As many people are aware, there are certain times in everyone’s lives when it is extremely difficult to save money. For instance, when a relative or close friend is getting married, it is almost impossible to avoid spending large sums of money on gifts, wedding attire, travel expenses, and other costs. In addition, the holiday season is another time when it is extremely difficult to save money. Whether it is purchasing presents, or traveling to visit family, it can be hard to meet financial goals around the holidays. However, surviving the holidays with student loans can be a little easier if you keep a few things in mind.
During my student debt repayment saga, I always had difficulty meeting my financial goals and staying within my budgets during the holiday season. My biggest expenses during this time were presents for relatives, travel costs, and fees to attend some holiday events. I generally used the same methods already mentioned on this website to be frugal and attempt to limit the amount of money I spent on unneeded items.
However, in many instances, I disregarded my budgets and spent more money than I probably should have around the holidays on presents and event fees. As mentioned in a prior article, experiences and your relationships with friends and family are things that transcend finances in some instances. One of the biggest regrets I have about my student debt repayment saga is that I didn’t make time for my family and maintain relationships as much as I should have. The holiday season is the perfect time to make memories and strengthen bonds with people who are close to you.
As a result, the first thing you should keep in mind about surviving the holidays with student loans is that it is okay to shell out more money that you typically do during the rest of the year. The holidays are only an annual occurrence, and spending a little more money during this season is likely not going to have a huge impact on your financial goals. The relationships you strengthen by purchasing holiday gifts and by shelling out money to attend events will likely be worth the additional cash you spend during this season.
However, there are certain ways you can save money during the holidays. It might sound cheap, but when surviving the holidays with student loans, it can sometimes be in everyone’s best interest not to purchase presents for one another, and to rather have other more meaningful experiences with people who are important to you.
For instance, my brothers and myself never really exchanged presents during the holidays, although I know of other families in which siblings give each other presents during the holiday season. All of my brothers and myself had financial pressures while attending school and shortly after graduating, and most of my brothers were paying back massive amounts of student debt for most of our young adult lives.
Rather than purchase presents for each other, my brothers and myself just had an understanding that we would not purchase gifts for one another around the holidays. In this way, all of us saved money that we might have used to purchase presents. This agreement helped us manage our financial situations, and decreased the amount of stress we experienced around the holidays.
I think it is appropriate to have a similar arrangement among family so that no one has financial tension around the holidays that they might not face if they needed to purchase presents. When you really think about it, the holiday season has become extremely commercialized, and exchanging presents is not necessarily the best way to celebrate the spirit of the holidays. Indeed, I never really thought that our holiday experience was cheapened by our efforts at surviving the holidays with student loans.
Rather than exchanging presents, my brothers and myself have a number of traditions about meeting up with each other around the holidays and enjoying each other’s company. My brothers and myself usually meet up on the evening before Thanksgiving, and on that night, we typically go to a bunch of bars in an area close to where we all live. I have very fond memories of past meetups with my brothers on Thanksgiving Eve, and these experiences are perhaps more meaningful to me than any gifts my brothers could have purchased for me.
In addition, my brothers and myself all usually meet up on Christmas, and during this holiday we watch a movie or two in the theaters and grab dinner. We usually spend the weeks leading up to Christmas deciding upon which movies to see, and it is typically a lot of fun to have this time together with each other. In many ways, these experiences and the memories that we created from them are more valuable than any present I have received. From my own experience, surviving the holidays with student loans can be easier if you find such meaningful ways to appreciate family other than gifting presents.
In the end, not exchanging presents with my brothers likely saved me and my family hundreds of dollars in presents each season that we did not need to purchase. I never felt like I was missing out from not receiving gifts, since I forged valuable memories, and had meaningful experiences with family instead. The holiday season has gotten extremely commercialized in recent years, and the pressure of purchasing presents for friends and loved ones around the holidays is incredible. Nevertheless, if you find more valuable ways to appreciate your relatives other than purchasing presents, surviving the holidays with student loans can be much easier.