By A College Student
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Gen-Z Money Blogger
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I do too, but it is hard to enjoy the holidays when I am stressed about how I am going to pay for presents.
I love gift-giving, so I want to get as much as I can for my friends and family. Unfortunately, as a college student, I don’t really have the funds to buy all that I want to for those friends and family members.
I can’t buy expensive items let alone anything. I end up baking for most holidays because the sentimental value of that is worth much more than money can buy. It is also really good on my bank account.
However, not everyone wants to bake for Secret Santa gifts and their friends or family. Instead of baking, I will give you my 6 tips to help buy the best gifts you can this holiday season!
Along the way, you will also learn how to shift your mind into a more minimalist mindset which will accelerate your financial health.
Living below your means is one of the best pieces of advice for saving, building, or generally managing your wealth. It is a mindset that teaches control and appreciation for things on a smaller scale, which overall makes life more enjoyable. It turns more into how little can you have/function off of and still be happy.
This ties into buying gifts really well. As soon as you obtain this point of view, you begin to see what others truly need and don’t need as well. Such as determining what someone will use for a longer period rather than just the first couple of days having it.
I don’t know if you have ever gotten a gift from someone that you didn’t really need or like, but I have. And it is not fun. Receiving things that you don’t like or will not use, you are stuck in a really awkward and unfortunate position. You may keep it in your room and let dust pile up on it, or you might ponder giving it to Goodwill or a sibling.
But this would all be avoidable if the gift that was given had been of use or of liking to you. This is why it is useful to determine a gift’s usefulness and liking before buying it and giving it to whoever it may be.
I am guilty of buying practically anything that looks like the person I am giving it to would like, but I have had many situations where I never see them use it. It may seem like a good idea at the moment, but it typically ends up not being so. This may not be the case for you, but if it is I suggest asking them for a Christmas list because these situations aren’t fun for anyone.
Do remember that gift-giving is all about the thought and intent behind it, so if you don’t know the person too well then giving something with some sort of thoughtfulness will suffice.
If you don’t know where to start or are unsure how to proceed, let’s figure it out together and I’ll give you my 6 tips for this Holiday season!
We will cover:
| 1 | Budgeting |
| 2 | Minimalism |
| 3 | Discounts |
| 4 | Stores |
| 5 | Suggested Gifts |
| 6 | Wishlists |
The most crucial tip I can give you is to budget.
If you have never budgeted before and you have no idea what it is please check out my post on budgeting. If you know what budgeting is, then I suggest that you add a holiday section to your budget.
A lot of the time we don’t create a section for our holiday expenses because we think the money will just appear on its own for it, but that more than likely doesn’t happen.
Instead of wishing that the money will magically appear, I suggest guaranteeing that you will have enough by setting money aside throughout the year and keeping track of that process. This way you know how much you can spend, and it will be no surprise when money leaves your account this holiday season.
That being said, nobody wants to be stressed out during the holidays, but it is very common to be stressed around these times. There are countless problems that occur and can occur that cause high anxiety and an abundance of stress.
Let’s eliminate this stressor and get ahead of it while we can. It is really a series of small actions that prevent this stress. And it starts with having the money for gifts and buying the gifts early. Or at least not buying them the night before.
If you are into aesthetic appearances, then I suggest creating or finding a cute holiday budget planner or page to help with this process. I know that dealing with money can be repellant because of the stress but you truly can make it more enjoyable with personalization and finding little things you like about it.
I personally enjoy the satisfaction of organization and aligning numbers; hence why I am majoring in accounting. But you don’t have to enjoy these things in order to enjoy budgeting.
Refer to my post on budgeting for help in determining your motivators and habits.
If you would like a personalized holiday savings budget please comment below and I would be happy to create one for you!
MinimalismWhenever you are working toward a new goal or dream, you need to change your mindset.
To create new habits and achieve new things you can’t do so with the same perspective. You have to shift your perspective to what you are trying to achieve. It is truly a mind game.
As far as gift-giving goes, I suggest refraining from buying sporadically with no plan.
In order to buy as little as possible with the utmost efficiency I suggest creating a list of people you need to buy for and brainstorming gift ideas next to their names. It is most effective to do so throughout the year while you hang out with this person and get ideas. Then, you can take note of the items’ prices and discounts may apply to them. This is particularly useful during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
A big part of minimalism for this topic is only buying what you would consider useful for the person you are buying for.
Questions you can ask yourself to depict this are:
These questions should help you filter out the less efficient and effective gifts from the best gifts.
Using the information, you know and applying it to these suggestions should get you the ultimate gift for your friends and family for the holidays!
DiscountsSave as much money as you can!!!
Discounts are the gold of holiday gift-giving. Using them to your advantage can enable you to buy the best gifts in higher volume than if you didn’t.
Us students have some of the best deals available and a majority of us don’t even know it!
A lot of your favorite retail stores more than likely offer student discounts year-round and stack on top of discounts they have during the holidays. This is super useful during black Friday because you get the same black Friday deals as everyone else PLUS the student discount.
A huge pointer for those who love to plan in advance, create your lists as soon as you can and add yourself to discount alert lists for these items. That way you don’t buy excessive things and you are all set for the holiday season!
Take advantage of saving your money. It is truly a lot simpler than people make it out to be.
StoresGreat stores for constant discounts include.
And many more.
The general idea of these stores is that they offer good products at low prices.
It is even more beneficial that these stores still offer discounts on their low prices. This is when your lists come in handy because you can buy these products as soon as they go on sale and before they sell out.
Keeping a rewards program with these stores may also be beneficial because of additional discounts and notifications on good offers.
Suggested GiftsAbove all else, it pays to know who you are buying gifts for.
And if that fails you, then take my advice and do a little digging.
It doesn’t have to be extravagant, and certainly not stalker-level. All you need is some simple knowledge of what they group into.
Ask yourself simple questions like these and once you have a particular grouping for this person, then search “Gifts for (the grouping)” on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, or another search platform.
Some simple ideas include gift cards, a card, something for the new year, or any other general item that people of all groupings would find useful.
Along with gift baskets:
The bottom line is that you get them something meaningful. This could be as little as a joke on a card that only the two of you would understand. Do something that would fill their heart the way that you would want yours filled. When you do that, the rest works itself out.
WishlistsCheck Pinterest boards, their favorite stores, and the wish lists they have on their sites. Such as checking their Amazon lists, etc.
I personally have pictures and saved posts of just about everything I want, right on Pinterest. Everything is organized in boards and under groupings. I spend my time on Pinterest visualizing what I can’t in my mind. What I mean by this is I want to have all of my goals in a visionary template right in front of me. This gives me the ability to imagine it to be true and what I would need to do to make it so. A lot of women do this, but so do men.
Pinterest is a really helpful tool for putting your thoughts into a visionary goal and seeing other people achieve it. This helps you realize that these things are possible and with the right efforts can be attainable for you.
Moreover, it is a great place to look for ideas and reference what other people may be buying for the holidays.
Another possibility is checking what other people their age might be into.
Additionally, you can talk to people that may be close with this person and I am sure they would be happy to help.
I know it might feel like admitting to failure by asking somebody what they want but generally, it is better to get them something they like rather than something that will go straight to a “do not touch” pile.
Putting these strategies together for the holidays will help alleviate stress and make for a more enjoyable season. Doing this will also help you stay consistent in your financial state. Staying consistent with your finances is important because it is what builds to your aspiring wealth.
Habits compounded over time are the formula to success.
To me, that is.
For those of you who don’t know, a compounded value is a value that continues to build over time with the original value plus the accumulated amount earned.
For example, a penny a day accumulates to a dollar in 100 days. On the contrary, a penny today is worth a penny in 100 days if there is no penny contributed from now until then.
This value is crucial to building wealth. This goes for financial or personal wealth; both are affected by the action of compounding.
Thank you for reading, and please look out for our next post a week from now!
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