40-Day Challenge Day 4

Create a detailed Spending Plan. Identify your categories: gifts, baking, cards, entertaining, travel, etc. Write down the total amount you have to spend, where it will come from, and how you will divvy it up. 

Listen …

 

It is vital that your holiday planning includes a specific and detailed spending plan, designating the overall amount you plan to spend and the ways you plan to spend it.

To start, make a chart that will allow you to visualize your spending categories, including gifts for kids, spouse, grandparents, other relatives, friends, service givers, coworkers, and employees; gift wrapping; Christmas cards, postage, and a photo session; baking ingredients; tree and home decorations; admission for holiday events; babysitting and travel costs; charitable donations; new clothes; etc.

In a column with the heading “$ Amount Plan,” write down the amount of money you plan to spend on each category.

Total all the categories to see how much cash you will need for your expected holiday expenses. Whoa. It’s probably a lot more dough than you anticipated or even available now.

Did you ever dream your holiday expenses were so huge? No wonder Christmas has sent you to credit cards in the past. Likely, your list will need scaling down; now is the time to do it.

I hope you’ve used a pencil because you’ll need to do a lot of erasing and refiguring. First, erase the total and write instead the total cash you intend to have available for the Christmas holidays. You may have to resharpen that pencil often before you get your expected spending to match your total available cash.

If the list is out of balance—your expenses exceed your available cash—start whittling down that enormous gift list. We often feel compelled to give a gift when a nice card, photo of the kids, or a personal note would convey the intended goodwill. Go through your list with this in mind, and put a star next to those who will be getting cards as gifts this year.

If you still have a discrepancy, there are two things you can do: reduce expenses even further or find ways to come up with more cash.

How are you doing? Please share, discuss, and ask in the comments below.

 

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