Saving and Budgeting for Christmas

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The past few years, Christmas has not been a financial stress for my family and I can’t tell you how freeing that is. To be able to get all that we would like to be able to get for everyone in my family without having to worry is such a great feeling. No longer are November and December “tight” months. Well, sometimes they are but it’s not because of Christmas…

How do we do it? It’s pretty simple really, and I’m surprised more people don’t do this. We include it in our monthly budget year round. In January, I look at our income, what I would like the budget to be for Christmas and how much I think we can set aside each month. Once I have decided on a monthly budget, I set that amount aside EVERY month.

Where to put it?

Ok, this strategy is simple enough and saying it, you think, “Ok, duh. That makes sense, of course!” But here’s the problem… Actually setting that money aside… Then NOT touching it.

The first time we tried to do this, we tried putting it in our regular savings account. In my bank, I have a checking account and a savings account. The problem with this was that all the money that we were saving for different things-emergency, new computer, Christmas, etc-were in the same account. It was hard to know how much money was for each thing! Not impossible, but difficult without having things separated out.

Then we thought maybe we’d go the old fashion route. Get a jar, hide it in a closet, withdraw that money, put it in the jar and DON’T TOUCH IT! The problem… Remembering to withdraw the cash and get it to the jar. We don’t do a lot of cash. It usually ended up at McDonald’s before we remembered to take money out. And it was too easy to go to that jar when we needed something.

Qapital

My final solution that has been the best for us is to use an app called Qapital! I am so glad that I found it. It’s like Dave Ramsey’s envelope system but without carrying a ton of cash around, which I don’t like to do! I don’t just use it for Christmas. I use it for anything that we should have set money aside for that we would like to roll over to the next month. I also use it like the envelope system. We piece out how much we can spend on each thing and it goes into a separate fund.

For instance, I have a set clothing budget each month but it’s the same each month. When the month ends it just means we didn’t need to spend that money on clothes and it goes into our regular savings. It doesn’t roll over. But my car maintenance budget I like to build. Each month I set aside some money for “just in case.” When the month is over I like to add what we had set aside to the next month’s budget.

Qapital helps me do this really easily. 

Sign up with this link to get $5 after your first deposit!

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What is it?

Basically put, Qapital is a bank account that allows you to split up your money into different funds. It helps you save up for a big purchase, set emergency money aside and have a spending allowance with their debit card.

It has the “spending account” which is the money that is available to spend with your debit card. Anything that is in your funds will not be dipped out of unless you manually transfer it to your spending account. If you try to purchase something that cost more than what you have in your spending account, it will not allow you to go over. Your card will be declined. No overdraft and no accidentally pulling from your savings funds.

I honestly, love it! I have been using it for almost two years now! 

How does this tie into Christmas?

Let’s just look at how I use Qapital to help me save and budget for Christmas. After I have decided how much we want to save for Christmas and decide on a monthly budget, I make sure that each month I deposit that much into our Christmas fund. I don’t have to worry about my husband spending it at Target or me wanting to use it to eat out. It is in its own fund and can only be spent with my Qapital card. It can be transferred back to our regular bank account, of course, but it takes a little longer.

Once Christmas time comes, or even if I find the perfect gift in September, I use my Qapital debit card to buy it. I just make sure to only transfer the amount that I need for that purchase into the spending account. It makes it easy for me to see exactly how much money I have for Christmas purchases, even if I have been buying gifts throughout the year.

If I end up spending less than planned, then I can just keep the money there and it builds into the next years budget.

Sound interesting? It really is amazing. The best part, it is a FREE checking account. No… That’s not the best part. The best part is you can get $5 just for signing up if you use this link! All you have to do is sign up and make your first deposit and you will get $5 to help you start up your first fund!

Sign up with this link to get $5 after your first deposit!

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Look out for future posts to see how you can use the different features on the Qapital app to save effortlessly and painlessly! Qapital has ways to do auto transfers and even works with IFTTT to set up conditions for saving!