Christmas is Always in December!

Are you ready?  Did you plan this year ahead of time?  Did you save up?  Or is "planning" using a credit card and paying it off for the next year.
Our family hasn't used credit cards personally to charge any item at all since 2001!!!!!  And I'm still paying them off.  Can you imagine the Christmas presents and interest I've paid?
This year and in previous years, since discovering Dave Ramsey, we've created a savings account for Christmas.  Any type of expense that is not monthly like Christmas, Auto Repairs, Vacations, or Insurance, I've created a "sinking fund".  In this fund I put a 12th of the expense every month.  So if the insurance is $175 a year, then I divide that by 12 and transfer $15 a month into a sinking fund.  Then when the bill comes due, it doesn't put a $175 hole in my monthly budget!
We do this for Christmas too.  A 12th of the Christmas budget goes into the sinking fund every month, so that when November gets here we have all the money saved!
I budget an amount and write down every present and amount spent on each person so that I can keep track of how much we've spent.
Try it!  You might like the organization and stress free feeling of the holidays next year!

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