Filipinos are known to be one of the few nations who really make an effort to spend the holidays in the best ways that they can. However, a lot struggle in maintaining budget when Christmas is approaching but in this article, we are going to teach you a few tricks that can make your holidays non-lucrative but fun and exciting.
Set a budget for gifts
Gift-giving during the eve or the salubong is one of the most anticipated days of most Filipinos which is why they really prepare when the countdown starts. There are a lot of inexpensive but good-quality gifts that you can give your friends and loved ones. It is recommended that you plan your gifts accordingly and that it would fit your budget; ensure that your gifts won’t go over a certain amount. This is why you should research and buy gifts ahead of time.
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Budgeting your Noche Buena
Though most Fiipinos treat Noche Buena as their most extravagant meal of the year, you can still make it look extravagant on a tight budget. Here are a few tips on buying food for Noche Buena:
- Buy ahead of time because groceries and markets may increase prices of certain food when the holidays is near.
- Buy meat in grams. A cured ham costs somewhere around P300-P700 pesos in the supermarket but you can buy 300g of ham for less than You can buy cheaper meat if it is uncured – same goes with bacon.
- Pasta is a little bit more expensive than rice but hey, this celebration just happens once a year, right? You can buy inexpensive pastas in groceries that have the same quality as the expensive ones.
Try to set a budget for every food you get so that you can keep a watch on how your budget decreases.
Make a list
Now this seems a little bit off the hook but this one is surprisingly effective. List down the things that you would get as presents or the food for Noche Buena and you will be dumbfounded by how much you will save if you do. Try to list down gifts for relatives and compute the estimated total; try to list down what food you will serve during the Noche Buena and so on. You will be surprised by how low you will spend and that it will go according to plan.
Spend within your means as much as possible
Yes, this holiday happens once a year but this should not be the reason why you’ll go broke a few days after Christmas. Limit your spending to whatever you think you can afford and start to look for things now. Don’t wait for the Christmas vibe to be born because prices might hike and you may find supposed-to-be-cheap things costly.
These are just few of the best ways on how you can save money during the holidays. Following all of these can definitely save you expenses that you can use the following year. You need to make sure to leave something inside your pockets when the year ends so that you won’t panic a few weeks after the holidays.
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