Christmas is undoubtedly the most anticipated and planned festive season of the year; beyond its association with the Christian religion celebration, it also marks the end of the year, which then provides an opportunity for people to reflect on their experience throughout the year and have some form of fun; however, this celebration often leads to overspending, leaving many broke thereafter, which is a frustrating way to begin the new year. Personally, I took conscious effort to avoid such a financial hangover, and today I'll be sharing my strategy of sailing through it with you.
To be fair, I must say that at a point in time, I was among the set of people who usually went broke after Christmas, and trust me, it can be very annoying to be in such a state at the beginning of the year, and that's why you'll see loads of people complain about how long January is, as though it has more than 31 days like other months do. I believe the main reason it looks so long is because a lot of them are broke, and being broke usually makes it look like we've 48 hours in a day and not 24 hours.
After facing that challenge year in and year out, I had no choice but to seek a lasting solution to not being broke after the Christmas celebration. It's not like I'm a heavy spender, but then traveling home and meeting family members and young ones is just a way of taking money from you than you've planned to spend: from needs arising to tipping the young ones and the likes, but after facing the repercussions of overspending, I sat myself down and came up with this strategy that has been helping me till date. I can't say for sure that it will work for you, but if you give it a try, then you'll be thankful at the end of the celebrations.
Since I always travelled home for Christmas to be celebrated with my family and loved ones, one of the strategies I implemented to not overspend was to withdraw some fiat from my bank, then take the hard currency to my house and keep it somewhere safe. Doing this means since the money isn't in my bank account, then I won't have any access to it when travelling home, and with that, I'll have no choice but to strictly live by the budget of what I've left in my account when travelling home.
Usually I tend to leave behind enough money that'll take me to and from the village and enough to give to young ones and as well contribute to the Christmas celebration. This way I can't spend more than enough since I didn't travel with everything I have, and I can't say I'll withdraw it from the bank. Actually, I first hide the money in my bank, but the first time I tried it, I found myself still overspending and then using my ATM to withdraw what I intended on saving for after Christmas.
But since that particular experience, that's when I opted for withdrawing what'll be enough to sustain me after Christmas and hiding it inside my house before travelling, and since then I've learnt to work strictly with the budget of all I can access when travelling, forgetting completely about what I hide at home, because it's meant to keep me going when I return home and to sail through the first month of the new year.
All photos are taken and edited on canva.