I’m going to brag for a second. You know how after Christmas you’ve got credit card bills out the wazoo?
I don’t. In fact, we had left over money this year that we didn’t spend, and it’s not like we were chintzy on the gifts.
What the Mrs. and I did was budget how much we were going to spend for Christmas or birthday gifts, divide that amount by the number of months left in the year (we didn’t start this until midway through the year in 2011), and then put that money away each month. Come gift buying time, we had the cash on hand to outright pay for everything, and we started the new year continuing to be debt free.
Honestly, it’s not hard to do once you get ahead of your bills. Getting ahead is the tricky part, but once you do and you set yourself up a budget, you’ll find that you have more money than you think you do. Your budget will show you where your money is going and if you pay attention to it, you’ll discover that there are many things in your life you can live without that you’re dumping money on. Opportunity costs become clear when you spend every dollar on paper before it goes out the door.
Even if you’re not ready to go debt-free this year, give budgeting for gifts a shot. Simply put money away for gifts each month and watch your normal Christmas bills disappear!
Debt is normal. Be weird.