• Chris Boutté buys both birthday and Christmas gifts for his son and partner every holiday season.
• To prepare for the financial burden, he starts planning around September with a goal to save $1,200.
• He uses affiliate links on his podcast, freelances, and has Google ad revenue on YouTube.

The holidays can be a financial burden for many people, and stress around money is something I’m all too familiar with.

I have a 12-year-old son who’s turning 13 on New Year’s Eve, so for the last 12 years I’ve had to budget for Christmas presents as well as presents for his birthday. To add some Christmas-themed frosting on top, my partner’s birthday is on December 15, and we’ve been together for five years.

I would’ve had a

panic attack

by now if it wasn’t for strategic planning and saving. In order to buy presents for both of the most important people in my life, I try to save at least about $1,200 by getting creative with some side hustles and other ways to make extra cash.

The first thing I have to do is eliminate my terrible habit of procrastinating. For a long time, I was like many other people where I’d wait until the last minute to do my Christmas shopping. Now, if I want to stay sane and manage my anxiety, I have to start planning for the upcoming holiday season around September or October. Since my girlfriend’s family and my family live in California, we plan a trip out there from Las Vegas each year that I also have to take into consideration.

Here’s how I prepare.

One of the primary ways I start saving for the holidays is through freelancing 

In 2016, I started writing for places like Textbroker and would try to find bigger jobs on Upwork. Now, I try to find freelance writing gigs that pay much better, and I get to be a little bit more creative.

To put it into perspective, Textbroker pays most writers about 1.4 cents per word, so that’s about $11.20 for 800 words. Meanwhile, my average freelance gig pays $200 for 800 to 1,000 words, but I’ve had two jobs so far that paid $400 each.

Even if you’re not a writer, it’s 2021 and we live in the gig economy. There are plenty of skills you have that are valuable to other people — you just have to find the right platform to offer your services.

The best advice I can give is to take some time and invest in yourself. You …….

Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/side-hustles-make-extra-income-holiday-season-buy-gifts-2021-12