Halloween is Just the Beginning...

In our family, Halloween marks the beginning of the holiday season. From here through January only the strongest survive – by gripping tightly onto their wallets and eating only vegetables every chance we get, to combat the sweets and belt-busting meals that accompany every festivity.

In November alone, our family celebrates 6 birthdays, and December and January hold 4 more. Add to that Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s (also Paul’s 40th birthday this year), and we’ve got some very creative budgeting to do to keep on track with our finances, and with Project Money!

On Scott’s advice, we’re developing a spreadsheet that lists all of the gift giving and entertaining we plan to do this season, with a target dollar amount for each occasion and a total that is within reason for our budget. As we make purchases, we will enter the amount spent on each item.  This is supposed to help us track how much we have spent. Hopefully, writing down the expenditures and seeing everything on paper frequently will help us avoid impulse purchases and budget busters. I’m normally not a big shopper, but this is one time of year I enjoy the experience, and I tend to spend more that I should.  This year I’m going to be thinking of ways to make the season special without breaking the bank!

 

Comments

[Grant]

I love that gift/party budget idea. It seems like something so simple, but those types of expenses just tend to start ballooning this time of year.

[Amy]

Heike & Paul - It's a great idea to create a spreadsheet for holiday spending. Check out more ideas in the tips and tools section of Summit's web site...it even has a PDF of a sample Holiday Spending Worksheet.

http://www.summitcreditunion.com/summit.php?page=499