Saving for Christmas
Christmas is a great time of year where kids find joy, moms bake goodies, and dads stress about how much the holiday is going to set them back. Christmas is fun, but expensive. If you want to enjoy the festivities, lights, and joys of Christmas it helps to have some money saved up to pay for it all. The following is a look at how you can save for Christmas so that the holiday will be more enjoyable this year.
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- Determine how much you want to spend. Everyone has different ideas of what would make Christmas special, and how much they need to spend to make it that way. For some it is about going somewhere fun as a family, for others it means lots of expensive gifts. You have to know how much you want to save in order to be effective at saving that much. If you have 5 kids and want $100 per kid then you only need $500 plus money for other gifts, activities, and things. If you have 5 kids and you want $500 per kid, then you need $2500 plus money for the rest. So figure out what would be your ideal.
- Divide by 12. This is not for the 12 days of Christmas, rather the 12 months of the year. If you need $1200 to have a dream Christmas, then you would want to put away $100 a month. If you need more, you want to put away more. The idea is to prepare all year for the expense of Christmas so that it is not coming out of one paycheck, or setting you back big time. Instead you can enjoy the Christmas you want to have, and work toward it all year. As you do that it will be even more rewarding to get the Christmas you want.
- Keep your eye out for deals. One of the most effective ways to save money on Christmas and for Christmas is to not just put aside money right now, but to make lists of gifts you are thinking about giving, and start purchasing early. If you know you always buy your child a new coat at Christmas, anticipate their size and buy it early when it is on sale. If you know you always give your neighbors gifts, keep your eyes and ears open for unique, fun, and inexpensive gift ideas. For example, you can give them a cake mix with a wire whisk with chocolates in it (a gift that costs about $3), and write, "We Whisk you a Merry Kiss-mas" on the tag. Clever, cute, and inexpensive.
- Save your extras. Christmas is not something that has the normal expenses of a typical month. That time of year is pricey because you go out with friends and family. You buy gifts, you see plays, etc. So, you do extra stuff. Why not save your extra money all year for that extra stuff? When you get a bonus, a money gift, or a tax return, stick it in a Christmas fund, and you will find that you have plenty of extra money come Christmas time.
