November is winding down, and it is just a few days to the famous and highly anticipated "Detty December". Of course, it is the month of vibrant celebrations, non-stop events, family gatherings, and a well-deserved splurging after a year of hard work.
As much as we all want to enjoy detty December celebrations, we have to admit that it lives up to its name; yes, it leaves many bank accounts dirty with debt by January, and most would start to wonder why January is so long. Maybe it is not so long, and you have just spent all your money.
This has probably been happening for a while, but this year, you deserve better, so let us do this. We are setting up a guide to help you have a debt and stress-free December by making and following through on intentional and well-thought-out decisions.
You still have time to secure financial wins and enjoy a great round of celebration without worrying about possible post-holiday debt. You can have a fantastic, memorable, responsible, and clean detty December. Here is how:
1. Audit Your Accounts
The first thing for you to do before making any holiday move is to do an audit; it is sort of a power move. Many people make the mistake of saying they would wait till January or the end of December to see the total damage they have done to their finances, but it need not be so. If you do it now, you can determine exactly how much you can afford to spend on December activities without touching your emergency savings or incurring new debt.
All you need to do is set apart an hour this week to create a December budget; it can be either digital or physical, whichever works best for you. As you do that, assign a strict, non-negotiable limit for each activity or thing you might need.
You can go further with this by injecting more money into your overall budget. Try selling a few of your unused items; there are many digital platforms for that. That serves the purpose of a pre-new-year decluttering and gets you more money to allocate to more fun things.
2. Strategic Celebration
Detty December is about having the most fun, and if you throw a little bit of strategy into the mix, you can maximise your fun while minimising financial impact. There is a rule that works with this; it is called the First In, First Out rule. It means that you prioritise, pay for, or spend on the most important events first, and when the limit is reached, you decline any other offers along that line. You do not want to be broke and average at 10 events, when you can be at your 100 at 3 events.
Another way to get strategic with your celebration is to save on gifts. Gifts could be one of the biggest cash drains, but if you get more intentional with them, you can save some money. You start to tend more towards experiential gifts, DIYs, and even suggest secret Santas to put a cap on how much each person gets to spend. Creative and budget-friendly.
Prepare for a Beautiful January
The essence of the clean detty December is to make sure you also have a beautiful January set up for success. By following these tips, you get to have a cushion for January expenses, no matter how long the month chooses to become.
You do not have to sacrifice fun, you only empower yourself to stay fun when December is done being detty.