I know some of you are rolling your eyes right now, but there are only 51 days until Christmas! The Walmart that I shop at has been playing Christmas music for three weeks now!

If you missed my post a few weeks ago, Dave Ramsey has some great points about Christmas budgeting!

Eastern Shore Mom posted this free downloadable Christmas budget spreadsheet and Mojosaving posted an opportunity for a free Debt-free Holidays Handbook! I have not personally used any of these resources (although I have looked through them) because I am almost done (not trying to make any one feel bad, just trying very hard to stay on budget)!

I only budget $85 per month for gifts and when you have four kids, it doesn’t go far)! I plan what we are going to get for the kids and make sure we have enough for those items, then I try and decide what to get for my husband and hope that he makes enough EXTRA to cover his gift. If there is any left, then I tell my husband he can spend that much on me (don’t feel bad for me, I give myself plenty throughout the year, remember, I am very immature when it comes to money)!   Plus, I really and truly get joy out of giving!

At this time, since our children are still young, it is more important that they have the same number of gifts, not that we spent the same amount!  Christmases growing up at my house were awesome!  My brother and I got tons of presents!  My husband and his brother usually got a couple of presents on Christmas, so this has been an area that we have had to compromise on!  Also, in years past, I have bought tons of presents and when  the kids start opening their gifts, they do not want to open more, they want to play with what they have!  So this year each child will get four presents to open (besides the Santa present, which they will all share this year)!  I need to buy one more present for each child and I have $220 left in the budget!  My youngest will be getting a personalized piggy bank ($62 including shipping is the one that I really like, but not sure I can part with that much money for that gift, so I’m searching),  my daughter  will be getting some play tutus ($20), my second oldest will be getting a marble run ($40), and my oldest will be getting an arts & craft crate ($40).  I will order these before the end of this month so that I can get free shipping!  I still need a couple of stocking stuffers for the baby and my daughter.  My budget will cover all of this and I’m hoping it will also cover teacher gifts (assuming I find a better deal on the bank)!

Now I need to figure out what I am going to spend on my husband.  He has already billed some work that he did, we are just waiting to receive it!  However, I wanted that to go into savings.  Decisions, decisions!

How is your Christmas planning going?