The last gift got wrapped on the floor of my old bedroom last night at 11:40, with a roll of paper that ran out exactly one corner short. I finished it with a piece of the grocery bag the tape came in. Grandma Ruth will think it's charming. Everyone else will think it's me.
My shopping is done, everything is hidden in my closet and I have a final number. I planned $350 for Christmas this year and spent $390. Here's the whole list, what I made instead of bought and where the extra $40 came from.
I didn't want Christmas to land on a credit card. Last year it did, back when I still had a balance, and I was paying for a scarf in March. So in October I started a Christmas line in the club sheet and moved $70 into it from my spending money every paycheck. Five paychecks later, I had $350.
That timing turned out to matter. My paycheck dropped this month from $1,342 to $1,240 because I'm now paying for my own health insurance through work, and I'm glad I wasn't trying to find $350 inside a smaller December.
The list: nine people, budget and actual
- Mom: $50 budgeted, $55 spent. A good pair of gardening gloves and a new apron, because her current apron has a hole where the pocket used to be.
- Dad: $45 budgeted, $45 spent. A wool hat and the paperback mystery he's been rereading at the library instead of buying.
- Nolan: $40 budgeted, $50 spent. A hoodie he will wear until it disintegrates. He's in his last year of college. I caved.
- Grandma Ruth: $30 budgeted, $30 spent. Printed photos of her with all of us from the summer, in a frame for her condo in Glenview.
- Priya: $40 budgeted, $40 spent. A cookbook for her classroom potlucks and a candle that smells like a bakery.
- Dan: $35 budgeted, $45 spent. We've been dating since August, so this was a careful amount. I went over by $10 on a Cubs mug and a bag of coffee from a roaster he likes. Worth it.
- Work Secret Santa: $25 budgeted, $25 spent. The limit was $25, so this one was easy.
- The Waffles family: $10 budgeted, $10 spent. A bag of dog treats, plus a tin of cookies for the humans.
- My coworker who trained me: $10 budgeted, $10 spent. A gift card for the coffee place by our office, plus a tin of cookies.
The people total came to $310 against $300 budgeted. The other two lines were supplies: baking and tins ($35 budgeted, $46 spent) and wrapping paper, tape and cards ($30 budgeted, $34 spent, which is a lot for a roll of paper that still came up short).
Altogether: $390 spent on a $350 plan.
The cookies did a lot of the work. My mom's ginger molasses recipe makes about five dozen, so one Saturday afternoon of baking became six tins: two pet-sitting families, my coworker, the neighbors across the street, our mail carrier and one for my parents' house that is already half gone. I counted the tins inside the baking line, not on each person, which is why some gifts look cheaper than they felt.
I also wrote real cards for everyone, not just names on tags. It cost nothing but an evening, and I've learned people keep those longer than the gifts.
Where I went over, and how I covered it
Forty dollars over. To be specific: $10 on Nolan, $10 on Dan, $5 on Mom, $11 on baking supplies (butter is not cheap in December) and $4 on wrapping.
None of those were impulse buys exactly. Each one was "this is only a few dollars more," five times in a row. That's how $40 happens.
It's coming out of my December spending money, which means a quieter month. I'm skipping one dinner out in the city with Priya and going to her place instead, which she suggested before I could, because she's a good friend and also a teacher on a budget.
The loans, the emergency fund and the car line didn't change. The emergency fund actually hit $6,000 this month, my goal for the year, and I wasn't about to dip into it for a hoodie.
What I'd change next year
Start the Christmas line in September instead of October and make it $60 a paycheck instead of $70, so it's less of a squeeze. Write down a budget for wrapping and supplies that matches reality. And buy one extra roll of paper, because apparently that's the part I can't estimate.
Juno, for the record, is getting a tennis ball. She's on my parents' budget, not mine.
