3

Developing a Plan

You probably would not add a family room to your home without a blueprint, knit a sweater without a pattern, or head off on a cross-country vacation without a map. But when it comes to preparing for Christmas, most of us hit the ground running the day after Thanksgiving—without a blueprint, pattern, or map. We get caught up in all the emotion of the season, and before we know it, we’re taking Christmas three stairs at a time.

Oh, I know you probably have a gift list—all of us have one of those, and it gives the illusion of a plan—but, believe me, that’s not a plan.

Put your plan in writing. If you wince at the thought of approaching this holiday season with a written plan, afraid that it will turn spontaneity into rigidity, think about the alternative. Debt is the result of reacting impulsively. The more of Christmas you leave to chance, the greater the potential debt load you will carry into the next year.

Please don’t resist the idea of making a plan, no matter how threatening or uncomfortable it may feel at first. Remember, don’t trust your feelings. Once you and your family have decided what you want from the celebration of Christmas, you’ll be able to make adjustments and corrections as the season unfolds and even treat yourselves to some deliciously spontaneous times along the way.

State your purpose. Your holiday plan should start with a purpose statement describing what you and your family want the holidays to look like. Simply write a sentence or two summarizing your ideal Christmas, making sure it reflects your family’s values. There are no rules, no correct or incorrect responses. This is the way to tame the monster that used to come barreling in your life every December.

Recardulation: Figuring out that by regifting the gift cards you received last year to everyone on your list this year your Christmas shopping is done. And it’s only July!

Use the calendar. Your holiday blueprint should be built around the calendar. It will assist you in managing your time and your holiday spending plan, which will help you manage your resources. Flip back to chapter 2 and review your responses to the queries about how you would have changed previous holidays. Let what you learned from the past guide you as you develop your plan for the Christmas ahead.

Plan according to your values. Consider holding a family meeting to create your family’s “Top Five Holiday Values.” Take nominations from each member of the family, and once you’ve decided on a final list, write it down and post it where everyone can see it.

Values may include enjoying the family, experiencing an old-fashioned simple Christmas, strengthening personal relationships, exchanging only gifts that cannot be purchased in stores, celebrating Christ’s birth, eating glorious creations from the kitchen, attending musical performances, decorating the house, directing the school pageant, singing in the community choir, relaxing and resting, reaching out to those who are less fortunate, visiting relatives and entertaining friends, and so on.

Ask questions. In what specific ways can our values be expressed in our home and lives during the Christmas season? How can we share our blessings with other people?

If, for instance, one of your top five values is “Christmas is a time to spend more quality time together as a family,” ask family members, “How specifically will we do that? And when?” If you decide that everyone will play hooky from work and school one day to do nothing but sleep in, play video games, put together a jigsaw puzzle, and bake Christmas cookies (which now that I think about it is the best idea I’ve had in a long time), then decide right now when that will be. Mark out the whole day on the calendar so nothing will interfere.

Or if one of your values is “Christmas is a time to exchange gifts with friends and family,” answer specifically who, what, when, and how much. Wow! This is a lot of work, huh? Not really. Consider it a trade-off. Either you do the work now in a relaxed and reasoned way, or you’ll have to do it the old way—on the fly and without much control.

Continue through your values list and watch as the calendar fills up. Keep in mind that many activities will come up to fill your holidays, activities that may not be included on your list. Address those issues now. Which activities will you decline? Which parties will you attend? What about the office parties and activities? Which days will you leave unscheduled to allow for free time? Which days will you devote to gift-making, shopping, and wrapping?

Include a holiday spending plan. It is vital that your holiday plan includes a specific and detailed spending plan, designating the overall amount you plan to spend and the ways you plan to spend it.

To start, make a chart that will allow you to visualize your spending categories, including gifts for kids, spouse, grandparents, other relatives, friends, service givers, co-workers, and employees; gift wrapping; Christmas cards, postage, and a photo session; baking ingredients; tree and home decorations; admission for holiday events; babysitting and travel costs; charitable donations; new clothes; etc.

In a column with the heading “Dollar Amount Plan,” write down the amount of money you plan to spend on each category. Total all of the categories to see how much cash you will need for your expected holiday expenses. Whoa. It’s probably a lot more dough than you anticipated or even have available at the moment.

Did you ever dream your holiday expenses were so huge? No wonder Christmas has sent you to the credit cards in the past.

I hope you’ve used a pencil because you’ll probably need to do some (or a lot of) erasing and refiguring. First, erase the total and write instead the total cash amount you intend to have available to spend for the Christmas holidays. You may have to resharpen that pencil often before you get your expected spending to match your total available cash.

If the list is really out of balance—your expenses clearly exceed your available cash—start whittling down that enormous gift list. Many times we feel compelled to give a gift when a nice card, photo of the kids, or personal note would convey the intended goodwill. Go through your list with this in mind and put a star next to those who will be getting cards as gifts this year.

If you still have a discrepancy, there are two things you can do: reduce expenses even further or find ways to come up with more cash.

In the chapters that follow, I provide lots of ideas for low-cost and no-cost ways you can achieve your holiday expectations. A lack of cash should not eliminate your ability to give gifts.

Use the envelope system. Once you have a good spending plan in which your estimated expenses and available cash are on speaking terms, get a stack of envelopes and label one for each of your holiday-spending categories and for each person on your gift list. Place the amount of cash you intend to spend on each category and each person in the corresponding envelope and put the envelopes away in a safe place.

When you go holiday shopping, leave the credit cards at home and take the appropriate envelopes instead. It will be easy for you to keep track of expenses because you’ll know precisely the moment you are finished spending—when the envelope is empty.

Enjoy the fringe benefits of cash spending. If you have been accustomed to paying for holiday shopping with credit cards, or even a checkbook, the all-cash method is going to feel very strange in the beginning. Expect to feel timid and fearful that you might run out of funds.

You may find yourself hesitant to spend “that much” of the available cash on a single gift. (Isn’t it funny how a check, debit card, or credit card doesn’t feel as real as actual cash?) Actually, these are helpful responses because they will make you think more carefully about your purchases. Spending cash will also compel you to find the best bargains.

When shopping with a limited amount of cash, you will be less prone to spend impulsively. You will become a disciplined consumer, and your entire holiday outlook will change.

One Christmas when I was twenty and my brother was seventeen, we were both out of work and worried about what we would be able to get our grandparents (who adopted us) for Christmas. My grandmother had been ill, and our family decided it would be too much trouble to pull out all the ornaments from the attic and get the tree up from the basement. For the first time in my life our house was not decorated.

One day my brother and I were taking a shortcut through the back parking lot of a row of stores when we saw, propped up against a trash dumpster, the prettiest Christmas tree just sitting there. We went inside the store and asked if the tree was going to be thrown away or if it belonged to someone who worked in the store. The manager asked the employees, and no one spoke up, so we asked the manager if we could take the tree. He said yes. I drove a VW Beetle at the time, and we had a hysterical time getting that tree home.

We silently set up the tree in the living room, and when we were finished, we wheeled our grandmother into the room and lit up the tree. The look on my grandmother’s face was one of pure joy. I think she realized that my brother and I finally understood that Christmas had nothing to do with how many presents are under the tree.

Donna H., Texas

A tradition in our home is to limit our gift-giving to four specific categories. Each child receives a gift of love, which is something homemade; a gift of warmth, which is something like socks or a lap blanket; a gift of knowledge, such as a science kit, books, or educational DVD; and a gift of joy—that one thing they really want.

This has helped to keep our Christmas balanced, our budget small, and our gifts meaningful.

Nancy E., California