By BECKY GOFF
Little Apple Post
The holiday season is upon us and feeling the need to spend money and purchase gifts can lead to stressful feelings.
Megan McCoy, a professor in the Financial Planning Department in the College of Health and Human Sciences at Kansas State University, suggests a few ideas on how to reduce spending, while still enjoying the gift giving aspect of the holiday season.
“...I think the process, the anticipation of opening presents is really where our happiness comes from, not the actual present that we could have picked up for ourselves at Walmart. And so being intentional about like in my buying money and me spending this amount of money because this is a gift for them or am I spending this amount of money because I feel like I have to.
And separating those two out so that you can buy gifts are actually thoughtful and meant for the person without having a certain number applied to it. Maybe you find the perfect present at like Five below. Even though it's only $5. It was meaningful, it meant something. It showed. And remember, remember reminiscing. We're reminiscing, reminiscing about a past time with them.
That $5 gift is going to be more meaningful because I can that earlier. I like memory that any kind of expensive gift you can buy someone.”
McCoy also says there are strategic ways to cut costs while not taking away from the fun of the holiday season.
“Everybody works really, really hard to be able to spend. We just want you to spend intentionally. So, finding ways to not eat out and save up to when you eat out with friends and finding ways to use coupons so that when you're with your friends, you don't have to worry as much about how much you can spend.” McCoy says.
Resources are available to those who are dealing with financial stress, McCoy says K-State offers free financial counseling to students and those associated with the school and there are options for other community members as well.
“There's a organization called AFCPE that offers pro bono financial counseling virtually to anybody who needs it. So, if you're like, I want a budget, but I only know where to start with that, you can meet just a few times for free with a counselor and really just start getting on the right path and take it from there.” McCoy says.
McCoy says tracking your spending and looking at previous years’ budgets can help you determine how much to spend.
“Definitely factor in inflation to be intentional about your spending outside of what you want to spend and then making sure your gifts are truly for the person and not to keep up with the Joneses. Or to some of us kind of construe how much we spend is how much we love. And that should be separated. You can love without spending a lot.” McCoy says.