12 Weeks 'til Christmas
Are you already planning for the upcoming holidays? Good!
Next week, 4 Oct 2020, gives you 12 weeks until Christmas to plan and strategize so that gifts, meals, and events are all within budget and leave everyone with memories of joy, and not remorse, come January.
If you’re like most folks with every-other week paychecks, that gives you 6 to plan across for your budgets. $100 a paycheck means a stash of $600 to plan to spend for gifts! Woah!
Going into the holidays with a transparent game plan will alleviate a bit of stress. Which is especially important because 2020 has thrown us all enough curve balls this year! First and foremost, decide if and how you will celebrate with friends and family, in-person or virtually. COVID-19 has thrown a wrench in a lot of things, especially travel, but we’re also coming into cold an flu season to boot. Everyone has different comfort levels, so it’s best to be open and honest on the front-end, so that no one feels extra discomfort on top of the craziness that accompanies the holiday season.
Starting our gift list…
Next, with this celebration plan in mind, decide if you’re going to participate in gift exchanges. It’s okay to ask friends and family to skip the gift exchange this year (fun fact it’s okay to have this conversation every year), but to still appreciate a good conversation over Skype or visit in person to celebrate the holidays together. Consider donating more to your favorite charity, or that of a family member, instead of scouting the store shelves for inspiration. Or, try your hand at homemade goods! Goodies a person consumes, like cookies or soap, make great gifts because they’re enjoyed, but don’t have to be stored somewhere if there’s not already a plan for its use.
This is important! Just because it’s on sale, doesn’t mean it’s a good buy. If you weren’t planning on purchasing the "doorbuster” item to begin with, there’s no reason to bust down the door for the item, let alone exchange your hard-earned dollars for said item. If you are planning to do Black Friday or any other holiday shopping, for yourself or anyone else, make a list and check it twice. And stick to that list. You made that list for a reason!
This year, we hope everyone can be transparent about their wants and needs. Not only for gifting, budgets, and calendars, but personally, too. The more honest we can be, the less heartache there will be about missed opportunities or collapsed expectations. If gift-giving is a need for you to celebrate the holidays, but your brother’s budget can’t support such a thing this year, you both need to expect that you’ll give him a gift because you can’t help yourself, and that he’ll give you a hug and big smile in return. And that is wonderful, if expected. If not, feelings can get hurt. If, instead, you all agreed to no gifts, and then gifts emerge, folks might be disheartened and hurt, regardless of the generosity of a surprise gift.
Transparency will go a long way for a little more sanity throughout the holidays.
And that applies to you and your budget! Be transparent with yourself about your own holiday spending. If you’ll buy 12 new candles for the holidays, because you always do, plan for it!
Two, please! And a hot cocoa!
Every year, I spend over $100 on baking ingredients. And bake hundreds of cookies, of at least half a dozen types of cookies, and make repeated giant messes of the kitchen while doing so. It’s a need, for me, to celebrate. That’s how I grew up. Mom would spend hours and hours baking dozens and dozens of cookies, with my sister and I walking in and out, helping occasionally, but mostly helping ourselves to the cookie trays. It doesn’t feel like the holidays are close without the kitchen smelling like delicious treats. I go bonkers with baking cookies, and the grocery budget explodes. This year, I’m setting a separate holiday baking budget category. We’ve been on a roll keeping our groceries in check, and I don’t want to end the year on such a budget disaster.
Another budget category I’m establishing this year: decorations. And I’m lumping all fall/winter into this category because it’s really easy for me to buy way too many fall treasures of pumpkin this, cinnamon that… for candles, potpourri, wreathes, garland, you name it. Fall is the best. But Christmas decorations are pretty wonderful, too! However, with trying to figure out our relocation plan, having extra boxes to move doesn’t sound very appealing. This budget category will be separate and small to specifically limit what we might be moving.
As for gifts, we haven’t figured that out yet. It’ll very likely be a mixed bag of exchanging gifts with some, and heartfelt notes with others. The budget is set, though! We just need to figure out the rest.
We hope this serves as a reminder that you are in the driver seat of your budget choices. By writing it down, and talking things through with friends and family, we hope your holiday planning sets you on track to finish out the year from a position of fiscal strength. We wish you all wealth and health, and a little extra peace, too!
