Student Life | Issue 40

MY MONEY
CO-EDITOR ADRIANNA GNIFKA
How To Successfully
Budget and Prepare
Yourself for Christmas
BY ADRIANNA GNIFKA
Whether you are making Christmas a
low-key affair this year or still going all
out despite the possible limitations of
a pandemic, it’s a well-known fact that
Christmas involves a lot of planning.
Though the main purpose of this
article is to help you gain control of
your finances during a time of year
when all that we as consumers do
is spend, a lot of what I will mention
can be applied to any part of your
life at any time (not just Christmas),
since most of it comes down to
organisation and planning.
The first and probably most
important rule of budgeting for
anything is to grab a pen and some
paper, or even the notes app on your
phone and make lists. Personally,
lists are something that I live by - to
the point that if you walked into my
room you would find many post-it
notes with numerous and endless
to-do lists. Even my phone is filled
with hundreds of things in the notes
app that need to be deleted. Do they
always help? Possibly not, due to
my own procrastination, but when it
comes to budgeting there is nothing
I could recommend more. Budgeting
with lists especially around Christmas
is something I’ve been doing these
past few years and has worked for me
without fail, keeping me on track with
my spending since I would tick things
off as I bought them. When used in
combination with an online banking
app, it makes sure that you don’t
go over your limits or get carried
away with Christmas shopping – my
weaknesses are always the cute little
stocking fillers that add up to way too
much.
69 69 ••MY MARCH MONEY 2019 • STUDENT LIFE