The Christmas Budget

I have had several family members ask me how we make ends meet. My husband is a full time student in college- so we have tuition to pay, along with rent, electric, and the typical bills. We also travel. And all on one income.

Let's get this straight: its not always easy being a one income couple. Lucky for us, however, we understand how to manage money so that we have everything we need, and we can still do most of the things we want to do. So, I have some tips for those who have been asking about general money management, as well as some of my thoughts/tips for this holiday season.

Again, I'm not a financial expert, but these are some of the things we have done that have been successful.

General Money Management

1. Budget! ..I know, scary word. But seriously, sit down and record how much your bills are monthly. Then figure up what you (and anyone else who contributes to the monthly income) actually bring home. Take inventory. What do you pay for that you don't use? Where is your money going?

2. We got rid of cable TV. Ok, so going back to my previous point, we found that we were paying Charter around $110 a month for our cable/internet 'bundle deal'. When we actually kept track of how often we watched a show on TV, we decided it wasn't worth it! A $110 monthly bill was cut to $40 when we took cable TV off and just paid for internet. By cancelling our hardly-ever used cable, we initially saved $70 a month. We have since purchased Netflix, which is $8 a month, so we are still saving $62 a month. I realize this isn't an option for everyone, but I'm going to guess that 99% of us are paying for something we don't use and could get rid of.

3. Make a grocery list! ..and then stick to it! You would be surprised how much this helps. If you can take 5 min to make a list, standing in your kitchen before you go to the grocery store, you will be less likely to just pick up "whatever looks good" or food that you won't actually eat. Before we made a list, we would go to the grocery store for "5 or 6 things" and end up with $150 of groceries. Then, to make it even worse, we wouldn't eat it all before it went bad and we threw so much money in the garbage- along with wasting food!
I'm not saying you can't pick up food that looks good or isn't on the list, I'm just saying if you make a list, it will make you more aware of how much you need- if you get to the checkout and had 15 things on your list and end up with 60 items in your cart--you're spending more than you meant to.

4. Monitor indulgences. For us, this was eating out. We both understand that eating out is costly AND unhealthy. An average lunch for two at a fast food restaurant can range from $10-20 depending where we go. A nice dinner can cost upwards of $50..if we ate out three or four times a week, that's anywhere from...$100-200 a week spent, when we have a full fridge of food at home! Yours may be different, but for us, this was a big one.

5. Realize that you have money for what you WANT to have money for. I hear people all the time, telling me that they "wish they had money" to do this, that, or the other. They wish they could go on vacation. They wish they could afford a new car. They wish they had the newest electronics. The list goes on and on.
HOWEVER, how many of us waste money on useless things? Here's the thing: if there is something that we REALLY want, how many of us tell ourselves "No"? Very few. Instead, we find a way to get it.
This is why we have money to travel. We want to. We make sacrifices in other areas so that we can save money and then use it to go somewhere that we want to go.

Christmas Season Tips:
Christmas is supposed to be the "most wonderful time of the year" but for many has become the "most stressful time of the year"...it doesn't have to be!!!

1. NEVER take out a personal loan for Christmas. We have never done this one, but we have friends and family members who have... they can destroy your credit, as well as charge you such a high interest rate that you end up paying back double what you borrowed in the first place.

Instead, try:
           - Preparing for Christmas in advance. You know Christmas is coming. Its the same date every year, and most of us know how many people we are going to buy for in advance.- several months, if not the whole year in advance. Saving $5 a week for the whole year- starting January 1st, would yield you around $260 to spend.

            - Research credit cards. I know you have all seen those advertisements for 2%, 1%, 5% cash back programs offered by the major credit card companies. And when used right, they are an amazing thing! We have one credit card for the two of us, and we earn cash back each month when we pay off our balance. The trick is, don't charge what you can't pay off each month and you not only avoid paying interest to the credit card company, but you earn a percent of what you spent back as a credit. Our particular program allows us to use our reward points in the form of gift cards, dollar for dollar use on Amazon, or we can tell them to apply that to our bill and they take whatever point money we have off of our statement.. Last year, we earned over $150 in cash back rewards, and that bought over half of the Christmas gifts we had to buy. Many credit card companies offer reward programs...find one that works for you.

2. Keep Christmas shopping is check. It's easy to go overboard when shopping this time of year. The question is: What do you NEED? What do your children need? What do they WANT? If you are really trying to budget and avoid going into debt this holiday season, your 5 year old child probably doesn't need the new $600 iPhone 47 (or whatever number they're on now). You can still have nice things WITHOUT having a TON of things.

Chances are that most of us don't truly NEED anything, for that matter.

 One of my favorite memories was that, instead of getting us all a $30 gift we may or may not like, an aunt and uncle bought us all (family of 6, 8 including the aunt and uncle) tickets to the Broadway theater. We saw The Blue Man Group one year, and the Tran-Siberian Orchestra another year. We are all grown and certainly don't need anything, so instead of buying "stuff", we made a memory as a family.

What if, instead of waiting in line for 12 hours on Thanksgiving Day to be the first in line at Best Buy of Toys r Us, we stayed home and spent time with our families?

What if, instead of buying our children 16 Christmas presents, we bought them 5 or 6 gifts each, and then used that extra money to go on a family trip somewhere?

Seriously, if you typically spend $800/child- try spending..$300-400 and use the extra $800-$1000 to go somewhere over a long weekend. Or rent a cabin in the mountains, or they have Disney World packages that start around $1,000, or heck, take $50 and take your family out to see Christmas lights, or to the Christmas Market, or some other themed event going on in your city.

In the St. Louis area, I would recommend:
Wild Lights at the St. Louis Zoo -$10 per ticket

MO Botanical Garden- Garden Glow - $16 per ticket

3. Get Crafty! With sites like Pinterest, Etsy, and numerous other sites, getting ideas for crafts has never been easier! Children and Adults can both find do-it-yourself decorations, ornaments, gifts, recipes, you name it! Spend a day making something FOR someone WITH someone. Whether you help your children make a gift for Grandma, or make a batch of cookies with an old friend, get crafty! Spend time together!

I have just recently picked back up on crocheting. My mother taught me when I was a little girl, and just a few years ago I started making things again. This year, several of my gifts have been scarves and hats that I have crocheted. They end up costing less that $5 to make, they're practical because it gets pretty cold around here during winter, AND they are handmade so they have a little bit of meaning behind them. That person knows that I spent time on them.


I constantly see cases where parents (and grandparents) buy their children (especially young children) TONS of toys, clothes, and miscellaneous things. Then, in 6 months I see 3/4 of those things in the rummage sale pile, or 'for giveaway' on Facebook. Fact is: most children are so over-saturated with toys that they only play with.. maybe 10 of their 200-something items, and then we either:
1. Let that clutter pile up in our homes
OR
2. Throw it in trash bags and dump it off at the Goodwill (or other place that will take our stuff)

I am not saying that gifts are a bad thing. I love gifts! Both getting them and giving them. I am simply saying:

• Give quality, not necessarily quantity.
• Cut back a little bit. Seriously, there is NO reason to put yourself in over your head in debt over this season.
• Spend more time WITH your family instead of sitting in front of an electronic screen.
• Make memories. Don't wait and wish you had more time later.

There you have it, my thoughts on budgets. Hope this answers some of the questions I've been asked about how me manage money. Everyone is different. Everyone has different values. Different things are important to different people. We spend our money on what is important to us.