In today’s episode, we explore practical strategies for preparing financially for the holiday season. We discuss how to review past spending, set realistic budgets, and save money without sacrificing the joy of the season. We are also excited to share insights from our special guest, Cameron Huddleston, a 20-year veteran journalist in the personal finance space, who shares her expertise on family money talks and holiday budgeting.

In this episode, we’ll cover:

• Setting up automatic savings plans to prepare for holiday expenses, ensuring you have cash on hand to avoid debt during the season.
• Reviewing last year’s holiday spending to set a realistic budget for this year, including often overlooked categories like teacher gifts, travel expenses, and holiday parties.
• Strategies for reducing gift-giving expenses, such as drawing names for family exchanges, setting gift limits, and focusing on experiences rather than material items. 
• How to have conversations with family and friends about changing holiday traditions to be more budget-friendly without focusing on financial constraints. 

Listen below or read the transcript that follows. 

 

Eric:

This is a quick reminder that today’s episode is intended for education and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered financial or legal advice. Hello my friends, welcome back to the Good Sense by Payactiv podcast. As always, I am your host, Eric Rosenberg. And today we are talking about something that feels like it might be a long way off, but it’s actually just around the corner. I’m talking about holiday spending. Between gifts and family get-togethers and maybe even travel, the holiday season can be very expensive.

And rather than have it sneak up on us and wind up with a bunch of credit card debt, it’s better to plan ahead and think about ways you can cut back on your spending, lower your budget compared to last year and make sure you have the savings in place so you don’t get that big financial stress and trouble.

A lot of people run into you during the holidays and of course there’s that dreaded January credit card debt hangover we would not want any of you to have after spending on the holidays.

So today we have a guest, a 20 year veteran, Journalist from the personal finance writing space, my friend Cameron, we’re going to dive in and get some really helpful advice from her on how you can prepare financially for the holiday season starting right now.

Alright, everyone, I am so excited to be here in the recording studio with Cameron Huddleston. Cameron, welcome to the show. 

Cameron:

Thanks so much for having me. 

Eric:

So to start before we dive into the fun details, can you tell us a little bit about your background and how you got into this personal finance world we’re in? 

Cameron:

Sure. So actually, I was a personal finance journalist for more than 20 years.

I’ve written a book called Mom and Dad. We need to talk about how to talk to your parents about their finances. And actually, now I am director of education and content at a company called Careful which is a financial safety service for older adults and their families but I would say my specialty is family money talks which is what you’re gonna have a lot of around the holidays.

Eric:

Absolutely. I know I helped my mom out with her money. I’m the finance child, my sister’s the medical child. so we’ve definitely had a lot of money talks about budgeting and investing and housing in cars and loans and insurance and all those fun nitty gritty details of managing your financial life. But yes, as you said, today we’re talking about holidays and I know the holidays don’t seem like they’re right around the corner right now as we’re recording it’s sunny and beautiful and warm out but the holidays have a tendency to sneak up on us. So when you are helping whether it’s your family or your friends or writing as a journalist, when you’re talking about the holidays, what advice would you have for someone in the middle of the year, around July, August, even September, to start getting ready for the holiday season early?

Cameron:

Actually, I think now is a great time to actually start getting ready, and review your spending from last year. Log on to your bank account, log on to your credit card accounts, and see how much money you actually spent on your holiday purchases. And that includes not only gifts, but maybe any parties that you hosted.

At least get a rough estimate of how much you spent and look at it and say, “Okay, did I spend more than I should have, or did I do a really good job of sticking to a budget. If you spent more than you should have and your financial situation hasn’t changed, then going into the holidays this year, you’ve got to start by saying, “Okay, I’ve got to spend less than this. I’ve got to spend less than I spent last year if I really want to stick to a budget and not end up with a lot of debt after the holiday season.

So start there, figure out how you did last year so that you know what a good starting place for you is this year. And by doing this early, you have time to start setting aside a little bit of money every week so that there’s enough in your bank account or your savings account to cover more, or most of your purchases with cash. 

Eric:

Yeah, that’s a great idea. So looking at last year’s budget, you mentioned hosting parties, there’s a lot of different things people tend to do during the holidays.

What would you say are some of the most common spending categories if you were gonna break it down? Someone you might forget to look at, oh, we did this during the holidays last year and we tend to do it every year. 

How should people look when they’re going back to those statements or hopefully maybe they’re using a budgeting app and they can go look at different categories?

Cameron:

So I think most of us are obviously going to remember to think about the gifts that we purchased because that’s where the bulk of our spending lies during the holidays, but it’s easy to forget spending on not only the parties that you might be hosting or the family gatherings, But if you’ve got kids– teachers gifts, oh my gosh, The amount of money That can slip through your fingers on all of those teachers gifts, especially if you have Several kids with several teachers you could end up spending a lot of money on gift cards Which is what I typically bought for my kids’ teachers or maybe it’s smaller items, the bottles of lotion, or maybe it’s a plan or something like that. So looking to say, “Hey, how much did I spend on those teacher’s gifts?” Or maybe it’s gifts for colleagues, gifts for extended family members, not just your closest family members. “Did I spend money on buying new clothes for the holidays?” “Did I spend money maybe buying more snacks and things, because I had kids in college who came home for the holidays and then I had to feed them. Really look across all those spending categories, gifts, food, apparel. 

Eric:

Yeah. And when you mentioned kids coming home, that made me think about another common one. Sometimes we go out of town to stay with my mom and she lives out of state. 

Cameron:

Yeah. So that could be plane tickets, gas, hotels, meals out. There’s a lot of costs that all add up fast if you take an annual trip to, you know, stay with family or friends or something like that. So don’t forget the travel too. Or don’t forget the travel. 

Eric

So let’s say someone just finished following your advice. They hit pause, they went and they pulled out those financial records. They have a list of, “Here’s how much we spent on meals. Here’s how much we spent on gifts. Here’s how much we spent on travel or not. Here’s how much we spent on all the different things that we typically spend on during the holidays.” 

What would your next step be to make sure that, again, we don’t want those big costs to sneak up on us. What should they do next to stay prepared?  

Cameron:

I think it’s making the list. You know, figuring out, okay, Who am I gonna be giving gifts to this year? Because oftentimes I think we find ourselves really getting into the spirit a little too much and giving too generously. So maybe you look and you’re like, okay, I gave gifts to my close family members, but I also gave gifts to all of my colleagues. I gave gifts to all of my aunts and uncles and cousins. And you might have to step back and say, “Okay, do I really need to be giving this many gifts this holiday season?” You might want to suggest if you have a large family gathering that rather than everyone exchanging gifts, you draw names. And so each person only gives to one other person. We did this in my family. In fact, it got to a point where I’m like, “You know what? The adults don’t even need to be giving gifts. Are there any more just to give gifts to the kids?

And maybe the kids are drawing names if you’ve got a lot of kids in your extended family and so that you’re not buying 20 gifts for every niece and nephew or young cousin. Maybe the kids are drawing names, the adults aren’t even giving gifts, they’re just watching the kids have fun opening their gifts. At work, maybe you’re suggesting, “Hey, let’s do a secret Santa this year,” instead of having everyone feel like they have to buy a gift card or something for all of the colleagues they work closest with, you know, the teachers that your kids have maybe instead of buying a gift card for them for each and every teacher, you’re making baked goods and you’re sending in a box of cookies for the teacher.

You know, there’s still a cost to that, but it can be less than a bunch of and $15, $20 gift cards that you’re buying for teachers. 

So you’ve got to be honest with yourself and say, “Okay, can I afford to continue giving as generously as I have in the past?” If you are already really limited with your giving, only getting gifts for your closest family members, and you still need to trim your holiday spending, what you might want to do is if you are in a relationship, talk to your partner about, “Hey, do we really need to give each other gifts?” 

You know, “I don’t need anything. Do you really need anything?” Let’s just spend our time enjoying each other more so than spending money on gifts that, let’s be honest, you’re going to tell your partner what to get you. 

Your partner is going to tell you what to get them, and it’s no surprise to anyone. So maybe you agree to stop that exchange of gifts. Maybe there’s a limit on the number of gifts that you give children.

Some people like to give them something they can read, use, wear, just a certain number of gifts. In my house, my kids knew that Santa Claus only brought one gift.

That’s it. Santa Claus brings kind of one nicer big gift, but don’t expect a lot. You can add a Santa for a lot, but remember, he’s only going to bring you one gift. That was the deal in my house, and the kids knew that from the time they were young. Sometimes it’s all about adjusting expectations before you get into the holidays, because if you’re waiting until the last minute to tell your kids, “Hey, look kids, we’re not going to get as much on Christmas Day or you’re not going to get as much for Hanukkah or whatever holiday you’re celebrating,” you want to give them time to adjust to that so that they’re not surprised when they wake up and there’s only one gift done with the Christmas tree.

Eric:

Yeah setting expectations can be really helpful and I like what you said about a few different angles you can take here. So one is cutting back on who you give gifts to. Like I know with some friends, instead of giving each other holiday gifts we might plan to go to lunch, and we split it, we each cover ourselves. We’re giving ourselves the gift of taking a little time out of our schedules to be together.

I like the idea of instead of swapping gifts with a spouse or a partner, having time together, maybe pick a favorite activity. It could even be like a hike, something that, depending on where you live, might be cold in the winter, but it’s something that you can enjoy doing together. I also like, you know, sometimes trimming back on what I spent on a person compared to last year. One way I do that, I’ve decided the greeting card industry is just out for our money. And we’ve all often done a thing where the kids would make cards, you know, they’d color them and draw them construction paper and scissors and things.

And I realized, you know, the kids aren’t the only ones who can make cards, I can make a card, you know, just because I’m a grownup doesn’t mean I can’t make cute construction paper cards. So I’ll do a print out and color it in and write a personal note to a family member and then just popping it in an envelope, putting a stamp on it is way cheaper than going to the grocery store or the inflation sick reading cards too. You have six, seven dollars for a card, however many people. All of a sudden you’re spending a hundred dollars just on cards and a piece of paper right there is, you know, it’s already here. It costs just less than a cent. I think about all those little factors. – It all adds up.  

Cameron:

It certainly adds up, of course, food and even meals out, you know, that’s something I think is great that you and friends would go out and have a lunch together, spending time is important, but if you’re gonna be doing that a lot, that can add up too.

So maybe instead of going out to a restaurant, you invite your friends over for a holiday game night. – Oh, that sounds fun. – And it’s a hot look, everyone brings something. You’re not the only one providing food and beverages for everyone. You’re spreading that cost. I think most people are watching their spending now, and so I think most people would be quite open to maybe making some changes in the way they celebrate the holidays. So if you’re telling friends and family members, “Hey, let’s do things differently this year,” they might be entirely on board and you might not get any sort of pushback. “No, you can’t. This has always been our tradition.” They might be like, “Thank goodness. I’m tired of spending so much money. I am all in. Let’s change it to a potluck. Let’s stop exchanging gifts with everyone. Let’s just draw names.” 

Eric:

That leads me to another question. So I know you and I were in the personal finance world. We talk about money all the time. I’m a big money nerd. I’ll talk about my credit score with someone I just met sitting waiting in a waiting room or something.

Most people don’t do that, especially if they might feel nervous or self -conscious or embarrassed to admit to friends or family that they’re wanting to change their spending for budget reasons.

What are some ideas someone might take to heart to have a conversation about making changes without having to focus on “I’m trying to do this to save money.” How could they breach the topic with friends or family about coming up with less expensive gift ideas? 

Cameron:

I don’t think that you do have to let people know, I think if you are feeling financially challenged, I think you can suggest changes, perhaps this is something you can stress. And this is something I did with my family.  As I mentioned, we had family gatherings where everyone exchanged gifts and it became so honestly loud and out of control and it created a very stressful holiday gathering and so that’s how I approached it.

I think it would be a lot more fun if we could just relax and enjoy each other’s company rather than focusing so much time on a gift exchange. And so it’s how you position it.

And you don’t have to position it as, hey, look, I’ve got to stick to a budget this year. I mean, most of us have to stick to a budget unless we are super, super rich and even really wealthy people stick to a budget too. That’s how they maintain their wealth. But you don’t have to come out right and say, hey, I need to stick to a budget. You just say, I think it might be more fun, or I think it would be less stressful, or I think everyone would really enjoy it if we tried something a little bit different. So put a positive spin on it instead of saying something that might make you feel uncomfortable or make your family, members, or friends feel uncomfortable. 

Well, that’s great. And one last note I want to touch on, if let’s say you’re listening to this in September, you’ll have October, November, December, that’s three months away until the holidays. Let’s say you maybe have six or seven paydays in between now and the holidays, whatever that number is you’ve added up to that you want to spend, divide it by your number of paydays or the number of months, whatever makes the most sense for your finances, and set that as your savings goal, you can set aside like a high yield savings account that you won’t touch and put a portion of your income towards that every payday until the holidays come and then you can enjoy the holidays with less financial stress And you’ve already budgeted for it You’ve given yourself permission for that spending essentially and you won’t have to deal with the credit card debt hangover That we I’ll know about that often happens in January when that spending goes a little out of control.

So do you have any last tips, Cameron, for someone who’s wanting to get financially ready for the holidays? 

Cameron:

I would just piggyback off what you just said about setting aside money from every paycheck from now until the holidays.

Do that the first thing when you get paid. Either set up an amount to be automatically transferred from your checking to a savings account once that paycheck hits, or even some employers will let you have your paycheck deposited into more than one account so you want it to be automatic. Because if you wait until the end of the week, the end of the month to see what’s left over in your checking account to say the money will be gone, you will find a way to spend it. 

Eric

That’s easy to do. 

Cameron

It’s out of sight, out of mind. Have that amount automatically deposited into a savings account that’s not as easy to access so the money is going to sit there and be there when you need it for the holidays.

Eric:

Well, that’s great. Well, thank you so much. This was a really fun conversation and I’m already now starting to feel excited for the holiday season with my kids and my family. It feels a long way off, but it’ll sneak up on us.

We just started school, so I know it’s coming up soon. Thank you so much for sharing your time and wisdom with us today. If someone wants to connect with you and learn more, where should they go? 

Cameron

You can go to CameronHuddleston .com. Awesome. And we’ll have a link to that in the show notes. So it’s really easy to find Cameron and all of her social media and everything else she’s up to online.

So thank you again so much and early happy holidays. 

Cameron

Happy holidays to you too. 

Eric

Wow, that was an awesome conversation. I even had some new ideas that I will apply to my own personal finances based on Cameron’s thoughts and ideas, so I hope you do as well. Remember if you have Payactiv, you can have your direct deposit go right into your Payactiv account and automate your savings using the pay active savings feature and put money away.

Every payday, every week, every month, whatever schedule you’d like just as we discussed to make sure you have enough cash on hand to avoid debt during the holidays. We also have partnerships that can help save you money with different deals and coupons and discounts,

and financial advising sessions available completely for free where you can get one -on -one help with someone looking at your finances and preparing for the holidays is a perfect topic to go over during a first session with a financial advisor.

Again, that’s all free in the Payactiv app. You can get it for iPhones or Android through the respective app stores. So thank you all for joining us and sticking around and early happy holidays to you.

Thank you for being with us and make sure to share it with a friend. Subscribe in iTunes or Spotify or wherever you’re listening. You might even leave a rating and a comment.

That’s a big way to help us out and it only costs you a few moments, no dollars and cents out of your pocket. And Until next time, keep on living the life you’ve earned.

All content provided on Payactiv.com/financial-learning/ is for informational purposes only. Payactiv makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information on this site or found by following any link from this site. Payactiv will not be liable for any errors or omissions in this information nor for the availability of this information. Payactiv will not be liable for any losses, injuries, or damages from the display or use of this information.