{"id":676,"date":"2016-10-10T15:40:36","date_gmt":"2016-10-10T15:40:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/money\/?p=676"},"modified":"2016-10-10T15:40:36","modified_gmt":"2016-10-10T15:40:36","slug":"holiday-spending-plan-dont-forget-the-wrapping-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/money\/smmo-blog\/holiday-spending-plan-dont-forget-the-wrapping-paper\/","title":{"rendered":"Holiday Spending Plan: Don&#8217;t forget the wrapping paper!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Last week I set foot in one of my favorite places to shop and guess what I saw? \u00a0Christmas decorations! \u00a0It served as a good reminder that before I spend a penny on holiday expenses, I need to get my holiday spending plan in order. Last year shoppers spent over $800 on holiday shopping, and more than half of the shoppers surveyed purchased something for the most important person on their list&#8230;themselves!*<\/span><\/p>\n<p>To start your holiday spending plan, write down all the expenses you expect to incur over the holidays. Base this year\u2019s expenses on what you spent last holiday season. Here is a list to get you started:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Gifts (family, friends, teachers, co-workers) <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Decorations (include tree!) <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wrapping paper and gift bags <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Food (holiday parties, office parties, school parties) <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Self-gifting (did you see what I wrote above? Over half of us throw something in the cart for ourselves!) <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Travel (long car trips, flights) <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Holiday cards and family photos <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Shipping costs <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">New holiday clothing <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Charitable giving <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Use our <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/spreadsheets\/d\/1xTd2j7z7WfPTHnUgnKPsvshHOGbGdRgp-kc4JuTk1jc\/edit?usp=sharing\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Google Sheets Holiday Spending Plan template<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to set your budget.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>And a tip for next year: \u00a0In January, look back and see how much you spent on holiday related expenses. Take that amount, divide by 12 and start setting aside that amount in a savings account every single month. This time next year, you\u2019ll be well prepared and ready to get through the holidays while staying in the black!<\/p>\n<p>*<em>National Retail Federation\u2019s Holiday Spending Consumer Survey, 2015<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week I set foot in one of my favorite places to shop and guess what I saw? \u00a0Christmas decorations! \u00a0It served as a good reminder that before I spend a penny on holiday expenses, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/money\/smmo-blog\/holiday-spending-plan-dont-forget-the-wrapping-paper\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-smmo-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/money\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/money\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/money\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/money\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/money\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/money\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/money\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/money\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.austincc.edu\/money\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}