I’m sure you are thinking, Karen, Um. . .Christmas is OVER!  Yep, it is, but I’m going to help you prepare for the next (and every future) Christmas Debt FREE!

Why?  Why does it matter that you want to be debt-free, if you’re able to make your payments, does whether or not you owe money to a company or a bank or a Credit card matter?

Oh, my friend!  Being free from debt is so important when it comes to preparedness.  I’m assuming that because you’re on this website, that preparedness is important to you. The number of – even preparedness – benefits is really dizzying.

What are some of the basic benefits?

• If you have no debt, your monthly outgo will be less.
• If times get tough, you will need less to live on.
• Having no debt also means that you’ll be able to use your money in different and more productive ways.  You can invest your money – and I’m not just talking about in stocks.
• You can choose which items are most important for your preparedness and invest your money in them.

And while that is nice, how do you avoid getting into debt during the holiday season?  Here are my five tips.

***There are links in this post.  The FCC wants me to tell you that some of the links may be affiliate links. My promise to you is that I will only recommend the most economical version of the best quality of items to serve you. All of these are the items that I have bought for my own family.  If you click on a link, your price will remain the same.  If you make a purchase, we may make a small commission that aids in covering the cost of running this website.***

(1) Use YNAB

YNAB stands for You Need A Budget.  Now don’t run off of me!!!  Ynab isn’t a usual budgeting software, and it isn’t just a checkbook software.  It is a tool to not only get you out of debt but to grow your savings exponentially!!

When you use YNAB, you hook up your bank accounts and credit card accounts to YNAB.

You set up your budget.

When a transaction comes into your bank account or credit card, you tell YNAB which of your budget categories it comes out of.

This next part is the really cool part – so make sure that you get this — If a transaction comes in for one of your credit cards, you’ll tell it from which category the money is to be debited THEN it moves that money to the credit card!!!  So when you use YNAB – unless you go over what you have in your checking account, you’ll NEVER GO FURTHER INTO CREDIT CARD DEBT!!!

I mean how cool is that!?!

YNAB has been our bread and butter for almost four years now.  I used Quicken for about 19 years, and I would NEVER EVER go back!

(2) Use Credit Cards 

What?  Most financial gurus say, don’t use credit cards!  Well since I use YNAB, I pay off my credit cards each month.  What’s more, is that I have TWO rewards credit cards.  I have one for Amazon – where I get FIVE percent cash back.  I save up all my cashback until mid-September or early October and then I use that to purchase Christmas gifts from Amazon!

I also get cashback from my bank credit card.  I only use it for the purchases that earn me 4% and 3% back.  This gets me the best return on things that I would already buy.  For example, I get 4% cashback on gas.  So whenever I need to fill up my gas tank, I use that particular credit card.   Then we get 3% cashback on eating out.  We don’t eat out a LOT as a family, but there’s the odd thing here and there.  We eat pizza with my mom each week, and we’ll use that credit card to purchase the pizza.

Then each year around November, I will go ahead and cash out my cashback from the year and use it toward Christmas for my family.

Let me say this, though, if you don’t use YNAB or you go over on your credit cards each month – even if you’re using YNAB, then using credit cards isn’t a good idea.

(3) Save Throughout the Year

In YNAB, I have an entire section of my budget which I call my “Sinking Funds.”  What is a sinking fund?  It’s a fund that you “sink” money into because you know that you’re going to probably need it by a certain date.  Here’s a great example.  Every November, my annual membership in Heritage Defense comes due. Heritage Defense is a legal group that defends the rights of Christian Homeschooling Families.  I know that it’s usually around $150.  So I have a fund, and I “sink” about $13 into it each month.  So by the time that I need to pay my $150, it’s already in my checking account.

I do the same thing with Christmas and Birthdays.  I *try* to put $100 into that account each month.  Now you need to realize that I have 7 people in my nuclear family and then my mom, sister, and father-in-law, so it’s not like there are only two or three of us and I have $400 per person for Christmas.

(4) Earn A Little Money on the Side 

Do you know how to make soap? Sew or Garden?

Do you have a book to write or could you write guest blog posts?  I typically pay for guest blog posts, and I’m not the only one.  (If you have experience in a preparedness related area – shoot me an e-mail at karen (at) ayearwithoutthegrocerystore.com  I’d love to talk.) I’ve written for another blog from time to time, and I get paid to do it.

I have a friend who buys pieces of furniture (or honestly, she does a lot of curbside scavenging) and then she takes those items and refurbishes them, selling them for a nice profit.  She’s gotten very good at it.  It just takes a little time and learning.

I have another person that I met taking a class, she takes flawed cashmere sweaters and makes them into beautiful and soft hair scrunchies.

I have friends who teach piano lessons.  Even during Covid, you can teach lessons via Zoom.

Once you have a side gig running, pay your expenses, and put a percentage of your profits away for Christmas.

(5) Get Creative and Make Gifts

Gifts don’t have to be expensive.  I had a friend who had eight children who made almost all of her own Christmas gifts for her children.  The gifts she made were absolutely beautiful!  She did everything from sewing beautiful dolls for her children to crocheting those dolls some clothes.

But you don’t have to stick with only homemade gifts for your family.  Do you want to bless someone who you see regularly – like the UPS guy, but you don’t want to spend a ton on gifts for someone you don’t know really well?  What about blessing them with a gift like homemade hot chocolate, salsa, apple butter, or other food type gifts.  Want some more ideas.  You can find a whole bunch of them here.

What About You?

Do you have any other tips or tricks to share with everyone on how not to go into debt for Christmas?  If you do, please share them with us in the comments so that we can all be better prepared!

Together let’s love, learn, practice, and overcome!

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