Christmas can be stressful. Searching for the perfect gifts, the baking, the decorating can weigh on us after awhile. Let’s not forget our bank account. It’s not like everyone gets a Christmas bonus every year. And if you’re like me, you have to ship a few packages. It all adds up and it stresses me out.
I decided that I could plan better for Christmas if I did it slowly over time. It occurred to me one year long after Christmas, like the summer, I found a gift for my sister and decided to buy it and put it away. I felt like I had a win. When I was out shopping, I’d be on the look out for potential Christmas gifts, especially if someone had mentioned something they wanted. If I found something, I bought it and put it away. It was a great feeling to be ahead of the game. There was one year, I was done by Thanksgiving. Then it was just baking, decorating and Christmas parties.🪅🎄
Having a cash 💰 stash or a Christmas savings account was the biggest rush. When I was a kid, our bank Old Stone Bank, had a Christmas savings pass book. Yes I am mid century modern old, not Stone Age. Anyway you could put away $5 or $10 a week and by the end of the year you’d have $520 or $260 back then that was a.lot.of.money (and you actually had to walk into the back with the cash and teller made an entry in your pass book). That gave me an idea. How much could I set aside every week so that I would have Christmas money to spend? I tried putting aside $1 on week one, $2 week two… that came to $10 the first month. By the third month, 19 weeks that is $70. I was on a budget and each month that was like a bill going up. That wasn’t working. I decided that $25 a week would be a start. (OK that was ten years ago). Even $25 a week is $1300. Ten years ago, that went a long way and I just rolled it over for next year. Now if you are just starting, it’s ok. You need to start somewhere and it will be more than you have if you didn’t start. This will pay off in 2027, trust me it’s a rush. I usually had extra money in the account for birthday gifts during the year. I could by decorations, baking goods, whatever I needed for Christmas. It’s a Christmas rush of a different kind 😉I felt great to not have to pay back the credit card company and still have some cash to roll over. It was a huge stress reliever.
Please subscribe and follow me on social media and stay tuned in the next post I will tell you how I stashed the money and was able to add to it during the year.
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