How to Pad Your Christmas Savings for Gift-Giving 2022

The Christmas Savings and Gift-Giving Bundle is now available in our Shop! Plan your Christmas savings and gift-giving with the Christmas Savings Tracker and Christmas Gift Tracker. Use the Christmas Savings & Gift Tracker Tips to help you succeed this Christmas season!

What is a Christmas Savings Tracker?

A Christmas Savings Tracker is a neat and cute way of tracking your savings specifically for the Holiday season. You might already have a plump savings account or maybe you’re even done Christmas shopping! My hats off to you. I’m in the other boat: Haven’t started yet. Some of you can relate. Or maybe you’d just like a little extra cushion this year, guaranteeing no credit debt or putting off other bills to get those last few gifts. A Christmas Savings Tracker helps you set a goal and complete the objectives-saving a certain amount each week. You can use it strictly for gift-giving or you can budget and save for other holiday-related expenses such as:

• Secret Santa
• Teacher’s Gifts
• Neighbor’s gifts
• New holiday decorations
• Wrapping supplies
• Holiday cards and stamps
• Holiday donations to your favorite charities or church
• Holiday baking
• Holiday meals
• Holiday entertainment
• Extra tips
• Holiday outfits
• Holiday family portraits
• Advent calendar items
• Elf on the Shelf or St. Nick’s Day (all the fun little things add up!)

I’ve created a tracker that can allow you to strive for $500, $1000, or $2000. This way you know that no matter which column of savings you choose that week, you’ll end up with at least $500 saved.

What is a Gift-Giving Tracker

I’ve been using a version of this for probably ten years. I started off with FlyLady‘s version and modified it to fit my family. A gift-giving tracker is a wonderful way to stay organized in your gift-giving over the holiday season! Have you ever bought a gift, forgotten about it, or where you put it, bought another, and then found the first? Or maybe forgot a persona altogether? It happens. But it can happen less when using a gift-giving tracker which takes a lot of stress out of the season.

A gift-giving tracker is a list of all the people you need to shop for (including all the ideas listed above), a list of ideas for gifts, the budget you’ve set for the gifts, a comparison of how much you actually are spending, and two spots to check off whether or not you’ve wrapped and/or shipped the gifts.

How do we use them?

This might take a little going back and forth. You might first write your list of gifts and holiday expenses on the Gift-Giving Tracker along with a budget of how much you’d like to spend on each line item. Then you’ll want to total your line items for a Total Budget. Next, total any savings you have already completed for the holidays and subtract from your goal amount. You’ll be left with how much you need to save. Thirdly, you’ll look at your Christmas Savings Tracker and match your budget with one of the three amounts, $500, $1000, or $2000. Fourthly, you’ll decide if this is reasonable for your current situation (how much time you have and if you can increase income or decrease expenses enough to save that amount) and if you might have to make adjustments.

Increase Income to Add to Your Christmas Savings Tracker

We’re not looking for some life changing career shifts or anything, just a few ideas to bring in some extra cash. Sometimes we can get stuck in a lack mindset that stifles our creativity. Temporarily, you could pick up a part time gig or pick up overtime or an extra shift at your current job. Maybe you have a few things lying around the house to sell for extra income. There’s nothing like decluttering before a slew of Christmas gifts come in! Add each extra wage earned or profit from items sold to your tracker and watch how fast you reach your goal.

Cut Expenses

I know this sounds contradictory-write a list of how you’ll cut spending just so you can spend it somewhere else. But that’s life. Temporarily, can you cut out subscriptions, memberships, drinks, coffees, eating out, etc. in order to push those funds into your savings goal?

Wrapping it all up!

No time to start like the present! (too easy) Click below to download your Christmas Savings and Gift-Giving Bundle now to start devising your holiday plan! Make this your most organized holiday yet!