I started Christmas shopping this week. I hadn’t really planned it, but Target had put the toys from my son’s favorite show on clearance and I didn’t want to miss out. He loves the Little Einsteins on the Disney channel. They had put about half their Little Einsteins toys at 25% off. I couldn’t pass it up. I spent about $25. They have one big play set for $40 that he plays with every time we go to Target. I will be keeping my eye out for it to be marked down. I really want to get it for him. I know he will love it!

Every year I make the same mistakes when it comes to buying Christmas presents for the kids. I get them too much stuff! We make a budget and do perfectly fine sticking to it, but wow it still adds up to a ton of presents. I always want them to have a great Christmas. Logically, I know they can have a great Christmas with half the presents. But it’s so easy to get caught up in the Christmas spirit. I feel like I should tell you that we don’t buy Christmas presents. That we don’t get caught up in the commercialism of Christmas. That our Christmases are simple and consist of nothing more than sitting by the fire and drinking hot coco. But my tag line is “An honest look at family finances.” So that is what I have to be, honest. I think we are a pretty typical family. If this is something we are struggling with I know other families probably are too

In an effort to buy them less this year I’m going to keep a list of the presents I’ve bought. I think part of my problem is that the presents are spread all around the house in various hiding places and I forget about stuff. So I think having a list will help. That way I can easily see what I already have for them.

A few years ago I came up with a method to fund our Christmas budget and it worked so well I’ve kept it up. You know how sometimes you get an extra check in a month? If you get paid weekly you will have 4 months where you get 5 checks rather than 4. If you get paid bi-weekly you will have 2 months where you get 3 checks rather than 2. My husband gets paid bi-weekly and I take one of those checks and put it aside for Christmas. It’s a pretty painless way to fund Christmas.

Pic: katie blanch