No Christmas Debt Next Year !

Christmas is about giving, and that’s exactly why we got another “Christmas Debt” this year: buying too much gift or too expensive gift for all the ones we care. The problem is we know each time that we will a bit overspend during Christmas, yes, we can blame it to the holiday spirit, but we need to do something to make sure next year we will be without xmas debt!

1. How Much You Spend For Xmas?

First thing first, you need to know how much you spend just for Christmas related expense: gifts, special donation, decoration, taxi for party, extra tip, etc. No need to be exact number, just roughly.. $500? $1000? or massive $5000 or more? I guess most of us, as long as we don’t leave the city will spend around $500 – $1000 for all those extra festivity expense.

Small Piggy Bank for Christmas

2. Little Help From Bank

Thanks to a little bit competition among banks, let us now open a new saving account – the one without monthly account keeping fee. No need ATM access, no need internet banking and not even need interest, if that help – as long as we can transfer (electronically via internet for convenience) from our existing account. It doesn’t have to be your normal bank, any bank or credit union that offer no-fee account. We will open a dedicated “XMAS account“.

The idea is old: piggy bank. But we make it more modern and fancy: a special bank account just for all Christmas related expenses. And since it does not have account keeping fee, it will not cost you a cent.

3. Contribute Throughout The Year.

If you have your salary weekly, how hard to contribute only $25 each time? Or make it $50 fortnightly? With this amount, suddenly you have extra $1300 cash for Christmas every year. Of course, you can add more if you can, but do not make it too high as it will come a burden and then make you stop. Even as little as $20 fortnightly will give you a handy cash just over $500 for Christmas shopping.

The trick is to make it automatic. Set up a periodical transfer with your internet banking exactly the day you usually receive your salary. For example if you received your salary on your account every Wednesday fortnightly, set to auto pay every Wednesday fortnightly the amount that you want. Why exactly on the day? This is to do an illusion to the brain to not realizing that the amount has been deducted from your salary. After a while you will get used to it and maybe forget about it, only to find that extra $1000 on Christmas. Isn’t that nice ? (Note: just make sure your account does not go into negative if the transfer from your employer got a day delay or so – leave some buffer)

Again, don’t set the amount too high so that your budget will severely affected. This is just a little squeeze, if it is too much, you will alter it.