Personal Finance Resource Guide

Holiday Spending 2021

I'm very excited to see loved ones in person this holiday season and my pent-up good cheer wants to go out and spend a bunch of money on everyone on my list -- including the stray cat living in my backyard. She does her job of catching varmints, so why not?

It's easy to overspend. Now, with so many ways to pay, I find it hard sometimes to keep track of my expenses. So, here's a list of other ways to celebrate that I made for myself after reading some articles.  I hope they can help you as well.

Harriet the Stray in her cat condo.

• Buy gifts for children only. Talk to your family and agree to buy just for the kids. Give decorated gift boxes to the adults stuffed with recycled paper. After the kids open gifts, have a 'snowball fight' with the crumpled paper.
• Give the gift of memories.  I do this with my nieces and nephews who are preteens.  I used to get them stuff their parents wanted me to buy. They'd roll their eyes and the gift would begin its dust collecting afterlife. I now take them out on a hike, or a bike ride or bowling and then afterwards we'll go for some tacos or pizza and take goofy selfies.  Well, at least it is a good memory for me and I hope the time that I spend with them shows them how much I love them.
• Decide on a group volunteer project. As a family, register to volunteer for the community during the holiday season.
  • Santa Clara County Parks Group Volunteer Opportunities. https://parks.sccgov.org/corporate-and-community-group-volunteer-opportunities
  • Santa's Helpers needed for Christmas in the Park, San Jose. https://www.christmasinthepark.com/
  • Second Harvest Silicon Valley. Group opportunities include sorting food, distributing food, hosting a virtual food drive. https://www.shfb.org/give-help/volunteer/group-volunteering/
  • South Bay Clean Creeks Coalition: https://sbcleancreeks.com/
  • Surfrider Foundation Santa Cruz Beach Clean-ups: https://sbcleancreeks.com/

These are just some ideas. I am sure you can come up with many more! Feel free to add them in the comments.

Further reading:

Roach, A. (2021, November 9). Tips to make sure your gifts aren’t affected by holiday supply chain issues. CNN Underscored. https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/09/cnn-underscored/holiday-supply-chain-issues-tips/index.html

Wood, E. (2019, December 5). Give story – not stuff – for the holidays. Kiplinger. https://www.kiplinger.com/article/retirement/t065-c032-s014-give-story-not-stuff-for-the-holidays.html

Zagorsky, J.L. (2021). How to pick the ‘right’ amount to spend on holiday gifts—according to an economist. The Conversation. https://getpocket.com/explore/item/how-to-pick-the-right-amount-to-spend-on-holiday-gifts-according-to-an-economist?utm_source=emailsynd&utm_medium=social