How to Live Below Your Means During the Fall Season

1. Decorations

If you are really into decorating, make sure you leave room in your budget to get those special things that are meaningful to you. Christmas lights, stockings, laurels, wreaths, all those things cost money.

What I do for my wreath is buy one nice fake wreath and then use it every season, only swapping the little things I put on it. I can go to Hobby Lobby or the Dollar Tree and get new decorations for it for a really decent cost.

Because it is green, it can work for Christmas, Easter, 4th of July, and more. The kids love decorating the wreath, too, especially my oldest. I have also been saving things that can be reused later.

2. Outings

Another thing you should definitely plan for is all those extra outings associated with holidays. The trip to the pumpkin patch is not free, but it is worth shopping around for the cheapest pumpkin patch.

For example, the self-serve ones are usually cheaper. This year, we spent $21 and got seven pumpkins and one huge one for carving. And if you do want to go for the full-fledged pumpkin patch experience, just plan for that in your budget.

For Christmas, keep in mind that Christmas parties are not free if they have gift exchanges or the white elephant. Plan and budget for those. A trick-or-treating event will also require a budget, and if you are driving to look at Christmas lights, bear in mind the extra gas costs.

4. Holidays

Do you already know what your plans are for Halloween, for Thanksgiving, for Christmas? If you are traveling, how much is that travel going to cost?

An obvious expense associated with the holiday season is gifts. In my family, we exchange some gifts at Thanksgiving and also we do that with my immediate family on Christmas. So plan ahead and budget for those.

Also try to spread out the gift shopping throughout several months, so that you do not end up spending a lot of money that one week. Think in advance about where you can get those good deals. Amazon Prime Day is a great help, for instance.

Every year I forget one category of expenses, which is photos. Whether those are photos in a photo booth at a trick-or-treating event, photos with Santa, or even getting photos taken professionally for your Christmas cards, all those cost money.

Do not forget the cost of all the stamps, too. Costco is a great place to print your photos and even cards for relatively cheap, but as soon as you start sending them and multiplying, that is a pretty penny. The rule is simple, as always – budget in advance.

5. Season changes

To make sure you live below your means and stick to your budget, always keep in mind that certain categories of expenses may change with the seasons. For example, your power bill may change. Other things that come up might be the tabs on your car, the membership to Amazon Prime, anniversaries, and birthdays.

How to live below your means during fall

These are the categories to keep an eye on this fall because otherwise, you might spend a lot of money unexpectedly. I believe that the best way to live below your means is to make sure that you anticipate every expense, and budget in advance.

Finish out your year strong with a truly frugal fall, create a good budget, and stay on track, so that you can start the new year feeling good about how everything went in 2023.

What unusual spending do you often have this season? How do you save money during the fall? Feel free to leave a comment below and share your experience!