CHINESE New Year is right around the corner. The festivity ushers in the new and it will be a time for family reunions, feasts and gatherings which can become very meaningful if it is well-planned.
Making it even more special this year is that it is the Year of the Dragon — representing power, nobleness, leadership, honour, luck, and success. The dragon is often considered the most highly revered zodiac animal of all. Emperors of enormous dynasties were even seen as reincarnations of dragons!
Whether or not you were born on the Year of the Dragon, the celebration will inevitably involve financial decisions especially as you prepare to buy new clothes, stock in groceries for the feast, buy cookies for guests, and set aside some budget to prepare ang pow to be given out on the auspicious days.
However, not all celebrations need to be lavish, especially if you are a ‘Dragon’, because doing something that will only set you back further from your financial goals does not project power or good fortune. Meaningful celebrations can still be achieved without sacrificing the joy and hurting your pocket too much.
Below are five money-saving tips you can observe during this Chinese New Year.
1. Be Early; It Saves Money
The closer you get to Chinese New Year, the more expensive many of the festive items become. Stop procrastinating and get yourself to the saloon and supermarkets early. Traditionally, new clothes, decorative flowers, dried seafood, and other delicacies are purchased for Chinese New Year. But do keep in mind that it is up to you and your budget when deciding how much to spend. Some of the items can be bought in advance, or when they are on sale. You can also make decorations with a do-it-yourself (DIY) approach instead of buying ready-made ones. Do a craft project with your family to decorate your home using red packets purchased at a more affordable price. Again, it is all up to you — considering your affordability and planning in advance. Still, you can choose prudence over affordability now especially when you have bigger financial goals to achieve in the future.
2. Plan Your Travel Early
Quite often some may plan to go for vacation during Chinese New Year. Group tours, air tickets and hotel prices often go up during the holiday season, so bear in mind that travelling expenses for the whole family could be much higher than usual. Instead, consider local tours, or book your trip and hotel well in advance to keep costs down. If you think it is too late to do so this year, plan early for next year. Take leave early to avoid the heavy traffic jam on the highway. Some couples may even decide to take turn celebrating with their family year by year instead of driving through the traffic jam to celebrate with the in-laws in different states.
3. Organise Pot Lucks
You may realise as you ask around the restaurants for Chinese New Year Eve’s reunion dinner that the price for set meals can be quite steep with limited time allowed for you to eat and linger afterward as they need to clean the table for the next round of customers. Rather than scrambling through the hurried dinner with a hefty price tag, you may want to consider having the dinner at the comfort of your own home which is more conducive for cozy conversations with everyone bringing a dish for the potluck. Besides, home-cooked meals bring extra warmth to the celebration as that was how the reunion dinner started originally.
4. Ang Pow
Carefully consider your financial situation and budget before deciding on how much you will put into the red packets (called laisee in Chinese) to be distributed out during Chinese New Year. The amount of money handed out to large group of family members, relatives and friends’ kids will truly add up. Laisee are given out to convey one’s best wishes for the year ahead — it is the thought that counts (though you tend to believe that it is the amount that counts to the recipients).
5. 3-Box Money Management System
In order to teach this principle to our children, get them to manage the ang pow money they have received once the celebration is over. Financial education should start from young and this is a great opportunity to teach them how to handle the large sum of money they have so that you set the foundation right. Distribute the sum into three boxes, namely ‘Saving’, ‘Spending’ and ‘Sharing’, and allocate, for example, 30% for saving, 60% for spending and 10% for sharing. In fact, do not limit this system to ang pow money. Use the 3-box system for their school pocket money throughout the year to cultivate a prudent financial management culture at home.
Those are five tips you can consider to save on your Chinese New Year spending. May this Year of the Dragon bring you great adventure, learning and fortune — not just materially but which give your life meaning too so that you can enjoy peace of mind.
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