The Christmas Savings Challenge — Because The Holidays Will Be Here Before You Know It

Yesterday I came across a blog post about saving for Christmas.

I hate to even mention the C-word when it’s still August, but we start school this week, and once that happens, I can (kind of) start thinking about the holidays.

I am not one of those early shoppers.  I don’t have all my shopping done before Christmas.

I usually don’t even start until (well) after Thanksgiving.

I’m also not one of those super disciplined people who puts $20 aside every week for the entire year.

But it would be great to have money put aside so that when Thanksgiving does roll around, I don’t have to worry about where the money for  presents is going to come from.

So I modified the challenge I saw (it was a 20 week challenge, and right now we are only ***GULP*** 17 weeks away from Christmas).

It’s a 15 week savings challenge, and if you start this week, the last week is the week of December 4th.

It’s heavier on the front end for those of you who like to start your shopping earlier, but if you stick with it, you will have $500 saved by December 10th!

If $500 is way over your budget, you can cut the deposits in half. If $500 is way under your budget, you can double the weekly deposits.

Here is the challenge:

Don’t have $50 extra each week right now?

Try some of these strategies:

• kill two birds with one stone and declutter a room/closet/cabinet in your house and sell what you no longer need on a Facebook tag sale site.
• or declutter and hold a tag/garage sale at your house while the weather is still nice and put all that money toward the challenge.
• save all the money you get from recycling cans and bottles (in CT you get money back when you bring the empties back to the store) and put it toward the savings challenge.
• stop buying coffee or breakfast or lunch on your way to work (make it at home instead) and put the money you’d normally spend on that toward the challenge.
• kill two more birds with one stone and start a swear/yelling jar. Put a dollar in the jar every time you swear or yell, and put that toward the challenge.
• or, put a positive spin on it — make a compliment jar. Every time your kids (or spouse) do something nice for each other or you, or the next time you notice a behavior you really want to encourage, acknowledge it, and then drop a dollar in the jar.

There are plenty of creative ways to save!

Who’s gonna start this week?

I am!

Click here to download a printable version of the CHRISTMAS SAVINGS CHALLENGE.

Happy savings!