40-Day Christmas Challenge | Day 16: Do a Christmas Spending Check-In • Everyday Cheapskate

Remember that lovely Christmas spending plan we made back on Day 4? Time to see how it’s doing out in the wild.

Because a spending plan made before you start shopping is one thing. A spending plan after you’ve purchased a few gifts, ordered something online, bought baking supplies and discovered that one person on your list is apparently impossible to shop for?

That’s information.

Today we’re not making a new budget. We’re checking the one we already have.

This isn’t a report card. It’s a course correction.

Today’s Challenge

Spend 10 minutes comparing what you planned to spend with what you’ve actually spent or committed so far.

Then look at what’s still coming.

If the numbers still work, terrific.

If they don’t, make one adjustment now, while a small correction is still possible.

Do This Today

1. Find out where you are.

Pull out the Christmas spending plan you made on Day 4 and your Master Giving List from Day 6.

Now total what you’ve spent or committed so far.

Check whatever will help you reconstruct your spending: receipts, order confirmations, bank or credit card transactions, digital wallet purchases and cash purchases you remember.

And remember our Day 7 rule: if you bought something using installment payments, count the full purchase price, not just the first payment. Christmas bought on payments is still Christmas bought.

2. Compare that with the plan.

Look at your spending category by category.

Maybe gifts are right on target. Maybe you’ve barely spent anything on food yet. Maybe decorations somehow staged a small coup and seized twice their allotted budget.

Don’t panic. We’re just trying to answer three questions:

What have I spent or committed?
What’s still coming?
Does the original plan still work?

That’s it.

3. Make one adjustment if you need to.

If you’re on track, congratulations. Your adjustment is no adjustment.

If one area is running high, don’t immediately declare the entire plan a failure.

Look at what’s still ahead. Maybe one gift gets simpler. Maybe you skip something you were considering buying. Maybe Christmas dinner changes a little. Maybe money you found on Day 11 can replace spending you were already planning.

Or maybe you’ve looked at the numbers and decided you can afford to increase one category. That’s fine too.

The important thing is that you decide. Don’t let January make the announcement for you.

Quick Win

Don’t have 10 minutes? Check one number:

Total Christmas spending so far: $________

Compare it with the total you planned on Day 4.

That’s enough for today. Knowing is better than guessing.

If You’ve Already Overspent

Here’s where budgets have a nasty habit of becoming all-or-nothing.

“Well, I already blew it, so…”

No.

If you planned $400 for gifts and you’ve spent $450, you’re $50 over. You are not infinity dollars over. You have a $50 problem. That’s much easier to solve.

Look at what’s still ahead and see whether you can make a $50 adjustment somewhere else. Or consciously decide that you can afford the extra $50 and revise the plan.

Either way, you’ve replaced a vague feeling of I think we’re spending too much with an actual number. Actual numbers are much more cooperative.

Don’t Move the Goalposts Without Noticing

This is the sneaky one. You planned $50 for someone. Then you find the perfect gift for $58. Only $8 more. Then you add something little for $12. Then gift wrap. Pretty soon your $50 person is an $80 person.

Maybe that’s perfectly fine. Perhaps this is someone you deliberately decide deserves more of your Christmas spending.

But make it a decision, not drift. If you add money somewhere, know where it’s coming from.

Don’t Forget the Little Stuff

Big gifts are usually easy to remember. It’s the little Christmas spending that gets slippery.

Tape. Postage. Gift bags. A hostess gift. Ingredients for the cookie exchange. Parking. The $12 thing you tossed into an online order because you were already ordering anyway.

None of those purchases is necessarily a problem. But they’re still Christmas spending.

Give them somewhere to land. Otherwise $8 here and $14 there eventually becomes:

Wait. Where did all the money go?

Mystery solved.

Cash Envelopes Still Work

If you love the envelope system, by all means keep using it. There is something wonderfully clear about looking inside an envelope marked CHRISTMAS FOOD and seeing exactly how much is left.

But you don’t need to switch to cash envelopes for today’s challenge.

A notebook works. A spreadsheet works. A note on your phone works. Your existing spending plan works.

I don’t care which system you use. I care that you can answer two questions:

How much have I spent or committed?
How much do I still have available?

If your system can tell you that, it’s doing its job.

Why It Matters

A Christmas spending plan doesn’t work because you wrote some numbers on a page once. It works because you look at those numbers again while there’s still time to do something with what you learn.

That’s what today’s check-in gives you: time to make small adjustments while they’re still small.

We’re not trying to arrive at Christmas having spent exactly $842.17 because a worksheet told us to. We’re trying to arrive at Christmas without wondering how we’re going to pay for Christmas after it’s over.

Much better goal.

Your Turn

Which Christmas expense is most likely to sneak up on your spending plan? Gifts? Food? Shipping? All the little extras? Tell us in the comments. There’s something strangely comforting about discovering that other competent adults forgot to budget for tape, too.