It’s almost that time of year again and if you’re like most people out there, you’re probably stressing out because you probably don’t have enough money to spend on gifts. Well worry no more my under paid friend, there are cheaper ways to plan your holidays, like organizing your budget, comparing item prices, or even just using coupons.
The first thing you need to do is to plan ahead, and track how much you might be able to spend on gifts and decide how much you have to spend. Remember, only list enough you can afford, do not go over the amount you can spend. If you do you may go over budget without realizing it. You can do this easily by using Microsoft excel. All you need to do is list the persons name in A1, List the things that person wants in B1, and in C1 type out this formula, =price1+price2… and so on. An example for one person would be A1-Billy B1-Legos, Transformer C1 =$10.00+$20.00 (when you hit enter C1 should turn from =$10.00+$20.00 to $30.00.). Now add a person in A2, A3, and so on. After your done adding everyone on your list, go to the row under the last person and enter [Total], [left blank], and the formula [=(C1)+(C2)] and so forth in column A, B, and C respectively, but leave out the brackets. If you did this right, C should become the total money you may spend. After you are done with this you can put the amount you have to spend in D1 and in the row named Total you can put the formula =spending-(Cn) were spending is the amount you have to spend and n is the row number. If the number appears in parenthesis that means you went over the amount you have to spend buy that much. Who knows, maybe you’ll have money left over.
Now that you’re done with your list, let’s think about deals. One thing most people don’t know about prices is that different stores may sell the same thing for different prices. For example, a can of cashews cost $1.00 at Walmart, but at Dollar General the same can of nuts cost $3.00. Now I’m not saying that Dollar General over-prices all their stock, something at Walmart could be cheaper at Dollar General, I’m just saying be careful were you buy your gifts. Also, be careful of infomercials, the fushigi ball costs $27.00 if you order by phone or website, but I found one at K-mart for $5.00. Another tip is to save and collect coupons; you can get them from a magazine or even print them of online. If you have to you can even by generic products (transmorphers, build-a-bricks, etc.) for less. Remember to only spend money on what you need to get. By now you should have either spent all your money or finished buying the gifts.
Now that you’ve done everything you can do, check your list twice and see if you were able to get everyone their gifts. If you have anyone left over, don’t worry, you can make a gift for free. Just use common household items, or even give someone that x-box360 you don’t want now that you have the Kinect. And above all have a happy holiday!
Article by: Carl Gordon
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