say what?

So, there I was driving home from work one day and I drive past this bank.  The electronic sign had a banner that said "Come in now to get your Christmas loan"

What???! I coudln't believe it.  This is one of the dumbest things I think anyone could do.  It got me thinking about my other posts about money and how crazy people get and how rich they think they are becuase it's Christmas time.   If you have considered this crazy idea then you have been sucked in by stupid advertising....don't do it!! Sorry...but it's sooo not worth it and here's why.

1 - You will be purchasing things to give away only to pay on it for the next six months.
2 - While you are paying off your christmas gifts that you gave away, you will also be paying alot more becuase of interest.
3 - Christmas is not an emergency, it's not something that is a surprise.  It is a day that happens ever year at the same exact time! Therefore, why not save for it thorughout the year.

Then here's the kicker...you may not be taking out a loan...but maybe putting it on a credit card.  FYI, it's the same concept.  That's why I'm a total believer in going with cash.  You know what you have, what you can spend and where your money is going.  Then when you pay for it, you're done.  Never to be thought about again.

Since we started doing cash for everything we decided that holidays and birthdays are things you should view as a planned expense and you should work it into your budget. So here's what Danny and I did.  We first decided how times we buys gifts a year.  So we calculated how many siblings we each have for birthdays,  Mother's Day (both sides of the family), Father's Day (again, both sides) then we figure about 3 other times for wedding/showers etc.  Then we also calculated christmas and who all we give to.  In my family, we all give to one sibling, and then our parents and kind of the same things for Danny's side. We then decided you can get a decent gift for $15-20 dollars give or take.  You can see this as cheep or high or whatever. Do what you think you can do.  Then...times that by how many gifts you will probably purchase a year and TA DA! yes...lots of money a year goes to gift giving so you better start saving up!

In case you were wondering, when I take out my cash each month, I take $50.00 out each month to save for when needed.  That totals to 600.00 a year.  The nice thing is that we know we always have cash to give a gift and we never have to worry about not having enough money for someones birthday or what not.  In fact I never even think about how I'm going to pay for gifts because I know the money is always there.  Saving up and rolling over month after month.

So there's my two bits for the day.  :)