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3:26 p.m. - 2007-12-22
Christmas spending
See previous entry about J-To's new baby!

Ok, so I wanted to share with you guys my tips for a less stressful (financially) Christmas. Some of you guys are way better about this kind of thing than me, so if you don't fret over this kind of stuff, skip it. For the rest of you, read on.

I have been reading a lot of stupid articles with titles like "Debt Free Christmas" and "More Bang for Your Buck During the Holidays." I read them, and they are stupid. They state the obvious, like "Don't overspend." and "make a budget for yourself." Then there will be this list of 347 comments after the article where people chime in with their dumb ideas like "My daughter and I make reindeer figurines out of pine cones and fuzzy balls for the Rudolph nose - so cute! It only costs us 74 cents because we got to the bargain bin at the craft store in January and get all of our supplies for next year."

Okay lady, no one wants your ugly Rudolph figurine.

or "I browse garage sales all year for gently used Children's Books and puzzles that I give as gifts at Christmas time."

Listen, any kid can spot a "gently used" Children's book a mile away. Especially because they probably have remnants from its previous owner's lollipop stuck to it.

or "Just tell everyone you aren't buying any gifts this year."

I guess if you are truly low on finances, this option is better than whipping out your credit card. But come on people, can't we do better than that?

Here are a couple suggestions I think are worth reading. See for yourself.

For starters, saving throughout the year for Christmas. Our family does christmas pretty big, so there are quite a few people that I buy for. Kevin, my parents, a couple of friends, a couple of friends' kids, and whoever I get for our extended family name exchange. Plus, a few others that Kevin and I kind of share like his brother and sister in law.

This year, I decided to take control of Christmas, financially, starting in January. I opened up a seperate bank account that I divert 20 dollars per pay check to. Plus each time I get any extra checks from work like mileage reimbursement or my cell phone bill reimbursement or a bonus, plus my annual income tax return - I put part of it in there - those bills like my cell phone bill that I get reimbursed for from work, get paid automatically from my regular checking account and I am used to that so I don't miss the money. I use this money in this "secret account" for any presents I buy Kevin during the year like birthday and anniversary because he doesn't see the statement - then he doesn't ruin any surprises! By the time Christmas shopping time rolled around I had a nice chunk in that account and I used that and only that for my Christmas shopping.

I am making more money than I have in the past but, of course, I work in non-profit and now have a mortgage and such to deal with. However - this year, (finally!) I had plenty of money to take care of Christmas with, wheras I used to end up with over 500 bucks added on to my (thankfully shrinking with increasing speed) credit card debt.

About two years ago I finally took control of my debt and haven't used the credit cards for a long time. I will be personally debt free (my husband is another story though that is also getting better) in about another year and a half. I am telling you, it is SUCH a relief to confidently hand over my debit card from my Christmas checking account and not envision debt piling up! It's money in the bank that I had PLANNED to spend. I know the idea of a "christmas club" isn't new - I am pretty sure my grandma or someone like that used to have a Christmas club fund at her bank. But I know most people don't save specifically for Christmas. In fact, I know a lot of people who make twice as much as I do and have to pile up large credit card bills for the holidays.

Again, some of you are financial geniuses and never did anything stupid like rack up tens of thousands of dollars on your visa in your early twenties like I did, so believe me - I know I am no expert here. But, I also know some of you are in the same boat as i am so I thought I'd share something that might be helpful.

Obviously sticking to a budget is a good idea. My problem has always been that I either buy more than I can afford for the people I planned to buy for or I buy for people that I probably don't need to buy something for.

So - I pretty much totally stuck to my original list for people this year. I am admittedly going out one more time to pick up a few more small things - but the Christmas fund has not been totally drained yet, so I'm allowed. But to deal with the other issue - all of those peripheral people that pop up that you think you maybe should get something small for. I now have a solution.

I make my Christmas cards by hand - paint or draw - and write a personal message in each one, then my husband spends two days making amazing, elaborate Christmas cookies. We gave cookies and cards to our bosses, our employees/co-workers and our neighbors plus we take cookies to the parties we're invited to so we don't have to spend 15 bucks on a bottle of wine every time we are invited somewhere. It costs about 15 dollars for the blank cards and extra paint and markers each year - I only use red and green and silver - and it costs about 35 dollars for the cookie ingredients. (I send about 30 Christmas cards in the mail too, so maybe another 15 bucks for stamps.) We hole up in our house with my art supplies and a messy kitchen full of powdered sugar. We crank up the Christmas music and have a merry old time. All for about 60 bucks and some good quality together-time.

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