Having A Drained Wallet After The Holidays Should Not Give You The Blues

The new year has begun, and you’re looking forward to starting fresh, hoping that the next twelve months will be better than last year. But how can you do this if you are still reeling from the painful impact of too much holiday spending? Chase your spending blues away and take charge of your life this year with these money-spending tips. They may not be easy, but they’re not difficult either. All it takes is determination to get your finances back in excellent shape.

Embark on a spending diet

If you’ve had too much to drink and eat during the holidays, then you may be one of those who made a pact with themselves to go on a diet to shed off some unwanted holiday pounds. But try shifting your diet to your spending, for as long as you can hang on to it. Your spending diet may include lessening (if you just can’t totally eliminate) your trips to your favorate coffee place to save yourself some dollars in just a few weeks. Learn to curb those cravings that will only have you spending unnecessarily. You may want to consider redirecting your attention to something else to take your mind off what you want to buy, such as going out for a walk or reading a good book.

Look for a means to earn extra cash

Tap your creative juices and think of where your talents can take you. It won’t hurt to use your spare time to get a little sideline that will bring in some cash. Be open and willing to take that extra effort to work part time, but be sure that the task would be something that you’d enjoy doing. If you’re a pet-lover, you can get a dog-walking job or perhaps lending a pair of hands to your nieghborhood pet grooming station.

If you’re allergic to animals, then why not look for online gigs that you can do at home or anywhere where there’s an internet connection? There are so many jobs in the virtual world that you can consider to get you that additional task.

“Pull in your belt, spend less, and reduce debt.” Ray Dalio

Take back items that you don’t want

Look at your room or any part of your house and see if there are things that you’ve recently purchased and don’t want or need anymore. It is always wise to keep the store receipts intact and safely put away should there be a need for you to return or exhange items. Make an honest inventory of the items that you have and return the ones that you’re not particularly fond of. You can then get your cash that you can use to help pay off your holiday spending debt.

Explore balance-transfer

Be careful though in opting for this alternative. You need to look at the terms and conditions of the bank or credit card company to where you would be transferring your debts. The idea behind balance transfers is that you will have a lighter payment scheme so you can settle your debts and other obligations in the least stressful way as possible. Some card companies or banks have attractive rates and features designed to make you transfer your balance right away. It would be better to do your calculations and ask the company representative to also illustrate for you the payment options so you could better compare if the balance transfer would suit your needs.

The idea behind balance-transfer is that you will have a lighter payment scheme to enable you to settle your obligations in the least stressful way as possible.

Start saving now!

You might ask that with the holiday debt still very much around, how could you even save something for next year? Well, there are effective ways to do this, but you just need the drive and discipline to get it moving.

• One way is to automate your savings. No matter how small the amount that you can spare from your income, setting a side a dollar or two every month is an important step towards building your savings. Since most transactions are done online these days, you can enroll in the auto-debit program of your bank and dictate the amount to be set aside. You can make adjustments to the amount based on your projected earnings in the coming months.
• Another way to start saving is by taking advantage of your windfalls and bonuses. It may be impossible not to be tempted to spend part of the money from these sources, but you can use a substantial portion of it for your savings.

Don’t fret and worry about your holiday spending debt. There are ways to deal with it and at the same time save you some money. Just like any dreaded task that you don’t like to do,  you just have to face it and deal with it — that is if you want to make this year financially successful.