Coping with Holiday Bills

Mental Health Tidbits and Tools

‘Tis the season for us to celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, or Kwanza. Maybe you don’t subscribe to a religious tradition but still celebrate the holiday season. These can be beautiful, stressful, anguished times. Usually the celebrations involve gifts and food and events– all leading to increased spending.

The turn of the new year is everyone’s chance to evaluate our life choices, our situations, our values. And, sometimes painfully, our finances.

We get a sobering look at our spending and possible debt during this season (if we look at our bank account or credit cards!). If we have not made a budget beforehand or monitored our spending, our financial situation can be shocking and discouraging.  Suddenly the holiday “high” sinks into a “low.” Over shopping is related to problem gambling. And some may gamble more, hoping falsely to get money to pay bills.

How do we manage our holiday bills, or bills anytime of the year for that matter?

Step 1 is Awareness. Awareness is key to managing our financial situation.  Even if the awareness leads to painful realizations, the only way through – is to go through it. We may feel shocked, we may feel depressed, we may feel anxious or panicked.  But we need to look – what do our bank accounts look like? What about the cash in the house? What credit card balances do we have? What other loans do we have?  What is upcoming? Next week, next month?

Step 2 is Making a plan for payment. Look first at what bills are absolutely necessary to pay.  Rent, mortgage, food, insurance, utility bills.  Find out minimum payments on credit cards.  Add up all the necessities.  Then see what might be left to go towards credit card payments.  Some people like to pay off the lowest balance first, to feel a sense of success sooner.  In this blog we cannot cover all financial strategies but having a plan makes all of us feel better.

Step 3 is planning for How to manage situations or emotions which lead us to overspending or gambling.  We need to limit our expenditures. You may want to consider abstinence (not going to the store or to the casino) or putting away your credit cards, or setting up predetermined limits.  Knowing yourself, and what gets you excited will help you avoid situations which may lead to more shopping or gambling.  Again, this is a topic that deserves a lot more discussion!

Step 4 is to Implement your plan. Planning is one thing; following our plan is another.  If we look at everything we need to do, we may get overwhelmed.  Staying focused on one or two actions at a time will help prevent overwhelm! Then, celebrate your small steps or successes.  Celebrate that you avoided the casino or the store.  Celebrate that you made a payment on a credit card and that your balance decreased.  It gets this simple, even if it seems silly.  Seeing our success will help us stay the course.

Finally, DO NOT LOSE HOPE.  We all have challenges in our life. Get the support you need. If you have a less hopeful day, talk to someone who can encourage you.  Our problems are not usually solved overnight.  Find your cheerleaders and find your resources.  Peopleworks is here to support you if you think you may have a problem with gambling or shopping.