Christmas Savings Plan – Save $500 For Gifts Challenge

Once it gets to be the holiday season, the cost of Christmas gifts can really add up.  Maybe in the past, you have only thought about this expense when the holidays roll around and end up having to frantically charge gifts you can’t afford.  Hey, I’ve done this before, so don’t feel bad at all!

To help you save money for Christmas, I created this fun Christmas savings plan for you.  In as little as 8 weeks or a couple of months, you’ll have saved $500. The thing is this can totally be prevented with a little planning beforehand.

Later in this post, you’ll find a free printable savings tracker that’ll motivate you to keep saving because you’ll be able to visually see your results. You’ll have saved $500 (or even $1000 if you take this challenge twice) in no time!!

Being financially prepared for the holidays will feel so good and you can rest easy knowing you don’t have to take out any debt to pay for Christmas gifts.

How much money should you save for Christmas?

With this money savings plan, you’ll save $500 in 8 weeks.  Everyone is going have a different Christmas budget based on how many people they have to buy for, income, etc.  What you save for Christmas really depends on your unique situation.

This challenge is for $500, but you could adjust the money savings challenge to fit your goals.  For example, if you spend less than $500, just cross off the dollar amounts and replace them with your own.  Just divide the amount you want to save by 8 (because it’s an 8-week challenge).

If you want to save more than $500 and you have enough time before Christmas, you can do multiple rounds of the challenge.

How can I save $1000 for Christmas?

As mentioned, you can take the challenge more than once.  If you want to save $1000 for Christmas, you can either double the amounts of the challenge or take the challenge two times.  That way you’ll have saved $1000 for Christmas presents.

Saving Money For Christmas Weekly

This Christmas savings plan is set up to save money on a weekly basis.  Each amount is meant to be saved per week for eight weeks total.

There is no order into which you have to follow for this saving for Christmas chart.  I wanted it to be flexible for you and didn’t want you to feel like you have to save a certain amount per week.

Some weeks have higher dollar amounts than others, so you can pick what fits into your budget for the week.

Maybe you have a lot of bills due one week and don’t have the money to save $110, that’s okay because you could just save $25 instead.  Do what works for you and don’t feel like you have to complete this in eight weeks either.

As long as Christmas is a little far off, you could take your time with this challenge.

Christmas Savings Plan Printable

You can download your free Christmas Money Savings Plan PDF here!!

Christmas Savings Challenge Directions

For each week, pick an amount you want to save. 

After you save this amount, simply cross off the present with the dollar amount on the Christmas saving plan printable. You can also color in the present if you don’t want to cross it off.

There is no right or wrong way to use this chart to save money for the holidays. 

Skip around to whatever dollar amount you want to save based on your budget that week.

Same goes for the time it takes you to complete the holiday savings plan. 

If Christmas isn’t for a while, you can save the specified amount every other week and take 16 weeks to complete it.  It’s really up to you!

You can also move through the challenge faster if you’d like.  I also have this money-saving challenge to help you save $500 in 30 days, which is a shorter amount of time than this challenge. This is if you want to save a little faster and aggressively.

Most of all, have fun.  We don’t think of saving money as fun, but challenging yourself definitely is. 

Think of this as just taking a fun money saving challenge and pat yourself on the back when you’re done.  It’s not always easy financially planning ahead of time, in fact, most people don’t and that’s something to be proud about.

How do I save this Christmas?? (Easy Tips & Tricks)

So you printed out the Christmas savings plan and now what…

You need to start saving!  Which is easier said than done sometimes.

You either need to cut existing expenses to get extra money for Christmas presents or make a little more money to put towards gifts.

Don’t worry, I’ll cover some simple ideas for both making room in your budget and making more money.

Make Money For Christmas

There are so many ways to make more money.  But I’m just going list a handful of ideas to help get you started.

Some of you are working full time already or have no extra time to try to make more money.  Some of these ideas are pretty easy and don’t require too much effort, while others may not fit into your schedule.

Hopefully, you’ll find something doable listed below to help you make a little extra cash.

1. Earn money & gift cards using a cash back app. 

True, you do have to spend money to earn cash back or gift cards, but if you are making these purchases anyway, you might as well get paid for them.  You can put the cash or gift cards you’ve earned from this app towards Christmas gifts.

This cash back app is my top choice.

Sign up here (it’s free) to start earning on everyday purchases and learn how to get your sign up bonus!

2. Ask for a raise or overtime. 

If you already have a job, your employer is the first place you should go when you want more money.  Tell them how valuable you are to the company and what you bring to the table. Try to be as specific as possible.  It never hurts to ask, even if they turn you down.

Depending on the company you work for, some places get busier during the holidays.  Ask if there are any opportunities for overtime.  Again, all they can say is no. If anything it looks like you are a hard worker and willing to work longer hours.

3.  Land a seasonal job.

If your schedule allows it, many retailers and other companies hire seasonally just for the holidays.  Another perk is if you choose a retail store, many times you can get a discount as well, which is a great way to save money on gifts.

Here are some types of places that hire around the holidays.

Now, I know this one isn’t for everyone.  You may have zero time to do this or maybe you are already working too many hours, but just thought I’d mention it.

4. Sell items you don’t use anymore. 

If you have a lot of stuff that you just don’t use and is cluttering up your house, sell it.  I like selling my items on eBay and Amazon.  For unwanted jewelry and clothing items, I’ve had success selling through Poshmark.

5. Take on a side hustle just for the holidays. 

Do you have something you can make and sell?  Can you walk the neighbor’s dog?  Think of something you can do or make that adds value for people and put yourself out there.

Saving Money For The Holidays

The easiest thing you can do to “find money” for Christmas gifts is eliminating unnecessary spending from your budget.

You may even find that when you are done saving for Christmas, you might want to keep cutting those expenses so you can build up a nice savings cushion if you haven’t already.

Here’s how you can start an emergency fund if you don’t already have one.

Speaking of emergency funds, just wanted to clear something up that having to buy Christmas presents is definitely not an emergency lol.

If you have an emergency fund, I encourage you to not dip into it for Christmas presents and instead cut unnecessary items you spend money on already or find ways to make more money.

Remember, Christmas presents are not an emergency.  You don’t want to spend your emergency fund on something like holiday gifts only to be left high and dry when a real emergency happens. That wouldn’t be fun at all!

Okay, back to saving money…

Take a look at your spending from the last month.  Is there anything you can live without?

Maybe you spend an extra $10 on Starbucks and $20 eating out a week.  If you eliminated Starbucks and eating out for a month, that $120 could be put towards Christmas gifts.

Truthfully, most people probably spend way more than that monthly on Starbuck’s and/or eating out.

Now I’m not saying you have to cut your morning coffee or latte from Starbucks.  Just find something unnecessary you are okay with cutting out of your budget and find a cheaper replacement or get by without it.

So if you’re cutting out Starbucks coffee, make your own coffee for a fraction of the price.

Financial guru Dave Ramsey has some simple money saving tips that’ll help as well.

Reminding yourself that you are cutting out certain luxuries in order to give to other people can be quite a motivator and makes saving money that much easier. 

Even if you can give something up for a month, it can really start to add up over time.

You can also just be vigilant in trying to save money on things you already buy.  As mentioned above with eating out and Starbucks, food is one of the biggest categories people overspend on and should be the first place in your budget you try to decrease.

Here are some of my tips to save money on groceries,  then the money you save could go towards your holiday budget.

Hope you found this

saving for Christmas chart helpful!

Let me know in the comments below how much you saved.  If you have any money saving tips for the holidays, I’d love to hear them as well!