It’s here! The 25th of the month! This is the day we do just a little prep work for Christmas… so that when December rolls around we are ready, rested, and stress-free. I’ll be on Facebook Live this morning talking you through February’s challenge. See the January tasks here. Today we are going to…
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Set Aside Cash Gifts
Our family has a few people we gift with a cash bonus at Christmas, like our cleaning ladies and our milk man. Today I want you to think about anyone you tip at Christmas and go ahead and set that money aside. You can either hit the ATM today, or work it into next month’s budget. Either way, get it going so that your bank account won’t have to take such a big hit in December. You can even grab some cute envelopes for gifting cash like these:
Once you grab the cash, it’s important to keep it in a safe place. Last month we set up our gift storage area. If you feel that’s a good place to keep it, put it there. If you need somewhere a little more secure, put it away… then write down where it is and stick that note in your Christmas Planner notebook. You could also keep the money right inside your notebook.
Make Your Gift List
Sit down and write down all the people you give to at Christmastime. Include them all… family, friends, teachers, and loved ones. Make a rough budget of how much you will spend on each person. Subscribe to our Crazy for Christmas Challenge email list for a handy Gift List Printable for your binder.
Break Down Your Gift Buying
Now that you know how many gifts you plan to buy, divide them up between March and November. You can do this by number of gifts or by dollar amount... spread out over those nine months. So, if you have 18 gifts to buy, you’ll need to buy two per month starting next month. Or, if you plan to spend $500 on all your gifts, you’ll want to buy around $55 worth of gifts each month. It’s up to you how you want to divide up your list, but the key is that you’ll have them all purchased by November! Next month we will actually start buying gifts, but for now you just need a plan. This will help you plan out your monthly budgets as well.
Happy planning, friends! You can find the Crazy for Christmas Challenge Facebook Group here for more inspiration and to share your progress.