So it’s still summer, but I’m already thinking about Christmas presents. More specifically, I’m thinking about what I’ll be getting my daughter, nephews and other family members and pricing out things. I want to be able to spread the costs over a few months rather than stressing over a bunch of last-minute purchases in December.
I’m also thinking ahead to next summer. I’m putting all my monthly child tax credit payments into a savings account to use for summer camp 2022.
That said, I know I’m a bit of a planning nerd. How far in advance do you plan for big expenses? What future expenses are you saving up for now?
I’m all about the sinking funds and planning! I save for Christmas with every paycheck, all year. And vacation as well. It takes so much of the stress away and makes planning and shopping for others fun.
I save in advance for:
The holiday season (includes kids birthdays)
Summer, and weekend vacations
Summer camp for the kids
And house and car repair, and medical expenses, but these aren’t fun.
I guess it depends for me, depending on the expense. For example, if I were to save for a wedding, I would plan a year out ahead.
Normally, I save up for investing and I normally automate my checking account to transfer some money to Vanguard, etc so all the investing is done automatically.
Other than investing (which I guess I don’t really plan in advance since it’s taken care of for me each month automatically), I don’t personally have huge expenses.
Typically, I like to start in August for Christmas if I plan to purchase actual gifts. I have a no-interest Christmas Club account with my credit union so put money in it monthly so I have enough for the folks who only want cash?. However, if money is tight though, I might use the funds for something else I always tell myself. But I never do though, not even last year, which if ever there was a time not to spend on Christmas, it was last year!
You know? My wife and I need to do a Christmas club. We say it every year, but we just forget to do it. In terms of big expenditures; we really don’t plan like we should. So what happens, is that we use our savings for some things we want to do to our house. For instance, las summer we expanded our deck-from savings. This year we put in a concrete pation-from savings. We really need to get focused on saving for big ticket items and NEXT YEAR we will do a Christmas club! Thanks!
