Funding the holidays

[mamamilkers]

I am curious how everyone funds their holiday gifts? The idea of a Christmas savings account sounds appealing to me, but I was wondering if there is any other way.

We ended up lucky in that the way DF's paychecks fell we didn't have huge expenses to take out of one of the checks so we used that "extra" money for Christmas. IIRC we did the same thing last year, too. But it's tricky and not necessarily reliable.

How about every else?

[1growingsprout]

I shop through out the year and pick up things on clearance or super cheap so I always have a 'present' storage going. This also helps deray the cost of birthdays, impromtu parties we get invited too etc... But to finish up the holidays about mid october I sit down and inventory what i have on hand and compare that to my kids 'wish list' and also what I have in mind to get them for the holidays. Then I show my numbers to DH and we go from there.

We dont save $x per month or have a dedicated account for these type things. If things were to really get tight we would cut back on groceries (we stockpile anyway) and get some $$ from there

[Purple*Lotus]

This year we are taking out $20 a month and putting it in to savings for Christmas. I am also going to try to make most of the gifts next year. So that will pay for any yarn I use for handmade blankets or shawls, etc. As I get closer to next year and find that I need more money than I have saved, then I will budget it in somehow by reducing grocery budget or something like that.

[asianyoushi]

for hubbys gift i am putting all the money i make from online survey sites in to my paypal and that would be my secret stash... money i make from reselling the kids clothes will go straight into our account...
site i do are in my siggie

[lmonter]

We have a secondary checking account for the regular-but-not expenses like gifts (birthday and Christmas), car insurance, medical spending (we have a $500/person/year deductible), gardening, life insurance, home repair, etc. At the end of the month I go through the main checking account, subtract anything we spent that would go in any of those categories, and transfer the rest we had budgeted for those categories into the secondary account and keep running totals for those categories. I'm anal, so that's what works for us.

[BetsyS]

We have a Christmas "envelope" (in quotes, cause it's not really a paper envelope, just a different place in my Microsoft Money) that I put money into every month. If it's a tight month, a little less, a good month, a little more, but I put some away every month for Christmas.

[sanguine_speed]

Originally Posted by BetsyS

We have a Christmas "envelope" (in quotes, cause it's not really a paper envelope, just a different place in my Microsoft Money) that I put money into every month. If it's a tight month, a little less, a good month, a little more, but I put some away every month for Christmas.

I like this approach.


What we've done is buy a little bit each month leading up to Christmas. We'd like to do something more formal and stretched out over the whole year because it does tend to sneak up on us.

[MamaJamie]

We seem to get lucky every year and something "comes up" that gives us the extra money for the holidays. I'm tired of being convinced that we won't be able to afford presents every year so this year I'm trying something different.

My bank does prepaid debit cards. They're supposed to be to teach teens how to use credit cards wisely or whatever, but there are no fees so I've decided to use one for christmas next year! Everyone month I can deposit whatever we can afford on it (and can do it online) and then whatever the balance happens to be when Nov. or Dec. roll around again will be our Christmas money. Plus, I'll be able to put the card with my actual credit cards which I think will prevent me from using it (I've vowed not to use any credit cards this year!). It's too easy to transfer money from savings to checking if we're having a rough month so I'm hoping this new method will work for me this year!

[Twinklefae]

A couple of years ago (while single) I did Canada Savings Bonds. They take the money off your paycheck and give you a little interest. It worked well.

My DFis insane about having a savings account, so this year we used that.

[Ruthiegirl]

Because we get paid every 2 weeks, we had an extra paycheck in November. That funded our holidays.

[ReikiMommy07]

I budget $20/month also, but that covers all gifts throughout the year--Christmas, bdays, and Easter if applicable (I haven't decided whether we're going to do the Easter Bunny with DS).

[mom2dea]

We decided 50 a month starting in Jan to put into a paper envolope that way threw out the yr we can pick up things if we see them if there is money left over at the end of the yr that will go towards the next yr and we will lower our monthly amount . I am also already starting a list for next yr so I can start making gifts as we did not do gifts at all this yr for family only for our childern and parents .