{"id":20218,"date":"2014-12-01T05:00:13","date_gmt":"2014-12-01T13:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amigos805.com\/?p=20218"},"modified":"2014-12-03T10:26:15","modified_gmt":"2014-12-03T18:26:15","slug":"finance-7-tips-for-keeping-holiday-budgets-and-your-holiday-spirit-intact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amigos805.com\/finance-7-tips-for-keeping-holiday-budgets-and-your-holiday-spirit-intact\/","title":{"rendered":"Finance: 7 tips for keeping holiday budgets (and your holiday spirit) intact"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_20219\" style=\"width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/amigos805.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Finance.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-20219\" class=\"size-full wp-image-20219\" title=\"Finance\" src=\"http:\/\/amigos805.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Finance-e1417631090502.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"243\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-20219\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">There are a variety of useful budget tips to help to keep the holidays happy and less stressful. Photo courtesy of Metro Editorial Services (MS)<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>By Metro Editorial Services (MS)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<h2>\u201c<em>No one is so poor that he can\u2019t give a smile, nor so rich that he doesn\u2019t need it.<\/em>\u201d \u2014 <strong>Anonymous<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Holidays are exciting \u2014 family visits and special once-a-year meals, celebrating traditions together with loved ones and watching the wonder reflected on children\u2019s faces.<\/p>\n<p>But the holidays also can be stressful, especially when budgets are stretched. Here are some easy tips to help you keep your holiday finances on track and the true spirit of the season in mind.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Create a holiday budget and stick to it. Decide ahead of time how much you are willing and able to spend on gifts.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Give the gift of yourself. Kids can create coupons for services such as helping grandmother in the kitchen, featuring homework help to siblings, or baby-sitting little brothers and sisters for an hour.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Make gifts with things you already have at home. Transform baby food jars, cans, paper bags, orphaned socks and other household items into eco-friendly presents.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 \u201cRegifting\u201d \u2014 giving someone else a gift you have received \u2014 is fine under some circumstances. However, be sure to give only new, unopened items in excellent condition and items you believe the recipient will appreciate. If you do re-gift, be sure to repackage the item in new wrapping paper or gift bag.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Make Christmas cookies, candies \u2014 or tamales \u2014 and wrap them up on a pretty holiday plate with a bow.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Emphasize \u201cgiving\u201d over buying. Don\u2019t just donate toys to a local organization; take your children to a volunteer event so they can see that while presents are fun, sharing their time is truly priceless.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Don\u2019t give in to the temptation to buy your kids everything they request.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur kids can tell us all about the \u2018latest\u2019 and the \u2018hottest\u2019 in the marketplace. They are steeped in advertising. Yet most kids really know very little about handling money,\u201d said Luis Cach\u00faa, director of multicultural markets, Northwestern Mutual. \u201cIn fact, one of the greatest gifts you can give your children is teaching them how to be financially responsible adults.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So, when you are tempted to blow your budget, remember the true meaning of the holidays \u2014 family and togetherness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Metro Editorial Services (MS) \u201cNo one is so poor that he can\u2019t give a smile, nor so rich that he doesn\u2019t need it.\u201d \u2014 Anonymous Holidays are exciting \u2014 family visits and special once-a-year meals, celebrating traditions together…<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-p\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/amigos805.com\/finance-7-tips-for-keeping-holiday-budgets-and-your-holiday-spirit-intact\/\">Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,12,1006,914,930],"tags":[2256,893,1665],"class_list":["post-20218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-education","category-family","category-finance","category-home","tag-finance","tag-holiday","tag-holiday-budget"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amigos805.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amigos805.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amigos805.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amigos805.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amigos805.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20218"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/amigos805.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20222,"href":"https:\/\/amigos805.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20218\/revisions\/20222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amigos805.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amigos805.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amigos805.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}