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Health & Fitness

Budget Mondays

Monday – 12/16/2013

It’s Monday – a painful day for most people, yours truly included. Sometimes it is made even more painful as we remember just how much money we ended up spending over the weekend.

Budget

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It’s one word that can make people cringe, angry and sad all at the same time, a rare occurrence indeed. There are plenty of reasons for this – people are told at work that their budgets are being cut, their ideas cannot be funded because they are not in the budget, and in our personal life, our budgets don’t usually quite match up to our desires.

It is (9) nine days until Christmas, and as the holiday begins to loom over nearly every aspect of life, it is easy to feel overwhelmed. Procrastinators and very busy people (including yours truly) alike can begin to feel the squeeze of pressure to get the holiday shopping done on time. With all of the pressure and expectations that go along with the holiday season, especially as Christmas inches closer and closer, it becomes easier and easier to succumb to easy decisions and to abandon budgetary discipline.

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It doesn’t have to be that way!

We have been going over various ways to help make your holidays budget friendly since Thanksgiving — entertaining, shopping, and activities have all been mentioned, as well as ways to spread some holiday cheer. This week, let’s look at some tips to help maintain control over your budget during this last-minute holiday shopping sprint:

•Shop online– most, if not all retailers, have Christmas-guaranteed delivery up to a few days before Christmas.

•Use gift cards and personalized knick-knacks to help fill out your gifts and add a personal touch to your presents.

•Set a time and monetary budget and stick to it — much like holiday candles and music make guests linger, stores often will have these same themes playing to try to make customers linger.

•Take advantage of the deep discounts offered by retailers as they try to clear out the holiday merchandise.

Happy Reading!

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=86850

http://www.post-gazette.com/business/finance/2013/12/15/Last-minute-holiday-shopping-tips/stories/201312150094

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