The fall months can be hard on the wallet with schools expenses, Thanksgiving, Halloween and Christmas.
Credit Counselling Services of Atlantic Canada recommends planning for all of it by creating a budget with spending limits.
Financial counsellor Jacalyn Maclean said we tend to leave out unexpected expenses when making a budget.
“We recommend estimating what you think you might need to spend annually on those things. Things like gifts and clothing, medical expenses and car repairs. All of those sorts of sporadic things that seem to pop up randomly,” Maclean said.
“Those are the types of things someone might whip out a credit card for but instead, we would encourage you to put that into your budget plan. Set some money aside each month and save up for those expenses ahead of time if you can,” Maclean said.
Maclean said they encourage people to plan ahead and think about fall spending before it actually happens.
Maclean said the pandemic has thrown some of their usual trends “out the window.”
They normally see an increase in people requiring their services between January and June, but the pandemic slowed that down.
