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The title ‘skipping the holidays’ may be a little mis-leading but it suits where my mind is at right now. Hear me out.

I’ve been in the stores more this past couple of weeks than I have in probably months. Shopping for the twin’s, the house and so on. I’ve just ventured out a bit more than normal. As a result, I’ve been exposed to a lot more “holiday hoopla” than I typically am. (I have been an avid online shopper far longer than COVID has been around.)

And frankly, as much as I love the holiday season, beginning with just the inkling of cooler fall weather, thru to Halloween with the hundreds of kids in costumes at my grandmother’s house, to Thanksgiving in Texas with my kiddos and immediate family and then to my favorite of them all – Christmas, I’m inclined to skip most of that this year. Well maybe not most of it, but a lot of it.

Halloween

My grandmother continues to live in an assisted living facility so we did Halloween at home last year. It was a pretty big flop. And frankly, I do not need or want the candy around. Princess and Beauty have already planned their Halloween at school so I know they won’t come home and Gymnast will be out with friends I’m sure. I’m thinking of keeping the house dark and enjoying a quiet night in this year.

Skipping it in its entirety!

Thanksgiving

Our flights are booked. Even the twins’ girlfriends are going with us this year. In total, I paid $500 for our flights. My dad helped with the rest and the girlfriends paid their own way. We booked as soon as they were available to get the best deals. I’ll have to pay for parking at the airport and boarding my puppy, but otherwise, it will require minimum expenditure. And I don’t decorate my house for it because we are not here.

Skipping the heavy cost, not the event!

But…Christmas

Christmas is a completely different ball game. I like to go big at Christmas, but let’s face it, my family is so blessed. I can pretty much guarantee that none of my kids could tell you they “NEED” something. And they might even struggle to tell you anything they want that isn’t super expensive (all of them would tell you they want a car or a new car.)

While I’ve bought a few smaller things, I am seriously considering toning down our Christmas a bit. Or coming up with some different approach for the bulk of my Christmas budget rather than gifts.

With that being said, for the first time, in maybe ever, I really want to decorate for Christmas. Like I’m itching to do it already. We have decorated with a 4′ Christmas Tree from Dollar General for the last several years and frankly little else. This year, I want my house to reflect the joy I feel inside. Don’t mis-read this, I am not saying I want to spend my Christmas budget on decorations; although I do plan to get a bigger tree this year. I don’t necessarily want a bunch more stuff.

Doing it different

What I am saying is that I want to:

1. Decorate my house for Christmas (on a tight budget with minimal “stuff”) before we leave for Texas so that I can enjoy it alot longer. I was tempted to say before Halloween, but I think I can hold out until November 1st. Is that too soon considering we won’t be here for Thanksgiving?

2. Find some other way to use my Christmas budget other than just buying stuff. I do want to give some gifts, for sure, but there has to be more to this. I would love suggestions here. Things I have thought of…sponsoring some other families for Christmas, meaning the kids and I spend the Christmas budget and go together to shop for food/gifts for a couple of other families, having the kids use the money to buy some gifts for some of their friends who may not be as blessed (there is a lot of poverty around here). Maybe both?

I really want the kids to be involved and I want there to be an activity of giving, not just sending the money somewhere.

It is certainly early to be thinking of Christmas, but I’m a planner. And if we are going to do something different, I need a plan around it. Anyone here have these same types of desires? Ideas, anyone?

(And yes, I know that I could just take my healthy Christmas budget and throw it at debt. But I’m not going to. I just think our Christmas, well, it’s time for it to look and feel a bit different.)

Hope

Hope is a creative, solutions-focused business manager helping clients grow their business and work more efficiently by leveraging expertise in project management, digital marketing, & tech solutions. She’s recently become an empty nester as her 5 foster/adoptive kids have spread their wings. She lives with her 5 dogs in a small town in NE Georgia and prefers the mountains to the beaches any day. She struggles with the travel bug and is doing her best to help each of her kids as their finish schooling and become independent (but it’s hard!) She has run her own consulting company for almost twenty years! Hope began sharing her journey with the BAD community in the Spring of 2015 and feels like she has finally in a place to really focus on making wise financial decisions.

by Hope

I mentioned in my recent Budget post about having a savings plan. While I do include these in my monthly “where are you spending your money” posts, I thought seeing a plan for the next 8 months in one place might help assuage some of the BAD commenters fear that I am no saving or prepared to be a home owner or…

But before I post my plan, let me caveat by saying that my ROTH IRA and 401K contributions are NOT LISTED here. They come out of my twice monthly paycheck before I even see my income so I do not account for them here. And this works best for me, I am not ever tempted to spend the money elsewhere.

Without further ado, here is my savings plan from now until May, 2022 (which is as far as my budget goes right now.)

Savings Goals	Date	Amount
College Savings	9/15/2021	-500
College Savings	10/15/2021	-500
Christmas Savings	10/30/2021	-500
College Savings	11/15/2021	-500
Christmas Savings	11/30/2021	-500
Christmas Savings	12/15/2021	-500
College Savings	12/15/2021	-500
Travel Savings	1/1/2022	-500
Car Savings	1/15/2022	-750
College Savings	1/15/2022	-500
Christmas Savings	1/30/2022	-167
House Savings	1/30/2022	-500
Travel Savings	2/1/2022	-500
Car Savings	2/15/2022	-750
College Savings	2/15/2022	-500
Christmas Savings	2/28/2022	-167
House Savings	2/28/2022	-500
Travel Savings	3/1/2022	-500
Car Savings	3/15/2022	-750
College Savings	3/15/2022	-500
Christmas Savings	3/29/2022	-167
House Savings	3/31/2022	-500
Travel Savings	4/1/2022	-500
Car Savings	4/15/2022	-750
College Savings	4/15/2022	-500
Christmas Savings	4/27/2022	-167
House Savings	4/30/2022	-500
Travel Savings	5/1/2022	-500
Car Savings	5/15/2022	-750
College Savings	5/15/2022	-500
Christmas Savings	5/26/2022	-167
House Savings	5/31/2022	-500

They are all marked as negative numbers, as they are getting transferred out of my personal/bill paying checking account and into the appropriate savings or checking accounts.

My 5 savings categories

You will note that beginning in 2022, I have 5 designated categories. For the remainder of 2021, there are only two. The reason for this is that I now know what Princess’ spring semester will cost me. I have divided that up and am focused on having that amount ready by January, 2022. For this fall semester, I dipped into my Christmas account to pay for college so I’m paying that account back.

For 2022, things will be a bit different:

Travel

The bulk, if not all of our travel over the last few years has been to Texas. And I foresee that being the case for the next several years with an increasing number of trips. My parents have been coming here twice a year for the last several years and then we go there a couple of times a year. However, my mom is no longer able to travel.

With my mom’s health on the decline, I anticipate Gymnast and I will be going there more frequently. (The other kids will most likely make the trip at least once a year.) I am preparing for this reality. My dad has been amazing at helping me with travel expenses. He is flying Gymnast out next month for a week. (Gymnast and my mom have a very special relationship, so as often as he can go, we facilitate that.)

Car

I recently sold Princess’ car for $2,000. (I mentioned this as a side note in a previous post.) That money went into a savings account for another kids’ car down the road. Gymnast and I are sharing a car which works out great since I rarely go anywhere. Knowing that another car is going to become a NEED versus a want sometime in the year or so, I am going to amp up the savings so I am not caught off guard and should have a healthy amount when the time comes.

I realize the BAD community is split on whether parents should help or buy kid’s cars. I come from a family who always have purchased the kid’s cars while they were in school. That is something I plan to continue as much as I can.

College Savings

I think this is self-explanatory. If not, our goal is for all 5 of my kids to get through college or technical training or whatever they choose after high school with no debt. The twins and Beauty, due to their circumstances, get a plethora of funding from the government. So much so that they all get refunds every semester. As long as they make wise decisions, they do not need any financial support from me on that front.

Princess and Gymnast do not get that type of funding. So this savings is to help them out. They both work and save toward college. And their dad has committed to pitching in where he can. This savings account will help cover semesters’ tuition and housing costs along with books, etc. It certainly won’t cover all of the expense but it will be available to help.

Christmas Savings

In 2022, I will return to my monthly Christmas savings. Yes, I tend to go big at Christmas, maybe bigger than I should as I working to get out of debt. And I may rethink this in regards to my goal of being debt free come May, 2023. But for now, I will continue setting money aside each month.

We always finish our Texas family Christmas shopping by November so we can take it with us at Thanksgiving versus having to pay for shipping. We are ramping up to do that now. I’ve been buying and wrapping Christmas presents for the last couple of months.

*Note: the kids’ birthdays are all included in my monthly budget. I don’t save specifically for them, but do have a dollar amount set aside to cover gifts and a nice family meal for each child’s birthday.

House Savings

I own a house now. I get chills every time I say that. It’s just so unreal to me still after dreaming about it for so long!

While there’s been a lot of work done to it, I realize that anything could happen. As of 2022, I am setting up a new savings account to save for “house emergencies”. My previous plan had $1,000 per month, but with my debt payoff goal and knowing all the work that has been done, I felt like $500 per month should be sufficient. I am very open to suggestions here as I am new to this one.

I carry the suggested home owner’s insurance through a reputable company, have a brand new roof, new electric, new A/C, new bathrooms/kitchens (including new plumbing and electric)…so I feel like I’m covered barring something catastrophic. But am certainly open to real world experience and guidance here.

Summary

Each of my 5 savings categories and budgeted amounts are wholly automated and have their own bank accounts. This was new for me last year and really helped. Kind of the whole “out of sight, out of mind” thing. The college savings is a checking account as there are expenditures from there more regularly then the others.

The others are just basic savings account. I would love some guidance especially on the housing account on if I should set it up differently as I anticipate it sitting a lot longer than the others. At least I hope so.