Holiday Budgeting Tips: How to Plan Ahead for Seasonal Savings

Fall begins the busiest time of the year for many of us as we enter the blur that is the upcoming holiday season.  This can be stressful, but planning ahead will allow for more time to focus on what’s most important – time with your loved ones.

Don’t miss these budgeting tips to plan ahead and save for the holidays.

• Establish a target and work backwards. Step one is to figure out how much you need to save. First, write down a list of people you want to include for holiday gifts – parents, children, siblings, close relatives, friends, teachers, colleagues. Be sure to also include line items for charities you want to support as well as seasonal expenses such as extra groceries and decorations for entertaining. Once you have your list, jot down a budgeted amount per line item. Maybe it’s $25 for a child’s teacher and $50 for a good friend and so on and so forth.
• Add it up, and then edit. Next, add together all the budgeted items on your list to see the total you’d like to save. Take this as an opportunity to adjust and decide on which items are of higher priority and what may need to be edited or removed. Your total is probably a surprisingly large number, which can be overwhelming. But, at least you have established the target and can work to meet your savings goals.
• Create savings goals to stay within your budget. Finally, now that you have made your list and checked it twice, set up your savings goals for holiday expenses. Stock Yards offers a great savings tool within mobile & online banking. Select a pre-determined goal or establish one of your own. Once you establish your goal and deadline, this tool will allow you to make transfers from your existing accounts into your online goal account.

Happy Holidays!