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Christmas Is Coming

August 8th, 2008 at 12:29 am

Christmas shopping used to destroy my budget. And my Christmas spirit. Year after year it just wasn't pretty. I needed a plan!

Several years ago, a library book called Getting What You Want With The Money You Already Have (by Carol Keeffe) encouraged me to save for specific goals like Christmas, even if I save small amounts. It turns out that small amounts added to small amounts equals much more than $0 added to $0. Who knew?

This year I'm funding the Christmas account with an automatic savings deposit of $12 out of every paycheck. Wow, you say.

From October of the previous year to October of the current year (which is when I make the BIG withdrawal) is the timeframe for building up the Christmas account. The minimum amount will be approximately $264 with just the automatic deposits.

However, the rest of the plan is this: Add to that some tax refund money. (This only works if I get a tax refund. One year I owed taxes. What a painful year that was. We had Christmas Light rather than Christmas Deluxe that year. We were fine.)

Add to that some random acts of deposits. Every two weeks before I get paid, I collect some of my dollar bills and loose change and deposit that into the Christmas fund, too.

Right now, there is approximately $455 in the account. I hope to have $600. I usually split this with the spouse (who does the primary shopping for the grandkids, my step-daughter's children). This helps ease the confusion and ease the budget. It also helps me limit my spending. Before having a plan I was horrified to find that after the dust settled I sometimes spent over $1,000 on Christmas gifts for my only child and a few other family members and friends. That was out of control and commercialism at it's best. I don't even remember what I bought and neither do they.

Anyway, Christmas is coming. If you celebrate it, do you have a plan for gift giving? A budget? Will you do something different this year? Next year?

2 Responses to “Christmas Is Coming”

  1. campfrugal Says:
    1219928488

    I always have a plan. As a matter of fact, I have already wrote out my Christmas List, who I am buying for, certain food I want to cook and ideas that come up, I put down on that list. I have already started shopping, that is the best way to save money. I don't like to wait till the last minute. I just recently got a Dell Flash Card Digital Camcorder, originally $149.99, but I found an online coupone for $100 off, so I bought one. I am thinking about getting another one; and it was free shipping.

    I try to keep to a budget and actually, I have listed on my blog, how much I have spent over the past few years. I have my husband, three kids, and about 5 other extended family members that I buy for and around three parties that I take goodies/food too.

    We also help out (with our time) in our Church's Christmas Production, which we enjoy and we do buy gloves and hats and put together a basket for a needy family for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

    Two of my children have birthdays in December, so I have to plan for those as well, and we specifically keep them seperate from any Christmas functions. Sometimes we have a party, sometimes I combine them and we go away to somewhere they want to go like an indoor water park, and sometimes we just keep it quaint with immediate family members and go out to dinner and then come home for cake and ice cream. They both have specific cakes that I bake every year for them.

    It would be nice to do something different this year, like just take what I would pay for Christmas and Birthdays and go away to maybe Disney World (or something similar) and just get a couple well-meaning and needed gifts for my kids. Hmmm, I will have to think about that.

  2. sherande Says:
    1220482423

    Campfrugal - you are a planner! Love it. I'm inspired to do a little better about Christmas (and all my once a year expenses). My stepdaughter's 28th birthday is in December (the 21st) and we've been 'neglectful' the past few years, always combining her birthday with Christmas. This year we have a better plan to acknowledge her birthday separate. It's on the CALENDAR! My parents are in early January, and you've just made me realize that it would be so much easier for me to plan gifts for them within my Christmas budget and plan. Thanks for the inspiration and the comment.

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