The Monster Spending Season Is Beginning

The Monster Spending Season Is Beginning

Throughout the year, I have blogged about spending and misspending. About being wise about where your money goes and not to let your credit cards run away with you. This is the season to create a Gifting Budget. To make a list—with names to give to and the what you would like to give. To keep your eyes peeled but special buys.

As this month unfolds, the biggest Spending Season of all rolls out. I know, I know, the reality is that it seems we are always in one kind of spending season or another! Birthdays, Back to School. Kids out growing their shoes. But the Holidays … it’s the spending monster time.

Soon, Amazon will bubble up it’s Prime Days … Use them. I’ve found items with deep discounts during this time that bubble up when I put the type of product in Amazon’s search box and waited to see what popped up. You did know that Amazon is the #3 search engine, behind Google as #1 and YouTube as #2.

During Amazon’s  Prime days—remember Black Friday—which sometimes starts the Monday before for bargain hunters … and Cyber Monday for digital and electronic stuff. You may be able to score an amazing deal.

I was the oldest of four children—two girls and two boys. Our mother made my sister's and my clothes  and her own clothes as well. But those, then,  were the days of stay-at-home moms. In many families, it was assumed that mothers were seamstresses and masters at everyday clothes and the coveted Halloween custom. A coveted possession was a Singer sewing machine.

Today’s moms aren’t. Many hold down full-time jobs, are the driver of the car pool … and buy most clothes commercially. The arts and crafts and DIY markets are alive and well … just not for making every day clothes.

What this all means is that times will continue to evolve and change. Where in the past, many items were “homemade” … and certainly Christmas time, Mother’s and Father’s days brought out items from kids—most will gift others through shopping. Online and In-person.

Which means you really must plan ahead! This is the season to create a Gifting Budget. To make a list. Check it twice … and promise yourself you will stick to it.

Patricia Lane Williams is a retired CPA and has worked with thousands of men and women sounding the warnings. She is the author of the Amazon bestseller, Money: Get It. Save It. Grow It … Before Debt Steals It. It’s her first book in the Four Corners Prosperity series. Her website is www.PatWilliamsAuthor.com.

Spending Seasons … the Big One Is Coming!

Spending Seasons …  the Big One Is Coming!

Rapidly, we  coming onto another spending season. The … Big … ONE!

Throughout the year, there are many selected spending seasons: back to school, special occasions like anniversaries and birthdays, Memorial weekend, Veterans Day, Mothers and Father’s Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, weddings …and of course, the BIG ONE: Christmas

Retail stores shout out specials and deals. I always tune into Memorial Day weekend events—it’s because my local garden stores like Home Depot and Lowe’s have amazing discounts on bags of mulch for the garden … as in five for $10 versus the usual $4 for each! Who doesn’t want to get a true two for one?

All such occasions may hit you were hurts, in your wallet and credit card and the wrong time. Just as you think you are getting your financial life in order, paying off your credit cards and charge accounts along comes a birthday or an anniversary or a special occasion in your workplace. The basket or hat emerges and YOU are expected to add something for the special occasion kitty from your coworkers.. And everybody chips in.

At the accounting firm where I got my experience for my CPA license as a newbie accountant, the partners gave the secretarial staff a “kitty” to cover special occasions. The partners actually funded it, so no one had to pull from their own wallets. It was a welcomed benefit for all of us who were just starting out and living on the month-to-month plan.

As you make a list of all the things that need to go into your budget remember to make room for Spending Seasons. And if the basket gets passed to you in your workplace, if you can only add $2, that’s what you add. You don’t need to put yourself into a financial bind.

And a suggestion … create a special place that you can build a “stash” for occasions. One of my friends had a large 5-gallon water container that he dropped all coins and one-dollar bills into. He did it for 18 years from the day of his daughter’s birth … enough money was stashed to funded her first year of college.

Patricia Lane Williams, is a retired CPA has worked with thousands of men and women sounding the warnings. She is the author of the Amazon bestseller, Money: Get It. Save It. Grow It … Before Debt Steals It. It’s her first book in the Four Corners Prosperity series. Her website is www.PatWilliamsAuthor.com.