04/12/2024
🎄Christmas tips to stay in control of the holiday stress and budget ⤵️
1. Use cash if you want to spend less money. Yes, you may lose out on some rewards dollars and points, but you will probably end up saving more money than your rewards dollars in points would give you because letting go of the cash is harder than swiping the card. 💸
2. Try to shop when there are fewer people shopping because more people shopping means lines are longer. For every minute extra you spend in the store, there is an average increase of $1.78 that goes out of your pocket. There’s a reason that stores will only have two or three cashiers when there’s 30 people in line and there’s all those $30 goodies to look at as you wait in line. simply being aware of the money making ploy to get you to part with every quarter and dollar may help you ward off those unnecessary or over priced lipsticks, candles, holiday tchotchkes.
3. If you have vacation time, use it to take a half day or one day off in the middle of the week early in the holiday season to do shopping, decorate, or just sleep in to decompress the holiday stress.
4. It’s OK to say no to all those holiday parties. 👎🏼 It’s OK to taper down to just a few or one or even less if they cause you more stress than the joy that your nostalgic mind anticipates.
5.  When asked what you’d like for Christmas, perhaps requesting a gift of an experience rather than a gift of a dust collector would be more beneficial. Something like a pottery class, blanket making class, cooking class or fitness class would be more impactful than another pair of oven gloves. You will also end up more capable in a new skill. 🫕👨🍳🏋🏽♀️
6. If a family has kids, perhaps some “coupons” to cash in during the year for free babysitting.
7. Go for a walk. 🚶🏽♀️There is a lot of cozy in-home time we love to spend to decompress. But it’s viral season and rather than spend all that healthy “decompress” time indoors, boost your immune system by taking some 30 minute brisk walks. The natural killer cells that act as the first defense when exposed to bugs and viruses go up by 40% with a 30 minute walk. You may prevent indoor time being sick by spending outdoor time while you are well. 🤧
8. Go out of your way to spend a few moments of the holiday season with an elderly person. 👴🏻 They are often “community deprived” because of ailments or frailty. Have them tell you a story of something from their past that you could learn from. You both will be blessed. 👵🏽
9. Go to bed when you are tired. You need rest and burning it at both ends with early mornings and late nights is only going to contribute to stress and fatigue. And you are more likely to eat more junk food and get a cold or flu when you aren’t well rested. Think your not tired? Turn every tv, light and digital device off. Sit in the dark for 5 minutes and see if you can fall asleep. Don’t fight the sleep. Just take the nap. 😴
10. The most important thing…
Keep Jesus the reason for the season. Ask Him to help you prioritize your time, guide your purchases, orchestrate your interactions and give you true peace through the season. ✝️
