Forget the Joneses Holiday Bootcamp Assignment #3

We are having a cash only Christmas! We only have 1 credit card reserved for emergencies and Christmas does not constitute as an emergency in our book!

We had a Christmas Club account, it did not have a lot of money but I only put some of the cash towards a layaway we have, I am holding onto the rest in case there is a really good Black Friday sale or wonderful Cyber Monday deals! If I don't find any deals on things we need to get, I will put that money towards the big items that we have left to get (the 2 grab bag gifts, and my mom).

As for the rest of our spending plan, the biggest aspect of it was to buy at least 1 gift a week (I have been doing this for over a month now). We get paid weekly and depending on our weekly budget, that lets me know how much I can get. This week DH has a chunk of overtime coming to him so I will finish up my youngest and purchase gifts from a cataloge for 5 people on our Christmas list (even though it is for 5 people, the gifts all add up to around $30 not including the shipping), and possibly buy itunes $30 pack for 3 additional gifts. If I can't seem to find anything that catches my eyes, I will take out the money I was planning on spending and set it aside towards next weeks purchase. We are doing decent on what we have and need to buy, but just in case I have a few additional plans to save more money towards Christmas. With Thanksgiving coming up soon, there will be tons of sales and a decent amount of coupons. I will look into buying ahead and stockpiling baking products, foods, that we can use towards the holidays and our own meals to stretch our money as much as possible! If need be, I will give myself several no spend days, a use it up attitude on everything in the house (Right now I know we have a decent amount of laundry detergent, toiletries, and clothing to take us into February!).

I did all 3 steps today & am caught up on the steps. I will only use cash for Christmas as that's what i've done for at least the past 10 years. We don't have a credit card to fall back on. I had a Christmas club for the first time this year & was so glad I did. I have about 1/3 of my gifts bought thus far. I've really been diligent watching for deals & using coupons when I can.

We had the holiday Discussion last night as far as activities. We will be falling on a credit Card DH got a 2nd job that will pay for Christmas but it doesn't start until December. New Tires this weekend hurt us. Still we have some idea of our schedule. The big holiday dinners will be not at our house so our holiday cooking will be more in the way of just baking. I am trying to figure out when is the best time to get said gifts. Thanksgiving weekend is crazy for shopping but I will be in the land of no sales tax. If I do go day after shopping it will be in the afternoon. The items I am looking for I doubt will be crazy.
15% done with my shopping I may make it to Toys R Us today. They have a game sale but we will see

Had a Christmas Club - unfortunately used it to pay for car repairs and new tires on both vehicles. Have some Christmas stuff done already and the only thing my older 2 want are tickets to go see Les Mis in February so they are almost done.