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Christmas Saving Thoughts

October 5th, 2010 at 04:02 pm

I have never been great about saving ahead for Christmas. Surprising. It comes at the same time every year. I save for other yearly expenses on a monthly basis, but not Christmas or Birthdays.

I might change. I might not. I usually just spend what I have on hand. Can't go wrong there. I also start shopping for some things early.

Right now I actually have a little stash that I have accumulated for Christmas:

Target Gift Cards $80
Cash $160
Paypal $19.61
Cash Rewards $75
Amazon Gift Card $5

Total = $339.61

I'm guessing I need another $400, which can easily come out of cash on hand as I buy. I plan to keep earning rewards and holding on to the paypal balance. It will all help take the sting out of the Christmas spending. Oh and I do intend to scale back a bit on gifts. I'm thinking some homemade items are in order!

3 Responses to “Christmas Saving Thoughts”

  1. momcents Says:
    1286293858


    I'm close to redeeming points for another two - $10 Target gift cards (I'm presently at $30 and am waiting for the $100 deposit to the checking account from setting up the new accounts at PNC). My oldest daughter would like an I-Pod Touch for Christmas and they are about $190 at Target. It will be nice if I can fund that with passive income!

    One of my son's is totally done (he's the easy pleaser out of the bunch). I also picked up some clearance "Grandchildren" frames at Kohl's in the summer for $3.50 a piece. My plans are coming together slowly, and I'd like to keep it cheap this year!

    Nice stash you've accumulated!

  2. campfrugal Says:
    1286297362

    Cool. That is what I have been saving my accumulated cash and gift cards for, is Christmas. Christmas is a little tighter this year, so I will need to get real creative, but somehow, Christmas always turns out magical.

  3. marvholly Says:
    1286359857

    I do not generally 'save' for any holiday. I might put a few $$ aside for a few weeks in advance when I KNOW I will be spending a BUNCH on food/liquid refreshments for a particular holiday.

    I DO budget for those annual gifts (bdays, anniversaries....) but usually am blindsided by the unexpected (weddings of 2nd cousins, ....).

    In 2007 I told my adult kids since both would have kids by the next Christmas only they (grands) would be getting gifts. For the past few years I have been able to buy most of these gifts on clearance somewhere, either right after the holiday or during annual shelf resets.

    I give other holiday gifts to the grands. I bought the items for Halloween for the 18 month old twins on last Halloween's clearance and for the 5 y/o just yesterday w/a $5 off on any Halloween except candy at CVS. The 21/2 y/o will not be with us this year for Halloween.

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