby step then

If you are still in debts you will have to pay off all of your debts first

It doesn’t make sense to deposit the tax credit money into retirement saving account while you still have money owed to debtors

This money is not for luxurious spending or booking a travel package

Final notes on how to budget money on low income

If you are reading this post and you see yourself in a low income bracket

Start building your budget right now, don’t wait for another later

Saving for an emergency fund is not optimal, it is mandatory to face the all of the sudden incidents that happen in your life

Working to pay off all of your debts will get you out of the rat race

In your low income scenario, it may be useful to try the 52 weeks money saving challenge

Right now download free printable family budget PDF

Also you can download family budget free sheet password to edit data is 0000

Click to download for free from my products page