Christmas

For the first time ever this year, we created a sinking fund for Christmas, and it is one of the best financial decisions we have ever made! Truthfully, I don’t know why we never did it before!

Christmas is expensive. And it’s not a surprise, but every year we treated it like it was. Every year we would scramble to be able to pay for things and add to our debt. This year, it looks like things might be a little different. Every month we have budgeted $200 to put in an envelope for Christmas, then as we have needed it, there has been money for us to use as we have found the perfect gift or just the right stocking stuffer. It’s been wonderful.

We have a huge family and shop for EVERYONE. In total, including small gifts for co-workers. We shop for about 65-70 people. Most people think that’s ridiculous. And I get it, I do. But it’s how we do Christmas. Because of this, in order to augment our Christmas fund, we redeem our health insurance points for Amazon gift cards and any points we earn through our credit card get redeemed for cash too. This year, that worked out to an additional $700 to put into our Christmas fund.

In total, we have very near $3000 to use for Christmas. This is not only for gifts and stocking stuffers, but also for our Christmas party invitations and food, and our Christmas traditions.

This is the first year that we have ever had a sinking fund for Christmas, and it has been life changing. However, I don’t yet know if it’s going to be enough. For most people, $3000 would more than cover their Christmas expenses. I don’t know if it will cover ours. But I do know it’s a good start.

Seeing how we finish the year and get through Christmas will determine if we set aside enough money each month or if we need to increase our budget for next year. But any way you cut it, we are in a better position to pay for Christmas than we ever have been before. We have a little Christmas nest egg to draw from and some deposits still to be made towards our sinking fund before the end of the year.

Even with the myriad of ways we were derailed this year, we have managed to decrease our debt, create a sinking fund for Christmas, and contribute to our retirements.  It’s not perfect, but it’s progress.