Saving Christmas

‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a parent was sleeping, except those who’d planned ahead.

Nothing ruins a good night’s sleep at Christmas time like the thought of opening your credit card statements in January.

Even if you’re really careful, it’s easy to let your spending get out of hand. After all, it’s not just the cost of presents for the kids, it’s presents for family, food, drinks and the cost of keeping the kids entertained over the holidays. It all adds up really quickly and makes it hard to enjoy the summer break.

Sick of the inevitable stress and worry, I decided to try something different last year. I decided to save. (I know it seems really obvious but when you have young kids and a mortgage it’s easy to forget about saving money.)

Another dad gave me this great tip.
Simply put, you start off small and then increase as the year goes on. (While it’s ideal to start at the beginning of the year, anything you can do between when you start and Christmas will help relive the headache.)

Basically you take the week number and double it.

So in Week 1 you save $2.
In Week 2 you save $4.
Week 3 you save $6 and so on through to Week 52 where you save $104.
You just pop it in an envelope each week and by the end of the year you’ve saved about $2756.

It worked really well for me because for the majority of the year it was so easy. Sure you can save the same amount by spreading it evenly over the year but I found this way was better for getting in the habit of doing it regularly. By the time the amount increases you’re used to it.

Give it a go. You might find that saving for Christmas saves you a whole lot of worry, stress and headaches.