A Cure for Your Holiday Spending Hangover?

There is a special holiday tradition that almost every Canadian observes.

• It’s more common than drinking eggnog
• It’s more widespread than stringing festive lights outside the house
• And it’s way more expensive than building a snowman

It’s overspending.

The temptation to overspend is overwhelming during the holidays.

And most Canadians do not resist that temptation.

An Experian survey found ...

56% of people say they spend too much during the holiday

55% of people feel stressed about their finances during the holidays

43% said the extra expense makes the holidays hard to enjoy

31% said they have gone into debt from unexpected holiday expenses.

And a survey by MagnifyMoney.com found the average American added over $1000 to their credit card balances last holiday season!

All this makes for quite a post-holiday hangover!

So, how much did you overshoot your holiday budget?

Did all of that overspending wind up on your Visa and Mastercards?

If you maxed out a card or two, then I have a great New Year’s resolution for you.

Use more cheques!

And using more cheques in January is a really smart move.

You can ease the "cash flow" crunch on your bank account by taking advantage of the mailing time and the "float" time.

And you won’t put any additional strain on your credit card balances...and your credit score!

In fact, cheques might be the smartest way to pay for everything in January.

And February.

And March.

And April.