After Christmas, it is essential to remain calm but remember it is crucial to figure out the actual price of Christmas.
So Christmas, the season and the holiday are over. What was the actual price of Christmas? In terms of time and aggravation, I can’t help on quantifying that, but here are some essential things to remember to have in your total (in case you want to budget for next year):
- All presents bought, which is easy most people would have that at the top of their list. Do you have all the receipts? Why not?
- Holiday gratuities should be included, if you tip your: doorman, paperboy, garbage man, mailman, etc,. etc., etc.,
- If you traveled to see loved ones, the cost of travel (gas, hotels, etc.,) is part of that total
- Did you eat out more often? Maybe you should add those extra meals in your totals
- Did you have to pay someone to watch your house, your dog, your cats, or the like?
- How much did you drink? Did you buy a lot of booze?
- Did you have a party? Did you buy new clothes for the party? Food for the party? This can add up
- Did you have visitors? Did you buy a lot more food for these visitors? Did they overuse your Internet access and do you have overage payments?
How to Remedy the Cost of Christmas
What should you do with this total? Sit there and fixate on it and make your life miserable? No! Take the total divide it by the number of paycheques until next Christmas (if you are paid bi-weekly, let’s say 24), and that is how much money you should put away per paycheque for next year, Voila, the problem under control.
The bills racked up for Christmas but this is not only the case for some business owner like groceries and retailers. Income was also booming during the holidays. It can more than make up for the Holiday celebrations. For those who didn’t get to work, you should have had some fund allotted for the holidays.
I remember many years ago when Christmas was over and we still owed for it. Nowadays it’s great, when Christmas is over, the bill’s already paid. My wife mentions this every year, how nice it is to not have any new bills to start the new year with.
If you’re not there yet, a financial lifestyle that gets you to that point should be your first new year’s resolution.