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These Retailers Are Hiring For the Holiday Season

November 1, 2019 | Leave a Comment

Hiring for the holiday season

If you’re working your way through a mountain of debt, the best strategy is to prioritize income growth over cutting expenses. Ideally, you’ll do a mixture of both, but focusing on growth has a long term benefit.

You can increase your cash flow through a side gig, a promotion, selling clutter around your house, or from a second job. If you’re looking at the latter, you picked a good time. The holiday season is now, and retailers are looking to supplement their staffing schedules with able bodies.

Moreso, 2019 has a shortened holiday season due to a late Thanksgiving. In an attempt to lengthen the shopping season, retailers are rolling out sales and promotions early this year, so the hiring has already started.

Seven Retailers that Are Hiring for the Holiday Season

1. American Eagle Outfitters
2. Dollar Tree
3. Dick’s Sporting Goods
4. The Gap
5. Michael’s
6. Kohl’s
7. Target

According to Retail Dive, a publication dedicated to the retail industry, each of the above retailers is hiring at least 8,000 employees (Dick’s) and up to 130,000 (Target) employees during the holiday season.

Delivery Drivers Are Hiring

UPS, Fed Ex, and the US Postal Service are hiring, too! All those Amazon packages need to be delivered. As internet sales continue to rise, the demand for drivers has increased accordingly. Particularly, since Amazon now offers same and next day in many locations.

Money Making Apps

Do you have the entrepreneurial spirit? Hoping a seasonal gig might blossom into something robust enough to replace your day job? The sharing economy makes it possible to start small, dip your toes in the water, and try it out. The holiday season is the perfect time to experiment.

Become a driver for Uber or Lyft. Grocery shop for a frazzled working mom relying on Instacar or Shipt to deliver groceries while she cooks an amazing Thanksgiving dinner for her extended family of 40. If you’re skilled in a particular area, pick up jobs on TaskRabbit or BlueCrew.

Tips to Getting Hired This Holiday Season

Start now

The holiday hiring season starts early. The sooner you get your application in the door, the better. But also, don’t assume it’s too late.  Retailers may hold back their hiring early in the season, only to increase their numbers if the shopping demand comes to fruition.

Attend an Open House or Job Fair

Many retailers will hold an open house for the purpose of mass hiring. Check their website for the next available date. If you can’t find anything on their website, visit the store locally and ask to speak with the manager.

Tell Everyone You Know

Tell your mom, your brother, your neighbor. Let them know you’re looking for some additional work for the holiday season to boost your savings account. You’ll be surprised who has a cousin that works at Target or an uncle looking for someone to help clean out his garage.
Networking doesn’t have to be attending an event and handing out a business card. The best networking comes through genuine conversations.

Have you taken a second job specifically during the holidays? Let us know in the comments below.

Read more:

How to Pay for Vacations and Holidays Without Debt
Staying Organized During the Holidays
7 of the Best Ways to Make Money on the Side With a Full Time Job
Kate Fox

Kate Fox is a former CPA, with twenty years of experience in public accounting and corporate finance. Born and raised in Alaska, Kate is currently based out of southeastern North Carolina.  She loves coaching others on personal finance and spends her free time traveling with her family or relaxing by the pool with a good book, probably about money.

Filed Under: Holidays, Money and Finances Tagged With: holidays without debt, how to get hired, part time job, side gig, side hustle

How to Pay for Vacations and Holidays Without Debt

November 7, 2016 | Leave a Comment

Here are some ways I'm planning to pay for vacations and holidays without debt this year.The average summer vacation costs $1,200, according to CNN Money. A recent Gallop poll discovered that the average spent on Christmas is $830 with 30% of shoppers intending on spending over $1,000. How on earth are people supposed to pay for these pricey transactions like vacations and holidays without debt?

One way to help prevent such a setback is to run the numbers like I’ve done in the estimates above. Could you imagine going at least $2,000 into debt each year just for holidays and travel?

What if, instead, you made a pact with yourself and your family only to use money that you’ve saved for the occasion?

It would take a plan. Let’s unpack that one now.

How to Pay for Vacations and Holidays Without Debt

The primary tool that will be your strongest ally in all this is your mind. If you can change your mindset to do the following, you’re well on your way to living a life with less debt:

Don’t keep up with the Joneses. They’re probably up to their eyeballs in debt.

My husband and I drive around with our children looking at Christmas lights every year. One year, I took him to a wealthy neighborhood filled with massive homes on manicured lawns. Each house was adorned with elegant crystal-like decorations with a massive tree in their grand living room.

You get the picture.

When I was young, I used to think of that neighborhood as the richest part of town. I used to think, “These are the people who figured it out. They have it made.” Now that I’ve tasted debt and scratched my way back out, I look differently at shiny cars and grand houses. Perhaps these people did save up for every penny and are doing great. But, debt is so accommodating that they really could owe money on every item they own, right down to their shoes.

Don’t assume people driving shiny cars “have it made.” You may be craving a lifestyle they can’t afford, either.

Automate a year-long savings plan.

Holidays and vacations are not surprises. If you can open a Christmas Club account at your bank or open a savings and drop $50 in it every payday, you’ll be so far ahead of the game when it’s time to travel or shop. We don’t even put that much away and it forces us to be more frugal with our holiday shopping. Which brings me to my next suggestion to save up for vacations and holidays without debt.

Bonus Reading: “5 Ways to Spend Less On Christmas Gifts for Kids”

Be intentional about fewer presents.

When I first heard the 4-gift idea for Christmas, I wasn’t sure I wanted to do that for our kids. Then I realized my alternative was to “buy them whatever” which is a terrific recipe for not being intentional and for breaking the budget. The 4-gift idea is to buy them only four presents in the following categories:

  • Something they want
  • Something they need
  • Something they wear
  • Something they read

I’ve never been more intentional with my gift giving than I was that year. Turns out, the item my daughter “wanted” was the least expensive gift I bought. But, it’s something she still uses every week.

So, the lesson this taught me was that my kids don’t need gobs of presents. They don’t need expensive presents. What makes them feel loved is the intention behind the giving.

You don’t have to spend $830 on Christmas this year, or any other holidays.

If, however, you do want to spend more on a big trip or nice presents (and that’s certainly your prerogative), then save early and do what you can to avoid debt. I’ve tried this both ways and can assure you that the memories are sweeter when debt doesn’t linger behind them.

For further study into this topic of debt free living, I suggest you pick up a copy of “Debt-Proof Your Christmas: Celebrating the Holidays without Breaking the Bank” by Mary Hunt. It’s filled with lots of ideas for saving money during the holidays and not paying for them later.

Do you agree with the idea of having vacations and holidays without debt? Share your thoughts below!

Image Credit: Leo Rivas-Micoud (UnSplash)

This post may contain affiliate links.

Filed Under: Family Time, Holidays, Money and Finances, Shopping Tagged With: 4-gift Christmas, Christmas Shopping, holidays without debt, spend less at Christmas, vacation without debt

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Basic Principles Of Good Parenting

Here some basic principles for good parenting:

  1. What You Do Matters: Your kids are watching you. So, be purposeful about what you want to accomplish.
  2. You Can’t be Too Loving: Don’t replace love with material possessions, lowered expectations or leniency.
  3. Be Involved Your Kids Life: Arrange your priorities to focus on what your kid’s needs. Be there mentally and physically.
  4. Adapt Your Parenting: Children grow quickly, so keep pace with your child’s development.
  5. Establish and Set Rules: The rules you set for children will establish the rules they set for themselves later.  Avoid harsh discipline and be consistent.
  6. Explain Your Decisions: What is obvious to you may not be evident to your child. They don’t have the experience you do.
  7. Be Respectful To Your Child: How you treat your child is how they will treat others.  Be polite, respectful and make an effort to pay attention.
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