Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Have you started planning yet? Do you have a budget for Christmas? Have you sent out invitations for your Christmas party? Do you know which set of parents or where you are going to be over Christmas? Do you even celebrate Christmas?

All really good questions, hope I made you as nervous as I am just thinking about this holiday. Poor Linus here (copyright United Media) really is the spirit of Christmas for me. In a Charlie Brown’s Christmas he has many classic lines like, “… not only has Christmas got too commercialized, it’s become TOO DANGEROUS!”, and “I can’t memorize these lines, why should I memorize these lines?” and his classic reading from the book of Luke (2:10 I believe).

Christmas should and IS joyous for we Christians and hopefully for everyone. Don’t get too caught up in the spending, because creating a HUGE DEBT LOAD to deal with in January is really not how to remember Christ’s birth. Debt Reduction is not something you can take a holiday from, if anything you must be that much more diligent at this time of year. The stores know you are panic’ed and WANT you to spend without thinking.

• Go with a shopping list and buy ONLY what is on the list
• Make a MASTER list that way if you see something while you are out you can buy it and not make a second trip.
• Make a BUDGET of how much you are willing to spend and STICK TO IT!
• DO NOT USE YOUR CREDIT CARDS LOCK THEM UP, DO NOT BRING THEM WITH YOU. These can be as metaphorically dangerous as a loaded GUN to your debt reduction plans.
• Remember, that maybe you should think about giving to a Charity, or working for one, or helping one out as “Karma” or “Mojo” or “Good spirit” during this season. It is the season of GIVING, not the season of SPENDING.

Relax, get your shopping done, plan, and then have fun, enjoy. It is easier to relax knowing there is no January SOCK IT TO YOU in the Credit Card bills!