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It is possible to enjoy Christmas shopping without having to worry about breaking the bank.

Finally, we have found a way to enjoy the holiday season without worrying about breaking the bank. For years, my husband and I dreaded the holiday shopping. While we loved everything else about Christmas, we never really enjoyed doing the shopping because we could never afford to buy those we loved gifts we felt were adequate. We did our best every year and no one complained however, we found ourselves having to get those we love less than we wanted while also creating debt, which would take the following year to pay.

However, we have found a way in which to enjoy every aspect of the Christmas holiday including doing the Christmas shopping. In addition, no we didn't win the lottery or anything like that. We do however, have a few simple tricks that make our holiday much easier to afford without causing debt or breaking the bank.

Set a Specific Spending Limit:

We have chosen a specific spending limit that we will spend on Christmas presents. That limit includes all Christmas presents we will buy for those on our list including each other. We then from that limit figure out how much of it will be spent for each person on our list. Kind of like dividing it up although, we do it a little different as we spend different amounts for different people. The end goal is never to go over the initial spending limit. If we happen to spend less on one person and a little more on another than was planned, it generally works itself out while allowing us to stay within our limit.

Plan Ahead:

We have found it is much easier to enjoy the holiday if we plan ahead by making sure we have our Christmas money saved up before holiday shopping time arrives. Most often, we will start tucking money away early in the year. As soon as we have the money we know we will need for Christmas, we many times will put it into a CD that will mature just in time for us to use it for Christmas. This allows us the confidence in knowing we have the money without allowing us to spend it on anything else.

By doing this we have found Christmas shopping is less stressful, more enjoyable and we don't have to worry about breaking the bank. This year we are almost finished with our Christmas shopping and we already have our Christmas money set aside earning interest for next year.

An easy way to start doing this would be to take your income tax return and instead of spending it, consider putting it in a savings account

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