{"id":49945,"date":"2025-12-02T11:16:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T11:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/49945\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T11:16:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T11:16:07","slug":"students-plan-to-budget-for-high-holiday-expenses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/49945\/","title":{"rendered":"Students plan to budget for high holiday expenses"},"content":{"rendered":"

By the beginning of December, the holiday season is in full swing, bringing more responsibilities for college students in the midst of finals and rising costs of living.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Money can be tight for students all year round, but especially during the holiday months of November and December. Since April<\/a>, prices across the U.S. have been steadily rising<\/a>, making necessities like groceries<\/a> more expensive and leftover money for holiday gifts<\/a> slim. Due to these factors, many students are planning to make homemade gifts or spend less on personal expenses to keep this holiday season affordable on a college budget.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Janet McLaughlin, associate director of Pitt Financial Wellness<\/a>, said students trying to keep shopping costs low should try their best to make a realistic budget.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEstablish a benchmark. How much are you thinking about spending from the start and how can you stick to it?\u201d McLaughlin said. \u201cPrices are going up. It\u2019s one of those things where money when you\u2019re in school isn\u2019t always that available.\u201d<\/p>\n

Holiday gifts don\u2019t always have to be expensive or even cost anything. McLaughlin said she recommends crafts, volunteering and buying generic gifts in order to keep costs inexpensive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think when you go into a gift for any occasion, it\u2019s from the heart,\u201d McLaughlin said. \u201cSometimes I think folks are afraid to do homemade things, but I think it\u2019s more appreciated, because you are putting more time into that. Especially when you\u2019re in college and you don\u2019t really have that much time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dalton Klein, a senior political science and Russian major, said since coming to college, they mostly give homemade gifts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not buying Christmas gifts,\u201d Klein said. \u201cI\u2019m just making things using whatever I can, but most of the people in my life understand that we\u2019re not really giving each other gifts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rachel McGregor, a senior communication and rhetoric major, said each gift she gives doesn\u2019t need to be overly expensive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI utilize the Pitt Pantry<\/a> for my food so I can save money to buy gifts,\u201d McGregor said. \u201cI\u2019ve learned it doesn\u2019t have to be a big gift. It can just be a thing of candy and a nice message to say, \u2018Hey, I\u2019m thinking about you during the holidays.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

McLaughlin said giving the \u201cgift of time\u201d is something her office really recommends for college students.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of going out and buying gifts for everybody, plan a get-together,\u201d McLaughlin said. \u201cMaybe do a meal, and everybody brings something, and then you get that gift of time, opposed to an actual gift.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGregor said for the past few years she has chosen to cook Christmas dinner for her family rather than buying actual gifts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll actually go buy real food instead of just canned goods, and I\u2019ll cook dinner for them as my appreciation because I think eating a meal together is very family-esque,\u201d McGregor said.<\/p>\n

Anna Von Gaudecker, a junior political science and international relations major, practices monthly budgeting year-round, which she said becomes especially important during the holiday months.<\/p>\n

\u201cI usually plan a budget every month, and then, according to each month, I\u2019ll adjust things. Like Thanksgiving is a week off, so I\u2019m budgeting according to that,\u201d Von Gaudecker said. \u201cFor the holidays, I definitely am a lot more careful about how much I\u2019m spending.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students also save with other methods. Katie Mosca, a senior biology major, said she recently started using coupons while shopping.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very committed to only buying things on sale. It definitely saves me money,\u201d Mosca said. \u201cI\u2019ve cut back on spending money on things for me so that I can buy things for other people this season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another tip for a cheaper holiday season is shopping early, according to McLaughlin. She said to shop during Black Friday or Cyber Monday \u2014 or even earlier\u2014 before holiday prices rise. But, if you\u2019re shopping early, make sure you are keeping track of what you\u2019ve already bought.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith shopping early, we always tell everybody to make a list because, and I\u2019m guilty of this one, you buy things, and then you forget that you\u2019ve bought them, and then you\u2019ve doubled up on things,\u201d McLaughlin said. \u201cSo it didn\u2019t really save you money when you do it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

McLaughlin said budgeting can also help minimize impulse buying, which occurs when people go into the holidays without a plan and buy items when they spot them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t buy something off the cuff. Look at it [like], is it a need or a want? Is it practical for this person? Is it affordable for you to actually do this?\u201d McLaughlin said. \u201cIt\u2019s nice if somebody wants something really expensive, but is it going to put the person giving it in dire straits? Make sure that you go into it really thinking it through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johchine Dixon, a junior psychology major, works jobs in her hometown and at school so she can save to buy gifts early.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always start buying gifts and stuff months in advance,\u201d Dixon said, \u201cso the money doesn\u2019t all hit me at once.\u201d<\/p>\n

Naman Verma said that he will probably buy fewer gifts this season because costs are higher this year. He plans on making a loose budget based on the money he has purposefully set aside for the holidays.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just look at how much money I have and then just buy the gifts based off of that,\u201d Verma said. \u201cBut I usually save a little more right before the holiday season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Veronica Williams, a sophomore history and museum studies major, recently helped to hold a food drive for the Pitt Pantry with her sorority Delta Phi Epsilon<\/a>. Although she knows many college students are struggling, Williams said giving back to your community when you can is still important this holiday season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you can donate five dollars to people who are in a more dire situation, or people who are in the same boat but aren\u2019t as self-motivated as you, or don\u2019t have the resources, do it,\u201d Williams said. \u201cWe can\u2019t change the prices of things, but if you have five extra dollars, use it for good.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By the beginning of December, the holiday season is in full swing, bringing more responsibilities for college students…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[19102,22859,1070,1897,73,75,74],"class_list":{"0":"post-49945","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-budgeting","9":"tag-gifts","10":"tag-holiday","11":"tag-holiday-season","12":"tag-pittsburgh","13":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","14":"tag-pittsburgh-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}