A Christmas Plan

It is so hard to believe that Christmas is a mere month away. I really love this time of year. I love putting up our tree, driving around to see the lights, and making homemade Christmas cookies. I also really enjoy giving gifts to family and friends. My objective for this Christmas is to keep it warm, simple, cozy, and to have a great financial plan in place so that Christmas doesn’t follow me into the new year.

Kevin and I attempt to build into our monthly budget a little bit of savings for Christmas. This allows us to have money to purchase gifts, ingredients for cookies and meals, and a travel allowance to see family. We enter December with a little less stress. But what if you didn’t build a Christmas savings into your monthly budget? It’s really ok. You now have the opportunity to design your December budget with a Christmas line item. The following questions can guide you as you work on this budget line item:

How much do you plan to spend on gifts?
Do you need to prepare extra meals?
Are you planning to do extra baking?

A little bit of planning will help you not stress out, not max out this month’s budget, and allow you the opportunity to really enjoy the holiday.

And don’t worry if you have to put some Christmas spending on a credit card. Make a plan as you head into the new year to pay off that credit card as quickly as you can. Also, I encourage you to design your monthly budget with a line item for Christmas savings.

I hope your December is filled with festivities, warmth and joy.

What is your Christmas plan?