If you haven't started thinking about how to pay for the holidays, now is the time to do so. Gifts, wrapping, food, decor, travel.....it all adds up. Please don't put it on a credit card. While you won't care while you are doing it, you will afterward when you are paying for it for month......ask me how I know......
We have an ING account that gets funded every 2 weeks in order to save up for the holidays. It is our $115 plan....which is what we use to save for camp, Christmas, and a few weeks of "whatever is going on." It comes out every paycheck, so it is already a line in the budget.
This allows us to save up for awhile and not notice. It also allows us to pick up gifts early, since we have the money already set aside. If we come across a good deal on something, we can get it and just put it in the Christmas Box (I have lost so many gifts because I forgot where I put them. Now I have a box with the Christmas decoration just for this purpose).
I have already started thinking about gift giving. This year we will subscribe to "something they want, need, wear and read" for the kids, plus Santa (probably the last official year of believing) and stocking. We already have the "read" taken care of (the last bookfair of the year is BOGO free, so I got them each 2 books.) Sassy got a beautiful hard cover copy of Little Women, and some other paperback she was interested in. Bossy got a hard cover book about Space, and something about animals. Total was $15 for all 4 books.
The wear part....probably a sweater for Sassy, and a sweatshirt for Bossy. Need....will have to see what they need at that stage of the game. The want.....who knows! They are changing everyday.
Sassy will be getting an MP3 player from Santa. NOT an ipod. The one we are looking at is about $30. And I have a good friend who has already expressed that she will get her headphones (as Sassy doesn't like earbuds). This unit seems to be a popular choice for the 8-12 year old crowd, as it is basic enough to use easily, but has lots of features. Plus, the price is right....considering this age is a little unpredictable in terms of care.
No idea on Santa gift for Bossy. He is so hard to shop for in the best of circumstances. We will have to think on that one.
I struggled with gifts for my office. We have so many new full time people, and we are all gift people. After alot of research (um....Pinterest), I decided to make "gourmet" apples. You know, the kind that have all the chocolate, caramel, nuts and whatever all over it? I will put them in jumbo muffin cups, then in a baggy, and wrap it up all purrrrty. Cost per apple will be under $5, so I can feel like I gave a nice homemade gift, but it is ok on the pocketbook.
That is as far as I have gotten. Considering I am 5 months early, I think that is pretty good!
Ho ho ho!!!!
I think you are doing pretty good for 5 months early! I'll save up and wait until November before I purchase anything. The kids change their minds too much! ;)!
ReplyDeleteThere will be stuff I have to wait on, but if I can get somethings early...yay me!
DeleteI love how prepared you are!! We are usually at Walmart the weekend before Christmas still picking up gifts. :) When we were getting out of debt we reduced our shopping list to just our children. Not for everyone but for us it really simplified the holidays. Even now we still only purchase for our kids. We've baked goods and made cards for others but we simplified our spending and made things a lot easier.
ReplyDeleteWe have actually reduced our list. School therapists are out now. Work now has grown, so the amount per gift had to change.
DeleteI "try" to be done by early December. And I order alot on line!
you are rocking it out being so early!!!! Nice Job!!! We have been saving, so we have a plan for $ (cu ~ christmas club account) as to the "what" - no idea yet... will probably start after school starts.
ReplyDeleteGood for you too, for having a Christmas Club account!
DeleteWe also have a Christmas account (my husband resisted, but I insisted - ha, that rhymes!) that gets $100 per month. We have $1400 already saved for this year. And I am hoping to have money left over. We usually go way overboard for Christmas and I am thinking we need to REALLY cut back and not spend so much money. It's just wasteful, but with older teenagers, their wants are just so darned expensive. Video games and televisions and phones and sheesh, the list goes on and on.
ReplyDeleteOur circle of gift receivers has shrunk in the last few years, but I did add in my 3 nieces when my brother-in-law got separated from his wife last year. Just small stuff for them, but something to let them know we are still their aunt and uncle.
I really need to get a plan in place and a budget for each person and stick to it. The money is there. I just need to figure out how to spend less than what we have.
Good for you for being so prepared! I read somewhere the Christmas is never a surprise - it comes every year - and you should always save for it so you don't charge it. If you can only save a little, only spend a little. Keeps your debt way down.
We usually budget about $1400 total for Christmas, but I know as the kids get older, some of their requests will get $$$.
DeleteWe do budget a certain amount per person, and it helps alot! And yes....Christmas shouldn't be a surprise....it is the same time every year (just like birthdays, anniversaries!)
Yikes! don't remind me, I have a love / hate relationship with Christmas.
ReplyDeleteHS
Remember....you don't HAVE to spend hundreds of dollars on someone.
DeleteTimely reminder! My partner usually works the "premium" holidays and makes enough in holiday pay to cover our Christmas. This will be the first year we don't get it because her days off fall on Christmas Eve/Christmas. Time to start saving and thinking of ways to cut back expenses.
ReplyDeleteWell...at least you get to spend the holidays together, right?
DeleteYou still have 5 months....you aren't behind!
I too am saving for Christmas, I am excited to open my pig!
ReplyDeleteAre you only using Piggy money for Christmas, or are you using it as a supplement?
DeleteOh be still my beating heart!......Xmas already!lol
ReplyDeleteI've purposefully closely tracked our Xmas spending for the last 2 years. I've spent $881.64 in 2010 and $851.32 in 2011 on ALL Xmas spending, including postage to mail a couple of gifts and the electricity to run the lights.lol
Before those years? I have NO CLUE what we spent every year but we never put it on credit cards anyway.
We only do gifts for family. I make cookies and send to other relatives.
To keep costs down on the gifts we do do, we also do a Secret Santa drawing within the family.
I don't have a monthly savings plan to put money aside specifically for Xmas, but I do have a Savings Challenge I run all year. I will take cash out from what I saved from this from 2011 to pay for Xmas 2012.
Next year, some of this year's Savings Challenge $ will pay for the 2013 Xmas, etc.
Nothing worse than having to pay for Xmas gifts for 30 years, which is what you do if you put them on credit and pay only the min. payment each month. No $20 sweater is worth $50 of your income over the coarse of your working life. ;-)
Since we started saving, it has worked better. And I am very aware of what I am spending.
DeleteMy Christmas fund got drained when the child support evaporated and I still had a couple of weeks of summer camp to cover.
ReplyDeleteI dunno, I'm in a strange place emotionally right now. The kids aren't with me this Christmas Eve/Christmas morning so I think I might be able to do the simple something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read, and something from Santa without feeling it's "not enough". I still struggle with that despite the fact my rational brain is well aware my kids have way too much stuff.
I'm doing a lot of thinking about making Christmas presents this year. Last year, I scaled back and didn't make much but this year I'm drawn to it again and it's July. I would have the time to do things I think. Maybe.
We typically get the kids about 3-4 things, plus Santa. Just this year we are labeling what type of gift they will get.
ReplyDeleteI always feel like it isn't enough....but not once have they ever complained.
Since you crochet....can you make some items to sell, to help out?
Mysti, we do bits-and-bobs gift buying throughout the year, mostly on sale - but like you, I tuck them away and end up losing gifts!
ReplyDeleteI've never even thought to make a spot near the Christmas Decorations box like you suggest - duh me!!! This is why I love reading blogs - sometimes you just need someone to say "this is how we do it!"
Right - off to clear a spot above the decorations box and put all the wrapping paper, cards, presents and odds and ends in the ONE SPOT!!
The post s giving infromation for Chritsmas. Useful post
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