After all my shopping yesterday and my Black Friday post, I started feeling guilty about the money that I'm spending...after all...isn't this a frugal living blog? Each Christmas, I have a hard time switching gears from frugal living to lots of spending for Christmas and I start feeling guilty for spending. However....I shouldn't, and this is why:
- Each year, we budget how much money we plan on spending on gifts for the entire year for everything...birthdays, Mother's and Father's Day, Christmas, gifts for charity/teachers, stocking stuffers, even down to the nitty gritty like Christmas cards and stamps to mail them out.
- Then, I split the total amount into 12 equal monthly payments and set that money aside in our savings account. I keep all my savings in our general savings account and keep a spreadsheet of how the money is allocated, but I've heard of others who keep a separate savings account just for gifts. So, when I spend the money, it has already been saved for throughout the year, and I won't be surprised when the credit card bill arrives (yes, we use our credit cards to get UPromise savings).
- I don't feel like our budget per person is very extravagant. Since, we have so many nieces and nephews, we only budget $15 per person for the kids, and I try to shop smart to get the most for my money.
- We do budget $100 per person for our immediate family (husband, myself and boys), but we try to use that money for practical things (pajamas, slippers, clothes, a few toys), so it's money we don't have to spend throughout the year. My husband is even getting a pair of work dress shoes this year for Christmas :-).
- I also purchase all the gifts that my parents (and some that my in-laws) give to my family, so it feels like I'm spending more, but it's money that was given to me.
- I don't feel like I have to spend all the money that I've budgeted. For example, I plan to be way under budget for my boys, so I'll probably contribute the rest of the money for them to their college fund. I'm sure that they'll appreciate that more than some toys that they won't be playing with next year.
I do find that at the end of the Christmas shopping season, I have to remind myself to stop spending, though :-). So, how do you budget for your gifts? Do you have problems reining in the spending when Christmas is over?
jpkittie
First I just want to tell you that I love your blog! I have been following it for a bit now (maybe 3 or 4 weeks) and I just love it! I also want to thank you for the amazing hard work that you put into the blog - it really does help out a ton of people --- I was able to save about $200 this month just by following blogs & couponing... I am hooked 😉
as for how we budget for Christmas - we have a separate account at the credit union that actually does not even let you take it if you need it! you have to wait until the first week in November before it transfers into the regular savings account... I just love the fact that $20 a week goes into an account for Christmas --- although, this year is a bit tigher for us then others, so it was nice to use as a little bit of liquid money as well to get us through a few tough patches!
thanks again for the great blog 🙂