Welcome to this week’s newsletter – It’s Mariah Carey season!! This week’s newsletter contains a juicy secret to save on holiday shopping 💸, a newsworthy story about the impending travel costs ✈️, and Taylor’s tool for staying thankful🙏. Read more to get the priceless tea!
🤫Let’s fill you in on the secret
Christmas is a time of year when you have to think about spending money. If you’re not careful, it can be easy to overspend on gifts and end up with a ton of debt. The good news is, there are plenty of ways to save money while still enjoying the holiday season. In this post, we’ll show you how to get through Christmas without spending all your money on presents or other expenses.
Avoid Interest Charges.
If you’re carrying a balance on your credit card, interest charges can be very costly. Interest rates on credit cards range from 8% to 30%, which means that if you carry a balance of $1,000 for one year at the average 15% rate, you’ll pay about $150 in interest.
Avoiding interest charges is a good way to save money and keep more money in your pocket. If your goal is to save money for Christmas 2022, it’s important to avoid wasting any extra cash by paying off all of your purchases as soon as possible so that they don’t accrue any more debt or any additional fees
Set a Budget.
Setting a budget is the first and most important step to saving money for Christmas. You need to decide how much you can afford to spend on Christmas before you start buying gifts for family and friends. As you might expect, the more money you have in savings, the more generous your gifts can be this year.
Setting a Budget
There are three basic ways of setting a budget:
- Set a dollar amount that works for your family – this method allows some room for flexibility when purchasing gifts for children or grandchildren who may not yet have their own credit cards.
- Set an amount based on household income – if both parents work full time, many families will choose this option because they know exactly what they earn each month based on paychecks (or paystubs). This means there will be little room left over after mortgage/rent payments, utilities, and other bills are paid since taxes must also be taken out of every paycheck as well (for those who don’t get paid weekly or bi-weekly). However, if one spouse works part-time then it will probably make sense to go with option number one instead since we’d still want some kind of cushion there just in case something unexpected happens during those lean months when only one parent is working full-time while caring for children at home such as illness or school conferences which would require taking off work unexpectedly.”
Shop Around For Gifts.
- Shop Around For Gifts.
- Look at different stores for the same product, because prices can vary greatly between them. You may find the same brand of toy for $5 less at one store than at another. If you want to save money this Christmas, then shop around and compare prices before making your purchase.
- Look at different products in each store as well; many stores sell similar items but with different designs or features on them that make some more expensive than others.
- When it comes to size, shape, and color variations could also make a big difference in how much you spend on an item this Christmas season! This is especially true if you’re buying clothes or other accessories like shoes or jewelry for someone else—the right style goes a long way toward showing someone that they’re valued!
Get Competitive.
- Get competitive. If you’re buying a gift for someone who is hard to shop for, or you just can’t decide what to give them, then try getting competitive with the prices of gifts. Search online for the same item and compare prices on different websites.
- Buy in bulk for a discount! If you’re going to buy something anyway, why not save money by buying it in bulk? You might be surprised at how much money this can save you!
- Use cashback sites like Swagbucks (https://www.swagbucks) and Cashbackholic (https://www.cashbackholic). These two sites allow users to earn points by completing offers on their website and then redeem those points for cash back on their next purchase through them (or another site).
Make Gifts By Hand.
- Handmade gifts show your love and care for the recipient. A handmade gift shows how much you care about your loved ones, from the time you spent thinking about them and making their gift to the effort it takes to make something beautiful.
- Handmade gifts help others by providing jobs to people in need of work. You can find many charities that will teach you how to make a craft and donate proceeds from sales of the craft items or products made from these crafts directly back into those charities helping others around the world.
- Handmade gifts are creative outlets for those who have ideas they want to bring into reality but don’t have money or time due to financial constraints or other priorities like schoolwork or volunteering opportunities that take up much more time than most people would like during this season, especially when dealing with Christmas cheer all around us!
Limit Christmas Shopping To One Day.
If you can’t stick to one day, try to limit your shopping time. The average retail worker has one hour for lunch. If you’re able to skip lunch, that’s an extra hour of shopping time for you! When it comes to the weekends, spend a few hours at home on Saturday and Sunday mornings picking up last-minute items like wrapping paper or Christmas cards.
📰 In the news
Flying home for the holidays is going to be a bit more expensive this year.
Flying during the holidays is more expensive in 2022. Holiday airfares are on the rise, and with them, so are hotel prices. But why? Well, it’s simple: airlines and hotels both raise their prices during this time of year. Flying to see your family is already expensive—it costs $100+ just to get through security! That’s why you may have to make some compromises if you want to save money on holiday travel. Here are some tips:
Why is flying to see your family more expensive than it was a year ago?
The price of airline tickets is set by airlines, based on the amount they think they can demand in order to fill their planes. Hotels are also raising prices during the holidays because they have more people staying in them and they know guests will pay whatever price they ask for.
The reason why this is happening is that the economy is doing well, so there are more people traveling during the holidays than ever before. Also, the dollar has been strong against other currencies for several years now, making it cheaper for Americans to travel abroad but harder for foreign visitors to come here. There’s a lot of competition among airlines and hotels around this time of year because people want to spend as much time with their families as possible!
Holiday costs are high across the entire travel industry.
Holiday costs are high across the entire travel industry. Hotels have been raising prices to make up for lost business during the recession, and airlines are doing the same. The result is a 17% increase in holiday costs for 2022 compared to 2021.
Airlines and hotels are both raising their prices.
It’s no secret that airlines are raising their prices as a way to stay competitive with each other. And they’re doing it because they can. Airline executives know that people have no choice but to fly during the holidays, so they’ll take advantage of this by increasing their own prices. The same goes for hotels: if you need a place to stay while on vacation (or business trip), then what else is there but hotels? They have you right where they want you—and they know it!
And so do we all: at the mercy of these businesses who are raising their own rates just because they can get away with it.
There are a few things that you can do to save money on holiday travel, but you may have to make some compromises.
There are a few things you can do to save money on holiday travel, but you may have to make some compromises.
- Consider flying at off-peak hours. Flying during the holidays is more expensive because there are more people traveling, and airlines know this. They charge more for flights during peak travel times because they know it is likely that you will pay it in order to get where you need to go when you need to be there. However, if you can fly either earlier or later than usual (or even outside of the peak travel time), it will be cheaper for them and cheaper for you as well!
- Consider booking a flight that is not direct. A direct flight means less stops along the way, so airlines charge less money because they don’t have as many expenses associated with those stops (such as paying airport staff and fuel costs). If possible, take advantage of indirect routes since they’ll be cheaper while still keeping your holiday plans intact!
Book your tickets early.
The best way to find cheap flights is to book your ticket early. The earlier you book, the more likely it is that prices will drop! But how early should you book? The answer depends on how much flexibility you need with your travel plans:
- If you can wait until the last minute, then wait until 11 pm on Christmas Eve before booking. This is when most flights are full and last-minute discounts will be at their highest!
- If waiting until 11 pm on Christmas Eve isn’t an option for you (because of work or school), then make sure that everything else is ready to go before buying a plane ticket. If this means confirming hotels and rental cars, then do so as soon as possible so they don’t fill up while waiting for your reservation confirmation emails from various vendors.
- For those who like planning ahead, there’s no harm in buying tickets six months in advance but keep in mind that there may be some changes between now and then which could result in cheaper fares so don’t feel compelled to buy too far ahead just yet
If you’re booking for late December, consider booking in January or February.
If you’re booking for late December, consider booking in January or February.
If you’re flying on the weekend of Christmas or New Year’s Eve—or any day around those holidays—it’s important to keep a few things in mind. The most obvious is that there will be fewer flights available and more people vying for them. (You can check airline schedules in greater detail here.) This means that airlines are likely to charge higher prices and sell out faster than usual. But there are also some other things you can do to increase your chances of getting where you need to go:
- Make sure your return flight isn’t too close to departure time; otherwise, there’s a good chance it’ll get canceled due to weather problems or another unexpected issue that requires an immediate response from pilots and other crew members who need time off as well as the adequate time between trips without having their planes grounded due to maintenance issues.* Book direct flights if possible; this reduces overall travel time.* Consider booking in advance so that if anything goes wrong during your trip (like bad weather), then there aren’t many people waiting around trying desperately not to give up hope yet!
Try to fly during off-peak hours, particularly on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Eve.
If you’re looking to save some money, consider flying during off-peak hours. The airlines know that most people will be busy with family and friends on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, so they raise their prices for these days. On the other hand, Tuesday through Thursday tend to be less expensive since fewer people are traveling during those days.
Consider checking alternative airports.
You may find that the cost of your flight is significantly lower if you book from a different airport. This can be true even when you’re flying to the same destination, and it’s worth checking out before you commit to your initial choice.
For example, let’s say that you want to fly from Newark Airport (EWR) in New York City to San Francisco International Airport (SFO), which is located about an hour outside of town. The price of these flights could be anywhere from $200-$700 cheaper if they’re booked just one day earlier or later than usual because of heavy competition among airlines at these airports and the fact that they’re not close-by destinations for each other—it’s hard to get customers who have no reason whatsoever while they’re there!
🧰 This Week in Taylor’s Toolkit
I love my new gratitude journal! I recently got this over Thanksgiving (no pun intended with being grateful or thankful) – it just so happened that I was seeking to have more clarity on my memories, particularly happy ones! A gratitude journal is a great way to improve your mental health. It can help you feel happier and more grateful, which has been shown to have a positive effect on your brain. This has truly been super impactful to take the time every single day and think about what I’m grateful for. It starts off the day positively and uplifts the rest of the day.!
