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What is a Christmas Sinking Fund?
Christmas is typically the most expensive holiday of the year! However, very few people plan how much they will spend and budget for it over the year.
A sinking fund is money set aside for an event, holiday, or item that you plan to spend money on.
With this in mind, a Christmas sinking fund is money you have saved up to spend for your Christmas gifts, travels, decorations, and other holiday expenses.
Be sure to check out my ultimate guide on sinking funds, which details the different ways to do a sinking fund, and my tips for having a successful Christmas sinking fund!
Why You Need a Christmas Sinking Fund
Do you remember how much you spent on Christmas last year? You most likely spent money on numerous dates, and you may not have had exact budget set in mind.
Having a Christmas sinking fund is extremely helpful to not go over budget, and to prevent going into credit card debt when you weren’t prepared for it!
I personally had never set a budget for Christmas. When I first learned about creating a Christmas sinking fund, I quickly added it to my monthly budget routine.
As mentioned above, sinking funds are helpful to plan for expected expenses, and it is important to plan for such a large holiday that could cost you hundreds, even thousands, every year.
5 Pro Tips to Creating an Effective Christmas Sinking Fund:
By creating a sinking fund, you can decrease stress and strategically plan your spending over the year or over a handful of months.
Use these 5 tips to create a successful Christmas sinking fund:
- Set aside money every paycheck for your Christmas sinking fund. This helps create a strong habit for saving money.
- Be honest with yourself. It is important to be true to yourself about how much money you plan to spent, or had spent in years past.
- Use a visual tracker. It is very helpful to use cash envelopes, a printable tracker, or an excel spreadsheet to watch for growth of your Christmas sinking fund.
- Use cash. Setting aside physical cash is a great option for beginners who are new at budgeting, because it can help you build better financial spending habits.
- Enjoy building up your sinking fund. It is important to be proud of the growth of your sinking fund. These can help reduce holiday and financial stress!
Tips for Using A Printable for your Christmas Sinking Fund
I personally love using visual trackers to watch my sinking funds fill up! Coloring sheets are a very popular way to track the amount of money you’ve saved for your new sinking fund.
Be sure to download your free coloring sheet sinking fund, above! This printable is a great way to start saving for your next Christmas holiday!
Use these following steps to make the most of your Christmas sinking fund:
- Print out your free printable
Add this sheet to your budgeting binder
- Set your ultimate Christmas sinking fund goal
Write this number at the top of your printable
- Divide your sinking fund goal and write those fractioned numbers onto the outer lines of the printable
- Determine how much you need to save each paycheck or each month to achieve your Christmas sinking fund goal
- Every time yu contribute to your sinking fund, color in lines on your printable until you achieve the next line
- Achieve your sinking fund goal.