How to Budget for Santa

Santa comes every year and every year you wonder how you're going to afford all the presents Santa needs to bring. Preparation and budgeting are the keys to having enough money to buy all those gifts. Just follow the steps below and you'll see how easy it can be.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Christmas club
• Santa list

1. Start a Christmas club. This will allow you to have the money for Santa's gifts. You can select the amount that you want to save weekly or monthly. If you have the money come directly out of your pay check you won't even miss it. Plus, a Christmas club will pay you interest which is money you can put toward Santa's gifts.
2. Buy a gift every pay check. If you start early with your Santa shopping you won't have to worry about putting all the money out at once. Combined with the savings from the Christmas club this will expand the amount of money you have to use for Santa presents.
3. Get a list as early as possible from all you buy Santa gifts for. The earlier you know what they want, the earlier you know how much you need to put aside for Santa. As an alternative, you can decide how much you want to spend on each person and budget for that amount.
4. Check out sales. You may be able to get that big gift that someone wants on sale early in the year. This will help to stretch the amount you have budgeted for Santa gifts.
5. Use your credit card. You can buy that item today and put the money aside tomorrow if you use your credit card. Using credit cards means you have approximately a month before you need to pay for it.
6. Shop online. You may be able to get bargains on the Internet. You want to save money on as many items as you can so you will have enough to buy all your Santa gifts. It is not easy when you have multiple gifts to buy but it can be accomplished.

Tips & Warnings

• Get Santa lists as early as possible. Remember to get lists from the adults you buy for as well as the children.
• Remember to include the interest you will get on your Christmas Club in the budgeted amount.
• Be careful using credit cards because you don't want to go into debt if you can help it.