Beware of Holiday Budget Busters
652 views · Published 2 November 2017 · 3:43 · Indexed 31 October 2026
Channel: Utah State University Extension · 2017 · Education
Hi, welcome back. It’s Amanda Christensen with Utah State University Extension, and today I want to talk about the tool, the financial tool, I would recommend, to help you beware of some of the holiday budget busters. When I think of major holidays coming up, that can take a chunk out of our budget, I think Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas or Hanukkah, and New Years. The #1 tip I have to combat the holidays, that can be quite the budget buster, is a revolving savings account. This account is separate from any other savings account, like an emergency savings at your financial institution. It is separate and a separate payment gets drawn out automatically and put into that account every month out of your paycheck to cover these holidays that are irregular, yet expected expenses. Now I know we’re focusing as we head into the fall on Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas or Hanukkah, and New Years, but there’s also Easter, and Mother’s and Father’s Day, and many other holidays throughout the year that are expected yet irregular that this revolving savings account can really help with. Now a revolving savings can be used for many more expenses besides just the holidays that are irregular yet expected expenses, but today I want to focus just on the holidays for the sake of this video. What you’ll do is add up the amount that you expect to spend on the gifts you will give, the costumes for Halloween, the extra candy that you might buy, any of the décor that you’ll need, and any fireworks for New Years, or travel costs to spend time with family during that time. All of that needs to be taken into account and added up into one lump sum and then divided by 12. And once you divide that amount by 12, you’ll be able to see the amount that you need every month to put aside into your revolving savings, to have enough for those expenses when they come. Now I know in theory, a revolving savings sounds pretty simple, but sometimes people will say to me, “Amanda, I don’t have a chunk of money to put into revolving savings every month,” or, “it’s going to take me a year of doing that to be able to then draw on my savings and have that account even be worth it.” To that I say this, at the end of the day, the revolving savings is really a tool to help us live within our means, so if you can’t afford to take that amount out of your budget every month and put it away, so you don’t have to go into debt for those expenses when they come, then you probably need to reconsider how much you’re spending, how much you’re setting aside for those holiday expenses. Another way to kick start your revolving savings is to use a chunk of money in the form of a tax return, or a bonus, or a yard sale. These are the types of things you can do to earn money to stick in there and get that started going so that you can add to it and draw from it as you needed as these holidays roll around. That’s all I have for this video. If you have any tips as to how you’ve made a revolving savings work, I would love to know. Please leave a comment and let me know. Also, reach out to me on social media. I’d love to hear your ideas, questions you may have, or thoughts for future videos. Thanks so much for watching; I’m Amanda Christensen with Utah State University Extension. We’ll see you next time, bye. ............ Connect with USU Extension! Facebook - http://facebook.com/usuextension Twitter - http://twitter.com/usuextension Pinterest - http://pinterest.com/usuextension LinkedIn - http://linkedin.com/company/usuextension Google+ - https://plus.google.com/+usuextension
