Talking FACS
Host: Dr. Jennifer Hunter, Assistant Director for Family and Consumer Sciences Extension, University of Kentucky
Co-host: Mindy McCulley, Extension Specialist for Instructional Support
Episode 14
0:00 Welcome to Talking FACS; what you need to know about family, food, finance and fitness. Hosted by the University of Kentucky Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Program. Our educators share research knowledge with individuals, families and communities to improve quality of life.
O:20 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Hello and welcome back to Talking FACS. This is your host, Dr. Jennifer Hunter, Assistant Director for Family and Consumer Sciences Extension at the University Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food and Environment.
Today, we're back to discuss more holiday planning on a budget. In the previous episode, Mindy McCulley, our Instructional Design Specialist, joined me to discuss financial planning for the holiday season. And we talked about planning a thrifty Thanksgiving, as well as taking the scare out of Halloween, but beating the Christmas blues is really truly a podcast episode within itself.
So, Mindy has joined me again today to kind of flip our roles, and she's going to ask questions as the host and I'm going to attempt to answer all of her questions when it comes to you planning ahead and budgeting for the Christmas holiday.
1:12 Mindy McCulley: I'm excited, Jennifer, to talk about this topic, because I know that saving money at the holidays can often be a challenge for a lot of people.
1:19 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: It certainly can, and that's why we talk so much about planning ahead and trying to be prepared.
1:23 Mindy McCulley: So, then we're heading into the third big holiday.
1:28 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Third big holiday. And it really is the big holiday that as we head towards the end of December, and we kind of hit the Christmas holiday that it is very expensive. So, even though we’re just now, like I said, we've just come off back to school, we're not even really the early weeks of fall, yet, we really and truly should be planning for our Christmas holiday expenses.
And we often talk about this of beating the Christmas holiday blues that when your credit card bill comes in January, and you open it up and you realize just how expensive the holiday shopping and travel and food may have been. And so, we want to really and truly plan ahead to help overcome that.
And so, thinking about the Christmas holiday, and this goes back to having a conversation with your family members about what our expectations for Christmas this year. As our family ages, we don't have nearly as many little ones and simply really need to exchange gifts with everyone or could we just draw a name and everybody brings one present? Because we want to come back to it; what's the true meaning of the holiday? What are our goals as a family? This is an opportunity for us to be together and visit together and see those individuals that we don't necessarily get see the other times of year.
It's not necessarily about getting a gift.
2:41 Mindy McCulley: Exactly.
2:42 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: So, are there ways that you can reduce costs or that you could take in those dollars towards the meal or the travel or maybe even a donation or the community service activities?
2:51 Mindy McCulley: Yeah. So, that's something that my family has done as well. Instead of giving gifts to everybody, we all contributed and bought gifts for another family. And that was probably one of the most memorable experiences was having that together as a family, because it wasn't something that we had done before. And so, that’s good.
3:08 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: And a great teachable moment for our kiddos too, in terms of giving back and helping them understand that there could be other individuals out there that are less fortunate.
Other ideas for families, as opposed to a gift exchange, might be a family experience.
3:23 Mindy McCulley: Exactly.
3:24 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: So, if that's going to a really nice dinner that you all may not normally do or maybe it's having a family game night where everybody brings games and you also spend a day or an evening playing those games it might be doing something a little bit bigger as a family; if it's a family trip or weather permitting a family trip to the zoo or whatever, maybe some type of group family activity. And depending on the ages of your kiddos that could range too. You know, what my teenager would suggest is great family as great family fun activity is different than what my little one would suggest. But just really that family experience or family activity.
Again, I think so much so many of us struggle with of stuff in our house and lots of clutter in our house that can often be depressing.
4:06 Mindy McCulley: Right.
4:07 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: That by doing some of those experiences, we can also save some dollars and experience the holiday a little bit differently.
4:14 Mindy McCulley: And cut down on the knickknacks; right?
4:16 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Exactly. But realistically, we know that we're going to be buying gifts. So, when you really want to think about your Christmas holiday on a budget, is by starting with a list of all the individuals that you'll in need to buy gifts for. And not only family members, but also teachers or babysitters or special friends, whoever it may be, and then really realistically identify, “What is my holiday budget that I could spend on gift giving?” and go through and more or less assign a dollar figure of how you'd like to stay within each one of those individuals and the give that you may give them.
And then take that list with you when you shop. Again, shop ads, shop online, shop ahead, do all those money-saving things, but make certain that when you purchase that item that is within the budget that you set for that individual on the list.
5:05 Mindy McCulley: Right.
5:06 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Once we tend to kind of start spending an extra 5 or 10 here, we can really start to kind of lower our Christmas budget quickly.
5:12 Mindy McCulley: That is exactly right. I used to be someone who started my Christmas shopping at the end of the previous season.
5:19 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: My brother makes fun of me if I do that.
5:21 Mindy McCulley: But the hazard of that is that I forget that I've already gotten something or I'll be like, “Oh, it's just one more thing. No big deal”. So, we do have to be careful about that spending and make sure that we are staying within those limits.
Jennifer, I think these are all great tips and I know that we have more that we could share, probably every day; right?
5:40 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Definitely, definitely.
5:42 Mindy McCulley: Yes. So, how can we think about saving money when it comes to not only our gifts, but also our decorations and our food and our tree?
5:51 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: That is a great thing to point out is that it's not only the gifts and not only the food, but decorations. And decorations are one of those things that can easily get out of hand that, you know, we want to put a Christmas tree in every room of the house or we feel like we need a wreath on every window outside with the big Christmas lights or whatever they may be.
Again, we want to enjoy the holiday, and if decorating is part of what makes the holiday the holiday for you, I would highly encourage you go ahead and do that. But just be realistic with your budget. Are there things that you can reuse? Can you shop your local thrift stores and look for items? Can you plan ahead for the next year's Christmas holiday by shopping after Christmas this year to get those deals on decorations when they go down 75 percent a day or two after Christmas? And kind of pack those away and store them for next year.
So, really and truly, on the decorations, we want to think about reducing what we have, maybe kind of scouring the grandparents attic as well that they may have decorations left over from previous holidays that they're not using anymore that we can kind of repurpose and in to really kind of decorate in our way for the holiday and also save dollars.
7:04 Mindy McCulley: Well, and it also is a good opportunity to talk about family traditions. You know, if you're using something from Grandma’s attic, then you can share that with your children that it's an important part of your growing up as well.
7:15 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Exactly. Other things when I think about Christmas on a budget that there are a lot of additional expenses with Christmas that we tend to not figure in then we’re just looking at the cost of gifts or maybe even the cost of decorations, etc., and that would be things like holiday parties or work parties. If you do a gift exchange at work, if you're having a night party and you need to get a babysitter for the kiddos or if it is a work holiday meal, but you're still expected to pay for that bill; whatever it may be, that there are numerous additional expenses that go along with celebrating the Christmas holiday.
That when we sit down and do our initial budget, which again, I would highly encourage everyone to do and put it on paper, then we need to make certain that we're including all expenses, not just the gift-giving expenses.
8:08 Mindy McCulley: And that might even include, like we talked about with Thanksgiving, there might be travel or there might be other fees, like if you have to pay to go to production that your children are putting on for Christmas or whatever. Think about those things as well.
8:22 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: You know, if even comes down to, you know, by going to this holiday events, you need a new outfit. You know, things that can't be expensive.
And so, anything that you may encounter, again, you want to think ahead, and now's the time to be thinking ahead. Once we get to the first part of December, as soon as Thanksgiving is over with, and obviously for many, Christmas is already started before Thanksgiving is over. But definitely as soon as Thanksgiving is over with, many people are in the Christmas mindset. It’s almost too late at that point to start to try to figure out how to pay for the Christmas holiday, that we should be doing that now.
Again, you want to make that list. List all those individuals that will be giving gifts for, assign an amount that you can afford to give to them, have a conversation with family members about expectations for giving. If you do have a family gift exchange, what is the limit? With my husband's family, we have a $30 limit. So, when everyone draws a name, I know exactly, you know, we have 4 members of our family, I know that it is going to cost $120 every year for their family girt exchange. So, that's something that's very, very easy for me to budget.
9:26Mindy McCulley: Exactly.
9:27 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: So, figuring out these budgets, not only for gifts, but also for the food, the travel, the holiday parties, anything that’s extra with that kiddos that may be going on, all those expenses definitely add up and we want to do all we can to reduce them ahead of time, so that we really and truly do not get that shock in January.
9:46 Mindy McCulley: And when you have taken the time to do these this year, save it, hold on to it.
9:50 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: That is a great tip; exactly.
9:51 Mindy McCulley: And then you can plan for the whole year, what your cost might be or expected costs might be next year.
9:57 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Exactly. And that is a fantastic tip, Mindy, that once everything slows down from the holidays, go back, revisit our list and mark on there maybe you have one category that you way under budgeted and you might find another category that you way over budgeted. Make those notations on there, so that you can better plan ahead for the next year.
10:17 Mindy McCulley: Exactly. These are all great tips and I think that our listeners are going to learn a lot and enjoy Christmas a little bit more this year.
10:24 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: And I’ll tell you, it's starting to get me in the holiday season.
10:27 Mindy McCulley: That's right. We should be playing Christmas music; right?
10:29 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: We should be.
10:30 Mindy McCulley: Well, thank you for joining me. I've enjoyed taking over this role for you. I hope our listeners will join us again.
10:37 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Thanks Mindy.
10:40 Thank you for listening to Talking FACS. We deliver programs focusing on nutrition, health, resource management, family development and civic engagement. If you enjoy today's podcast, have a question or a show topic idea, leave a ‘Like’ and comment on Facebook @UKFCSExt. Visit us online at fcs.uky.edu or contact your local extension agent for Family and Consumer Sciences. We build strong families. It starts with us.
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