Have you started saving for Christmas yet? If not, you may want to start today.
Yes, I know it is the beginning of August and you probably haven't even thought about Christmas gifts. If you do a little planning now, you could possibly avoid accumulating debt when the holiday shopping season comes around.
It's best to start saving in January. This way, you have 11 months to save up the amount you want to spend on gifts for family and friends. If you haven't started a Christmas or Holiday Fund, it's not too late. You'll just need to save a larger amount or plan to spend a smaller amount.
How much will you need to save each month?
The chart below shows the difference in what you'll need to save each month in order to reach $1000.
As shown above, if you started saving in August, you would need to put away $250 a month. If you'd started saving in January, you would only need to put away less than $91 a month.If you failed to save money for your holiday shopping, come December, you would need to either take $1000 out of your December budget, raid your Emergency Fund (you do have one, right?) or as a last resort, pull out the plastic.
I usually try to save for Christmas, but this year it just didn't work out. Instead, I'm using my points from my amazing rewards debit card to get gift cards for everyone. Last year I saved $500 for Christmas and it worked out really well. I just wasn't able to save much this year. Hopefully next year will be better!
This is a really good idea! Thanks for the info.
Or even better, why not just start buying your gifts before November and December. I did some of my holiday shopping on my three week trip to Hawaii. I make little gourmet gift baskets for my family so I picked up black sea salt, macadamia oil and kona coffee to go into the basket.
i shop year-round...i have a 20 limit and a place in my closet just for christmas gifts. i find that by the time Christmas rolls around i'm usually already done. it's also easier to pay cash because i'm not buying all the gifts at once.
Once a month I shop for one Christmas gift. I have a box on my room and there I put everything I bought for the holiday. Saves me a lot of money and most importantly time, Holiday rush gives me headaches.
everybody saves money for christmas, it is a fact