Saturday, July 23, 2016

Planning for that day...you know, the one in December?


I hate to say the C word so early but you all know that every December the C word comes around (if you celebrate) and costs most households a fortune.  I like to plan ahead for the most expensive month of the year by saving points and socking away money bit by bit throughout the year.  If you have read this blog for any length of time you understand I am a saver of both cash and points.



I have one checking account and one savings account (not including retirement savings).  The checking is used for paychecks and bill paying.  The savings account is one figure that is comprised of many different funds.  The travel fund, the house fund which pays for things that break down or maintenance/appliance purchases, the medical fund as we pay as we go for everything other than basic healthcare, the big bill fund which pays for house taxes and house and car insurance and the Christmas fund.  If a new need crops up that needs saving for I just make another column on the sheet and add it in.  Yes, all of this is manually recorded on a piece of paper.  That way it is relatively easy to keep track.  If we run into trouble or low in one fund I can choose to borrow from another fund, although I rarely do that.  Sometimes we end up paying for things out of our regular paychecks but if we need to tap a fund it is there for us.

We are on month seven of the year and the cash Christmas fund stands at $660.  The goal is usually $1000 but this year I have to up that a bit to also pay for some travel expenses as we can't stay with my stepson as he has moved to a much smaller apartment. That is for all extra expenses related to Christmas including gifts and travel expenses and anything else that crops up. We have one free hotel night from hubby's corporate travel so that will be saved for our trip to Alberta in December which has already been booked on points since early June.  We decided to go in early December this year so we could avoid the high traffic flight days, get air mile space and hubby could still do a day or two of business around our family visits.  Now that the kids are all adults it is much easier to go earlier rather than so close to Christmas.  If any of them want to come visit right at Christmas they are more than welcome to but I hate traveling in airports at that time.

Of that $660 most of it was saved from paychecks but $35.04 of that was saved from found money.  What is found money?  Two grocery rebates and a $20 check from a class action grocery lawsuit that was applied for a couple of years ago.

I also save up my grocery points and those tend to add up quickly in Canada where there is much less couponing but most grocery stores have jumped on the point bandwagon.  Currently I have:

$40 PC Plus points
$85 Shoppers Drug Mart Points
$54.06 Amazon Gift Certificates from Swagbucks (I used a tiny bit for the rest of my fitbit)
$50 Amazon Gift Certificate from Angus Reid Polls

For a grand total of $660 cash and $229.06 in gift certificates/points that can be used like cash.

Not too shabby for being just over halfway in the year!  Do you save ahead for C day?



16 comments:

  1. I so understand planning for the C word early. I do it all year long!

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    1. Absolutely! Now if only Christmas cookies could be baked in August and last!

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  2. Christmas is pretty small for us. We only purchase presents for our good friend that watches our condo in the States. Our gifts for each other are small tokens because we tend to purchase things as they are needed throughout the year. The part of Christmas I like best is eating traditional foods that we prepare year after year. Probably everyone else would like a change in the menus, but I look forward to that turkey and dressing and all the fixings. - Margy

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    1. We still give each other a gift but like you do other things throughout the year too.

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  3. i've always been a "keep my eye's open for gifts" person year round. but wou;d like to get more serious so have set a target goal by December 31. I kind of track as well-same account, but different columns on a spread sheet. I'm not good at points for cashing in, but I figure if I can keep expenses low, I can put more in savings, so use the deals as I can. the C word should be happy, and I am not going to stress any more, but try and be planned. We don't travel, but would like to get my son home again this year.

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    1. You are right, the C word shouldn't be stressful. We try and get all the visiting and gift purchasing out of the way by December 15th, that way the last 2 weeks of December are quite laid back and restful. We do very little business in that timeframe so a good time to recharge.

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  4. Nice work! We bought our flights way,way back in March so that we could use frequent flier miles - for all four of us. We just covered the tax, so it was $45 for the four tickets. For gifts, we have our Christmas spending down to about $700. This includes our kids, the kids of a couple of friends, a donation, a bonus for our nanny & one for our cleaning lady. We will also contribute $150 to the food/drinks for the first round of festivities at my parents house (we are there for a few days) & then will need a rental car, and will also host at our vacation house.

    Total out of pocket this year is budgeted to be around $1300. The flights saved us $1300, so cut our budget in half! Woohoo! We have a large cash savings amount right now for the downpayment, so we will use that for gifts along the way, and replenish with our extra December paycheck.

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    1. I think next year we will book earlier like you did, our choices were limited and we still booked 6 months out. Well done on your flights!

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  5. I don't save ahead so much as I try to purchase gifts throughout the year. Plus make things - this year I'm going to try to crochet headbands and coasters. We'll see how that goes :) I save my PC points for extra Christmas food and Kazi's stocking. I have about $80 in points at the moment...I think.

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    1. If I don't end up using the points for gifts I will use them for groceries so that the grocery money can be put toward their gift which in the end works out the same. Don't you love PC points?

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  6. Got a few thing line up for Christmas. One would be surprise what sort gifts one can fine in a local thrift store.
    Coffee is on

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    1. I often see neat things - and have bought things at the thrift for my Mom who would appreciate them. I completely agree, one should be on the lookout everywhere!

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  7. Now that it is just the 2 of us, we no longer do Xmas gifts. It used to be ha huge celebration for us and my gifts totaled over 200. This year we even stopped doing birthday cards. There is still Colin's 101 year old Mom to buy for buy she prefers lots and lots of cards so she get 2 or 3 in the mail each week in December. She doesn't need anything at her age.

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    1. One day life will be simpler and we won't do gifts but with 4 just barely adult kids we still like to give them a gift for their birthday and Christmas as we have never been the kind of parents to spoil them throughout the year. I paid the adoption fee for a cat for Mom last year and we bought a few things for hubby's Mom but she has alzheimers and it is getting harder and harder. She loved the stuffed seal I bought her though, likely her favorite (and cheapest) gift we bought her.

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  8. Great tips! I have a Xmas and extras savings account.

    Money is deposited in it every pay check. I try to buy Xmas gifts all year long, I bought one on Amazon Prime day...the deal was too good to pass up!

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    1. Great idea to buy all year long, I would do that but have no idea in advance what to get everyone. We mostly give cash to the kids and my nephew and then buy something for my Mom and hubby's Mom.

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