This is the time of merry making and being happy and enjoying the celebrating with family and friends. Months before this festive time, the shopping spree begins among family members. And at this point, people spend blindly and on impulse, unaware of the fact that their credit debts can get sky high, meaning they will be paying for their credit for long after Christmas.
This is not intended to dispel your excitement during this festive season, but to help you get away from all the troubles caused due to extreme usage of credit cards. Earlier, when there were no credit cards, people still used to shop and enjoy Christmas. In fact they used to enjoy it more and were more satisfied with whatever they had. But, with people depending on credit cards, their needs and wants have also increased.
The cliche is “I can’t do without my credit card.” People just can’t imagine life without credit cards. So, let’s see how you can enjoy the festive season without credit cards:
- Get rid of unwanted stuff: There are always loads of unwanted and old stuff in everyone’s house, which is lying there unused. Get rid of all that stuff and, whatever money you get, you can save it for the future or can use for the holidays.
- DIY decorations: People spend a bomb on the decoration of the house during the Christmas period which is not wrong. To get you into a holiday mood, it’s common to decorate the house. But what if the decorations are hand made by you. This is the best time to utilize your holiday and spend time with the family, instead of wasting time and money shopping around. Prepare and make your own decorations.
- Utilize the discounts and coupons: This is the time when you have lots of offers, discounts and coupons available for shopping so make the maximum use of these discount coupons and try to spend as little as you can.
- Shop with cash: The best alternative is to shop with cash. When it is cash, you have a track of how much you have been spending and are more aware of what your budget is, unlike with credit cards, where you hardly have any track of your expenses. Using cash will also pull you back from buying things which are not that necessary which you would have bought, had you had a credit card.
- Make a list: When shopping around, make a list of items required and try only to buy those items. This again will help you keep a track of your purchases
- Think before you buy: “Oh! That dress is so pretty. Those shoes are beautiful, I want them.” Is this the feeling you get when you go out shopping? You have to think before you go ahead and buy them. Think, “Do you really need it?” It’s not indispensable that every holiday means that you have to buy a new dress and a new pair of shoes. You can always use an old dress, which you have hardly used. Buying on sudden impulse is also something which forces you to use your credit card. So if you stop that urge, you can do without credit cards this Christmas.
With the festive season round the corner, it becomes difficult to curb your expenses and stop the urge to shop or travel. One can always help curb the usage of credit card to the max and still have a blast.
All in all, the usage of credit cards is up to you, but you have to always watch your expenses when shopping around. Otherwise, you have to bear the consequences later.