What if I told you that your Christmas budget doesn’t have to be filled with stress, pressure, debt, and questionable financial decisions?
What if I told you that you can still splurge on your loved ones even while budgeting and taking control of your finances?
*Click here to join my FREE budget TRAINING* LIMITED SPOTS⠀
You barely survived Christmas, so reading about next Christmas is the last thing you probably want to do.
The new year is a time for fresh starts, organization, and resolutions. Make this years’ holidays your best yet by prepping throughout the year so you can have a stress-free, debt-free, enjoyable holiday season.
Christmas isn’t going anywhere; we know that it’s coming again so let’s prep for it now without charging that credit card that we ALL know is already out of control.
So, what can you do to make the holidays less frantic and more enjoyable?
- Take inventory of last Christmas
- Create your new Christmas budget
- Save & budget as early as possible
- Create a Christmas sinking fund
Now let’s break down these goals into bite sized action steps because who doesn’t love those, right?
Every step will have an easy, stress-free goal attached to it so that you will see how important each step is!
1. Take inventory of last Christmas
You want to calculate how much money you spent on everything Christmas- related including:
- Decor
- Food & Drinks
- Gifts (per person)
- Wrapping supplies
- Charitable donations
GOAL: You now have a realistic number to work with for this Christmas, instead of just guessing a number.
2. Create your new Christmas budget
Using how much you spent last Christmas (step 1), add any new expenses you predict you will need this Christmas.
Be smart about it, if you know you’ll need to buy a new tree, add that to your new Christmas budget. If you know your son needs a laptop for school and you’d like to gift it to him, add that into the budget.
You need to think about all of the expected and unexpected costs.
GOAL: to get the most accurate number possible
3. Save & budget as early as possible
Take the new budget you created and calculate how much money you need to save each month to reach your goal by NOVEMBER because you’ll want to have that money at least a month before Christmas.
This way, you’ll have time to shop.
For example, I want to have $1500 saved by November, which is 10 months away, $1500/10 months= $150.00/month.
I’ll need to put away $150 a month starting in February to reach my $1500 goal for Christmas.
GOAL: To have a do-able number: $150 sounds a lot better than $1500, doesn’t it?
4. Create a Christmas sinking fund
I like saving cash, so I save some money every paycheck and put it in a simple envelope.
If you prefer saving the money at a financial institution, make a direct deposit on every payday to a high-yield savings account you don’t look at too often.
Then, when November rolls around, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to see all your Christmas expenses are as good as paid for.
GOAL: Christmas budget is accounted for; you’ll never need to use your credit card for Christmas again.
Nothing is worth adding onto your debt and stress – especially the holidays. Be different this year, be better.
There will be plenty more events for you to treat the ones you love, the right way, without accruing debt. Do your best to budget and stick to your limits. It will be worth it!
How do you approach holiday spending?
Here’s how I update my sinking funds in my digital budget planner:
*Click here to join my FREE budget TRAINING*
You’ll learn:⠀⠀
✅ My signature step-by-step method on how to build your budget that’s helped over 3,000 women build their budget (with specific examples!)⠀
✅ The biggest mistake hard-time working women make with their paychecks & why you still don’t have a working budget (even if you’re starting at zero!)
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✅ Why every budget you’ve tried doesn’t work & how my strategies will⠀
Read this post next to find out the 4 Things that Happen when you start to Budget
