The holiday season is a time of enjoying the company of friends and family, eating delicious food, and giving gifts. Unfortunately, it can be a time of financial stress as the pressure to buy gifts and host events becomes more and more prominent. The average Canadian will spend nearly $1400 during the holiday season and only 2% will stick to or spend below their budget, according to Statista.
With Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals bombarding the average shopper, people feel obligated or coerced to buy more than they would’ve normally liked. Couple that with the pressure of competing with family members and friends to give the best gift this Christmas, it can feel overwhelming. Maria Ursu and Julie Reich are member relationship specialists with Weyburn Credit Union who try to help people navigate through these financially challenging times.
“With the economy and where the interest rates are, following that with the Bank of Canada, with grocery prices and also the cost of living has gone up, there's lots of things and of course, people are spending their money (because) things are more easily accessible nowadays.” Reich says, “There's just different tools now you can pre-buy something online and you don't have to pay for it in five installments and then at the end of your statement or when you get your bill, I totally forgot I owe this amount of money, so we're definitely seeing that come in for sure."
It’s easy to get caught up in the spending around the holiday season, with so many deals and advertisements and promotions, people are more susceptible to spending outside of their means. Everybody wants to buy gifts for those they care about the most, however over-spending can make a joyous time of the year stressful and demoralizing. Ursu talks about how families are cutting down on costs to still provide a wonderful Christmas, just on a tighter budget.
“This year, even our own family, Julie and I are cousins, and we used to buy for everybody, All the cousins, all the cousins’ kids, and we just can't financially do it. It's not because we didn't want to. Sometimes, we'll exchange baking or there's other ways, but I’ve also noticed some organizations and businesses when I've asked, are you guys doing your Christmas party this year? Even organizations are struggling this year in the sense. So, they're skipping out on those little extras, you know, maybe you used to get a $50 gift card from your employer, and now you're only getting $20 and a box of chocolates.”
It’s easy to get discouraged when you can’t buy all the gifts you wanted for every member of the family, or you have to skip out on certain events because of financial reasons. However, the holidays were never about money to begin with. Being smart and diligent with your money around the holidays can ensure that you can provide a wonderful holiday experience with your loved ones, without breaking the bank.
“Go in with a budget,” Reich states, “Know what you have left over, what you can afford, Reuse, maybe recraft something and remake. Maybe it's not just necessarily going to a store, utilize some of those secondhand stores for there might be new items there that could be regifted. The magic of Christmas, you know, it looks beautiful in the evening with the lights on and it was just something that even now I implement with my kids. We drive around and we do our little twinkle tour and look at the Christmas lights.”
Sometimes, the best gifts in life are free.