If you haven't yet set your holiday budget—or more likely, budgets, plural—mid-November is most certainly the time to get it done. Nothing else about the holidays will go smoothly if you don't know how much money you can comfortably spend. (Note: By "holidays," I'm specifically referring to all those special days in the six week stretch from American Thanksgiving to New Year's Day.)
You could lump together all your holiday purchases, including travel, food, gifts, and hosting expenses, but I prefer to break them out categorically. My travel budget is firm, but I have a good deal of flexibility in my food budget. When it comes to gift-giving, my per-person budget depends not only on what I can spend, but also on some ground rules that my closest family members and I discuss every year.
A few essential apps, programs, and websites can help you determine your budgets and stick to them, not matter what other holiday chaos erupts.
In past years, I used very simple Google Docs (now called Google Drive) spreadsheets to estimate what I could spend, as well as to record expenses as I incurred them. The image below shows a section of my spending-tracking spreadsheet from last year. It doesn't take too much time or effort to list what you'll need to buy, estimate how much it will cost, and adjust your line item spending up or down after you see the total.
You don't have to use Google to create a spreadsheets, of course, but if you do use another tool, I recommend syncing it online so that you can access the information anywhere, like while you're at work and planning a quick trip to the store on your way home, or when you're in the store and can't remember if you bought everything you needed.
If your budget isn't complicated, you could keep a note in your smartphone using either a note-taking app or a to-do list app, to jot down what you need to buy, how much you plan to spend, and the amount you actually spent. But you won't benefit from the mathematical functions of a spreadsheet or its inherent organizational qualities of keeping all your thoughts in neat rows and columns.
Mint.com
If you need something a little more rigid to keep you in check, the personal finance website Mint.com (free) may do the trick—but only if you already use the service (I'll explain why in a moment). Mint connects directly to your bank accounts, credit card accounts, and other financial information to help you save or spend your money appropriately. You'll get the best results if you do most of your holiday shopping with credit or debit cards because Mint will automatically categorize your charges. If you pay in cash, it's up to you to enter how you spent it. Mint also has a feature that lets you set up a special budget, and then tells you how much money you need to set aside each month for it, although now may be a little late for a holiday budget of this kind, seeing as November is already upon us.
Now, I don't recommend signing up for a brand-new Mint account solely for the purpose of creating a holiday budget because the setup and learning curve will create unnecessary work if all you really want is a way to track your holiday budget. But if you already have an account, or were planning on adopting a new personal finance app anyhow, Mint is a great solution.
Receipt Organizers
Another option is to use a receipt-organizing program to track what you spend by photographing receipts and uploading them to an account, where you can set up a "Holiday Spending" category. Shoeboxed.com is one popular solution, and while it looks free, you do have to buy "credits" to upload receipts.
NeatCloud, which works in conjunction with NeatMobile, is another solution, and it's also not free, running $5.99 per month. But it does a whole lot more than just catalog receipts, so if you've been looking for a comprehensive "digital filing cabinet" solution in addition to a way to track your holiday spending, definitely consider it.
Travel
Unfortunately, if you haven't booked air travel yet for the holidays, you're pushing your luck and your budget. An ideal time to book holiday air travel is between late August and the early October. But depending on where you need to go and how flexible you can be with your schedule, you might still get a reasonable fare.
Try Kayak's fare alert system, which lets you set up email and smartphone alerts that tell you the current price of the airfare you need, or when the price hits one you're willing to pay.
If you need to book a hotel in addition to airfare, definitely use an online booking service that can manage both simultaneously because you'll nab a much lower price by booking them together. I'm a big fan of Orbitz for packaged prices.
Hosting and Food
Hosting holiday parties can get expensive, but your budget for food and decorations is probably much more flexible than other holiday budgets you need to set. Unless you're hosting a couple of major blowout events, save budgeting your food and hosting supplies until pretty late in the game, because you can adjust it up or down depending on how some of your other budgets shape up.
If you'll be playing host or hostess, factor in contributions from your guests to offset your budget. When your friends RSVP and add, "What can I bring?" be prepared with an answer or two (my go-to answers are beverages, cheese, and dessert). Trimming a few bottles of wine off your own shopping list can help keep your own budget down considerably. Plus, people like to bring food and drinks to a party. Take them up on the offer.
The real trick in both hosting a party and budgeting for it is determining how many people will attend. And that's where technology can help. When I'm inviting fewer than 10 or so people to an event, I usually just organize the guest list by email. Social butterflies with much longer guests lists can manage the guest list with a Facebook event (not my cup of tea, but it works if your guests are avid Facebookers), or a free event planning site like Evite (yes, it's "so 2005, but again, it works) or Eventbrite. Events managed through Eventbrite can be large and public events, with ticketing options and such, but don't let that scare you off from using it to manage a 40-person holiday party. "Tickets" can be free and will effectively help you track RSVPs in one place.
Back to budgeting: Once you have your guest list in order and know roughly how many people to expect, build in a little overhead for those unexpected plus-ones. I'm terrible at the whole "buy more than you think you'll need" thing, so in times like these, I step back and send my better half to the liquor store, knowing he'll come home with double whatever I've asked him to buy.
If you're not hosting any holiday get-togethers, you're likely attending at least one, in which case offer to bring a bottle of wine or two, and factor an appropriate amount into one of your holiday budget.
Gift Shopping
Next week's Get Organized article will be about organizing holiday gift shopping, covering not only how to budget for it and track what you buy, but also sticky matters like how to collaborate with people to buy a joint gift.
Get Organized is a weekly series of articles on PCMag.com to help you keep your digital files and online life organized. Check back every Monday for new tips and tricks.
• Get Organized: 7 Ways to Automatically Organize Contacts
• Get Organized: 5 Essential Smartphone Accessories
• Get Organized: 5 Tips for Working in a
Co-Working Space
• Get Organized: 3 Easy Ways to Save Travel Info on Your Phone
• Get Organized: Wine Note-Taking for Beginners
• more