Budget Through 2008
If you’re sane you’re in a near-panic over the flipping Christmas ornaments dotting the shelves of your local haunts.
Halloween has a few more days to arrive, but the Christmas push to buy more stuff is already making the national blood pressure rise.
Maybe my Boycott Christmas in June idea didn’t seem reasonable. But, now that it’s November, I’m thinking you might be considering a part-time job or scratching some extended relatives off the list.
Might I recommend a budgeting technique that will make sure you don’t end up doing the big recover from Christmas through March?
Write down the income you expect to get through January on a spread sheet. We get paid weekly, so I have a budget that accounts for income each week.
Add up a total of income and subtract all of your regular non-negotiable expenses like your mortgage and light bill. Don’t forget your insurance needs renewing and your taxes are coming due.
What is left is your Christmas budget. You should be able to buy all gifts, tree, pot luck meals, party clothes and postage for this amount.
See you didn’t need a second job. You just needed a better plan.
Honestly, there is nothing better than having a New Year’s Resolution that doesn’t include Pay Off Christmas Credit Cards.
Oh, and see that picture up there? A $250 life-sized mechanical horse is what sane parents and grandparents do NOT buy their children. Know why? An $8 stick horse is better exercise and requires more imagination and absolutely no financing. And it’s not hard to top next year.
Check out 10 Christmas Gifting Alternatives for ways to stretch that budget.
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POSTED IN: Fabulously Cheap
7 opinions for Budget Through 2008
FeeFiFoto
Oct 29, 2007 at 12:29 pm
Not only do they put Xmas stuff out earlier each year, the stuff they put out first is always the tackiest; in fact that stuff is usually left over and seriously marked down after Xmas, and then you find it at Marshall’s or TJ Maxx.
Jen
Oct 29, 2007 at 6:33 pm
I am so NOT buying it. (Stuff that is.)
The idea of getting a new pair of jeans with a c-note in the pocket and Mexican vacation is sounding better all the time.
Tracee
Oct 30, 2007 at 5:59 am
I’m telling you my cousin, who takes her family on vacation instead of doing the Christmas Hussle, is seriously on to something.
kellys
Oct 30, 2007 at 6:17 pm
My goal next year is to pay for Christmas with quarters. Stay tuned.
Tracee
Oct 30, 2007 at 6:20 pm
I betcha totally could! I’ve scored over $100 bucks in change before.
Violet
Oct 31, 2007 at 3:04 am
I had to give up the idea that I wanted to get everyone something really spectacular. It sounds lame, but it’s really not. The kids I buy for don’t even need more toys or clothes - their parents are constantly throwing some out.
I read something awhile ago that said adults rarely remember the toys they received each Christmas when they were kids. What they do remember is the activities and fun they had with their friends and families.
I have to agree. I remember most going sledding, ice skating and to see the lights with my family, my grandma’s annual cookie decorating party, and crafting paint-by-number ornaments one Christmas Eve - the same ornaments that I still see every year on my parents tree. I’m starting to tear up right now just thinking about these great memories!
Tracee
Oct 31, 2007 at 7:19 am
Yeah, I realized a while back that kids don’t even care about stuff. In half an hour the stuff is “used” and forgotten. I buy used stuff for Christmas. Really.
What they really care about are the family times and the opening of gifts and the decorating the tree and the taste and smell of Christmas.
It takes vigilant reminding to myself that kids are not as “stuff-obsessed” as we are.
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