Prevent Overspending For Christmas!
I remember the days that I used credit cards to pay for Christmas.
There were two key reasons that I used these fabulous credit cards:
- I did not save money for Christmas during the year
- I overspent on Christmas presents
I solved #1 by creating a Christmas escrow account.
Let's say that I wanted to spend $1,000 for Christmas. By saving $83.33 each month, I magically have $1,000 when Christmas arrives! This takes away a lot of stress, and I highly recommend it! You can read more about creating your own escrow account by clicking HERE.
I solved #2 by putting together a written plan for my Christmas shopping. I pulled up a copy of the [download#3#nohits] and entered the names of those I am shopping for this Christmas.
At the top of the form, I entered $1,000 for the "Cash Budgeted".
I then wrote in the amount of money that I plan to spend for each person on the list.
Applying my secret formula for financial success, INCOME – OUTGO = EXACTLY ZERO, I spend the $1,000 to EXACTLY ZERO.
By pulling out cash for the Christmas Shopping, I can ensure that I will not overspend!
I am FIRED UP by all of the success stories that readers are sharing via the "Success Stories" link! Have you shared your successes – both large and small? You can do so by clicking on SUCCESS STORIES on the sidebar or by clicking HERE!
Well I am new to all of this, but I am not new to spending way too much money at Christmas. I have three children, whom I love more than anything and have bought just about everything. It is hard when they are young, you want to spoil them and make Christmas so magical. The problem is we can’t afford that magic and Christmas has lost it’s meaning. We have purchased so much for our children there is nothing else for them to look forward too.And my credit cards are still not paid off from their first Christmas, I don’t want to tell you how old they are, lets just say I am ready to to learn from Joseph Sangl. If I could go back in time I sure would do things differently. I would start by teaching them the true meaning of Christmas, which is to celebrate the birth of Christ, not the newest Xbox or Playstation game. I would certainly down scale the amount of gifts. If you teach your children there is a Santa, one Santa gift is plenty. I did start a tradition in our family which I can say I am happy with. On Christmas we exchange one gift each. There are five in my family, so we each get five gifts, more than enough. The part I like is, my children have to save the money from their allowance, birthday money or small jobs I pay them for. They are learning how to save and also how to give. They really enjoy shopping for each other. When they are spending their own money they shop much more wisely. My newest venture is to try something new with Christmas. My family can never go on a vacation because we always spend the money on Christmas gifts. My husband has the week off and so do my kids, I am a stay at home mom, so this year we are going to still exchange the five gifts, but we are going to go on a family vacation. We will make gifts for our friends and family, but most of all we will make a memory of being togther as a family celebrating Christ. Wish me luck! It’s my hope and dream!
Again, a struggle…how do I know the correct amount to spend on each of my recipients at Christmas? Single mom, $34,000/year, three teenagers, two sets of parents, seven nephews, one boyfriend, one precious grandmother. Help!
Hi Malia! Christmas is one of those “Known Upcoming Non monthly Expenses”. For expenses like Christmas, we would recommend deciding on an amount to spend and then saving each month in advance. You can find our KUE calculator HERE. Check out our video HERE where Joe gives more explanation on these expenses. Let us know if you have more questions!