Hello, hello!
How's your Friday, everyone? Ready for the weekend??
I just realized the other day that I had a fully funded Christmas account by July of last year. I'm ashamed to say but I haven't really started working on it this time around. There are just too many other things on my mind or other expenses that constantly pop up. Well, I'm lying, we do set aside $20 every month that are taken out of our account automatically. But it's not much...
One thing we decided to do though is to take advantage of every single free penny we are getting. We then put it all into a newly born Christmas fund (or we know, it will eventually go there). I did some math this week and was actually pleasantly surprised. This is where our numbers are so far:
Regular Christmas account (automatic withdrawal) - $155.52 (had some leftovers from last year)
Credit card rewards points (accumulated from this and last year) - $156.70
Swagbucks - $20 in Amazon gift cards
My points - about two months away from a $50 gift card (if I go with Walmart or Amazon. I have enough points for gift cards for some other places already)
Blog income - $223 (took me a while to get here... Those ads really don't pay much...)
So total: $605.22. Not bad at all! Not where I would love to be at this point but way better than I imagined before. Now I just need to start working on some homemade gifts...
And some might say that it's more than enough for most of the families. But our gift giving usually includes a package my sister and I send back home every year, and the shipping alone is usually about $70-80....That, on top of at least 15 other gifts we are getting every year, and that's with a drawing... What can I say, we have a big family and lots of little children. I like to spoil them :)
Did you start your Christmas fund yet? Do you get any "free" money to go in it?
Well done on the Christmas savings. Not quite as bad as you thought. We start our Christmas fund from January and we also keep our eyes open at sale time for anything that is suitable for gifts and then out them away. I made a few gifts last year but not sure what to make this year.
ReplyDeleteCarolx
I got one Christmas gift so far:) And I'm not sure yet what to make this year...
DeleteWhen we entered December last year I had no Christmas fund. We had some things come up before then and had to use it so I had to think of something else. I ended up cashing in all of my spare change that I had in a large coffee can. I didn't think there was more than $100 in it but when I started rolling it up and cashed it in I ended up with over $300 and that's what I used for Christmas. It kind of felt like free money since it came all from spare change that I had laying around. The only bummer is that it took me several years to accumulate all of that change and then it was just gone in one instant- haha. I've since started collecting my spare change and my goal is to once again fill up the can and maybe in a few years we will have another free Christmas. :)
ReplyDeleteHa, you gave me an idea - I need to cash our piggy. It's full and weighs 5 lbs, so there is gotta be at least $20 inside. Free Christmas is always nice :)
DeleteI'm both motivated and impressed by your discipline. I have yet to start my Christmas savings. I also have a large family so there are a lot of gifts to be bought. Christmas will be here before we know it!
ReplyDeleteYou are too sweet :) Christmas will definitely be here quite soon. It's hard to believe but it's June already!
DeleteOur Christmas savings automatically comes out of hubbys paychecks into a separate account... so by Oct-Nov. we will have $1200+ for Christmas. :) Easy and I don't need to "remember" or try to come up with that during the year when i'm trying to figure out so many other things as well...
ReplyDeleteThat's always nice! We could only do $20 this year... Hopefully, next year we can bump it a bit.
DeleteI roll spare change all year for Xmas money.
ReplyDeleteI also get reward points with the credit card(which I pay off in full each month)and I save those up to cash in for gift cards to either give or use to buy presents.
I don't do Swagbucks or any other thing like that anymore, but if I was short on cash, I would go back to it.
I don't do Swagbucks as often as I should any more but I love My points. It's easy enough - all I have to do is put the sites I visit anyway through their search and accumulate points for it. And I do love our credit card rewards too, especially extra bonuses like 5% cash back on gas a few times a year :)
DeleteI use "miles" from our credit card for a couple gift cards we give each yr. I also am saving my Amazon cards I get from swagbucks. I will also use any gift cards I get from Perktv too. We give a few photos as gifts each yr so I will be watching for free 8x10 offers from Walgreens for those gifts. Of course I make several gifts also. I plan to also watch for items at yard sales and thrift stores. Sometimes you can find brand new items that way :)
ReplyDeleteThere's nothing in my Christmas fund so far :( But since my income is about to be reduced by half next month when my pension begins my spending will also be cut in half. I have purchased one gift so far and have plans to get some "practical items" for Kazi for when she has her own place, like a microwave, coffee pot etc. I can use my credit card points to cover these gifts. I certainly won't be going overboard any more with gift spending - I just won't be able to afford it!
ReplyDeleteI'm right next to you on that one! I had some saved, but had to shift it around due to all of the extra expenses, and I think it sits on empty as of today (or maybe $50 out of $800?). It's pretty sad. I need to start working on it. It really saves my behind and gets rid of a lot of stress for spending during the holidays.
ReplyDeleteI do have about $300 in credit card points, since I didnt use them at all last year. Maybe I'll finally get around to using them this year... I'll need all the help I can get.
you are well on your way. I usually shop for gifts right after Christmas...sales. I think I have pretty much everyone covered :)
ReplyDeleteHi Lena! Thanks for dropping by Turnips 2 Tangerines! I have been so busy lately with my grandkids I haven't had time to drop by for a visit:) I don't know how you do it Lena! It takes real discipline to save money and you seem to do it so well:) I was looking around your blog and came across your recipe for coconut cinnamon rolls, boy do they sound good!! Lynn @ Turnips Tangerines
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