Looking Toward the New Year
In this special end of year episode, the women of Money Funnies discuss personal finance themed gifts and plan for the new year.
One gift idea – for yourself or others – are notebooks to write down financial goals for the year, broken down by the month – plus ideas for saving money, budget information and more.
Of course, finding a way to gift this inexpensively or for free would really take the gift to the next level!
More inexpensive gift ideas that don’t require shipping at the bottom of the page.
Examples of what to write in the notebook for the start of the year:
This year I want to save _____, so each month I will save _____ /12.
I want to pay down my debt by _____, so each month I will pay off _____ /12.
An example of what to write in the notebook for the start of each month:
January
Budget at month start:
Actual spending:
Goals hit:
This month, I did this well:
Next month, I can do this better:
Other thoughts:
You can also challenge yourself, family and/or friends to take advantage of the new year for forwarding your financial goals.
Instead of Dry January, try a January Savings Sprint. December is a huge month of spending for most people, so January can be a great time to do a spending detox.
(Dry January is an idea popularized in the 2010s where people take a break from alcohol for the month, after the gluttony of the Thanksgiving through New Years season.)
This can be a great alternative to New Year’s Resolutions, which are very difficult to keep, since you aim to do it all within January.
The general idea is to go as long as possible without spending money, but there are different ways to do that.
You could try to not spend any money for a week, or try not to spend any money every Tuesday and Thursday, whatever you think would be most exciting for you.
Once you pick a style for your spending detox, planning ahead is important to making it work.
Check to see you have everything you’ll really need ahead of time (esp. medicine), and then challenge yourself to make do with things you don’t.
Meal planning, including buying foods that don’t go bad quickly, will go a long way toward meeting this goal.
A spending detox can also be a great opportunity to empty the freezer, especially if you filled it with leftovers after holiday meals. Read more about my Eat Up My Kitchen Challenge.