Christmas Savings Club | February Meeting

On the 25th of every month from January to November in 2013, I'm holding a virtual meeting for the Christmas Savings Club. The goal for this monthly accountability meeting is to give updates on our progress, motivate one another and help all of us save for a cash Christmas. Today is the second meeting, but anyone can join at any time.

If you are new, please read more about the Christmas Savings Club in the first post and join us. I'm still offering a FREE Christmas Gift & Spending Budget excel spreadsheet, click that link for more information.

On with the meeting...

The Good News & the Bad News

The good news is that my husband is trying to improve his nutrition and health and in the month of February started a whole foods cleanse.

The bad news is that I didn't communicate my plan for a pantry challenge with my husband and his whole foods cleanse started in the month that I was doing a pantry challenge.

The good news is that my husband is trying to improve his health and nutrition.

The bad news is that I needed to plan our monthly meals from food that was already in our pantry and freezer to help me fund my January shortfall and hit my February savings goal. And my pantry was NOT stocked with a month's worth of fresh fruits and vegetables.

But the good news is that my husband is trying to improve his health and nutrition and that trumps my pantry challenge any day of the year.

So how DID I do in February?
My monthly goal is $100. That number includes gifts for our kids, extended family members, teachers, friends, neighbors, bus drivers, service people, our Christmas cards, stamps, and our donations towards the Salvation Army's Adopt-a-Family program.

As luck would have it, even though my pantry challenge was a bust, I did find this month's goal of $100 in a savings account that has been languishing in la la land for some time. Yes, I forgot about it and it happened to have $102 in it. I'm closing the account and moving that money to my Christmas Savings account. But I'm pretty sure my luck has run out, so I'll have to work extra hard from now on.

My husband and I started Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University Online course and have been very mindful of our spending. We just need to be mindful enough that we can make up that $40 on top of our $100 goal for March.

March's Assignments
1. If you have not done so, complete the Christmas Gift & Spending Budget worksheet.

2. If you have not done so, open up a separate checking account specifically for your Christmas Spending Savings.

3. Find your monthly savings goal for March and any shortfall that you have from January and February.

How did you do?

In the comments, let us know how you are doing so far with your Christmas Spending savings. You don't have to divulge your goal, but please let us know if you were able to save the money. Also let us know how you saved the money.

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