*This post may contain affiliate links, please see my disclosure
Like any good personal finance blogger, I follow Dave Ramsey on my personal Facebook account. You know, same thing that normal people do. Usually I just browse the titles of most of this stuff, and don’t really have time to read it. Today something caught my eye, most likely because it had the words “Christmas” and “Budget” in it.
I decided to click on the link and check out what new shenanigans DR was up to this time. Lucky for me, it was something pretty awesome, and if I had a team of expensive developers behind me as well, I totally would have created this tool a LONG time ago!
Christmas: Time To Blow A Chunk Of Cash
Christmas is the time of year when we forget why we work so hard all year and decide to open the flood gates from our bank account and let our cash pour out. Logic is superseded by blind materialism and we turn into mindless drones listening to the almighty voice of the advertising machine.
Or, at least, that’s what has happened to me in the past. Luckily, since I’ve been on a wicked-awesome budget, advertising is now akin to someone scratching a chalkboard with a pair of forks. And one perk of being on a budget is things like Christmas don’t “sneak up” on us a surprise our wallet at the end of the year.
We use our handy-dandy savings buckets to save for Christmas and shop throughout the year to get the best deals and kick stress to the curb (take that, cortisol!). We love to give gifts, and have a large list of people to keep track of, along with a very small budget. We have been keeping track of our Christmas shopping through my excel spreadsheet for savings buckets, but, honestly, it’s kind of a pain. I wish there was an easier tool to use to know how much we’ve spent on each person, and how much is left in the budget…..
Enter: Dave Ramsey Christmas Budget Application
Dave Ramsey and is team of awesomeness put together a sweet little Christmas Budget application over at www.mychristmasbudget.com. It’s simple, yet powerful and does EXACTLY what I’ve been looking to do with my Christmas list spreadsheet. I’ll be using it on my mobile phone, so the budget follows me wherever I go. Here’s how it works:
1. First, go to www.mychristmasbudget.com to get started.Hit “Start Budgeting”
2. Then put in your Christmas budget amount and email to keep your budget saved (don’t forget to uncheck the box below if you don’t want the “Christmas Updates”)
3. Put in all the names of the people you will be buying gifts for.
4. Then put in the amount that you’ll be spending on them. Make sure you don’t go over your total budget.
5. Now, when you’re out and purchase a gift, you can put in the item and how much you spent. The app will do all the calculating or you, and show you how much you have left in the budget.
6. Once you have purchased all gifts for a person, just check the box next to their name, and they get popped down to the “Completed” section.
And that’s it! See, it’s simple, intuitive, and will keep you on track when you’re out shopping for gifts.
Comments: What do you all think? Is this something you’ll use this Christmas? I’ve already signed up, and will definitely be using it to finish off our list this year.
Disclaimer: I get no money to review or recommend this product, I just thought it was cool. Now, the image at the beginning of the post is an affiliate link, and I only used it mostly because I couldn’t’ find a better image. But as stated in my last post, I do recommend the book, so if you use that link and purchase it, I do receive a very small commission, and as always, thanks a ton for your support 🙂
Sounds great!
I start dreading Christmas shopping around this time of year…I seriously hate it! I have so many nieces and nephews that I just give them each $20 at this point. I used to buy them stuff but they’re all getting old enough that they would rather have money. At least that part is getting easier!
We have 20+ people to buy for…so very inexpensive and creative gifts are a must. Sorry to hear Christmas is a dread….it should be the happiest time of year! 🙂
We already budget for Christmas and set aside money for the holidays throughout the year. If you don’t budget for the season you could end up with that nasty enormous January bill. I’ll still go and check out the spread sheet, just because I’m interested.
Our budget is there, just a few more people to buy for. This is just a convenient tracking tool so you don’t have to lug around a list of people 🙂 (#FirstWorldProblems)
No Christmas shopping for us, except for some food (which won’t be out of the ordinary anyway). We don’t spend it like we used to (when we were kids) and are aggressively saving since we’ll have our daughter in less than 6 weeks from Christmas. So there’s a bigger ‘battle’ to be won 🙂
NIce tool though, as long as it does the job, I would use it.
Congrats on the impending blessing! 🙂
Congrats on the impending blessing! 🙂
Definitely I would use this application. I really love Christmas and I’m excited to buy some gifts for my family!
Glad to hear it. This seems to take all the thinking out of it and makes budgeting and shopping a breeze 🙂
Seems like a pretty cool app, if you can’t keep track of this yourself. Personally, I don’t have a problem keeping it straight, but I don’t have a ton of people to shop for either.
Yeah, I’ve got like 20+ people, so this will be a HUGE help 🙂
Pretty cool. Not sure if I’ll use it but I can definitely see the usefulness. We have a “gifts” account like you, and that’s usually enough for us. I’m a terrible gift-giver though. Need to get on that.
MAKE IT HAPPEN. If you use this app and make a list….then you can’t ignore it 🙂
That’s a really great app! Not sure if I’ll use it, as I don’t have that many people to shop for, so it’s not all that hard to keep track. But definitely useful. Thanks for sharing!
I think the power is in setting specific dollar amounts for each person. If you don’t have a budget for Christmas, your budget is ALL MONEYS!
I use google docs spreadsheet app to pretty much do the same thing that this app lets you do. But this is a good looking alternative for people who dont want to do it manually!
Good call. Google docs are cloud based and travel with you as well. I like this app’s interface, but a Google doc will essentially do the same 🙂
Sounds like a cool program. We aren’t doing Christmas gifts this year, but maybe in the future I would use something like this. I usually write it all out on paper.
This is the NEW paper for your Christmas shopping list 🙂
Love this!!! We do something similar, only with a notebook and pen. Smartphones and apps are not on our budget list until the debt is gone! 🙂
I came over from CBB, I do something like this every year but on paper. I look for wish list items year ’round and get things on sale as much as possible. I also keep a small stash of cash hidden in my wallet for those things I find at odd times so I don’t have to answer to the checking account or the M/C bill with hubby(especially if what I bought is for him!!!) Our kids are old enough now to realize that I keep that wish list going even after Christmas for birthdays as they are not that long after Dec.(Feb., April, and July).
When I hit the stores for Christmas shopping I will be clutching a few lists…one per person cross referenced to the stores I plan to blow through. I do more buying than ‘shopping’. My fingers have already done the shopping with the flyers and such, now I’m just getting the list done.
All that said it does look interesting…..Thanks for the info there…
Christine, welcome to the site. Give Mr. CBB my regards! 🙂
We do something similar, as I detail in this post about When To Shop For Christmas
I just like the ease of use on this app. vs. my excel sheet or using paper. 🙂
Hopefully this app sticks around throughout the year!
Awesome!
I do something similar on an Excel sheet or on Evernote, but it looks like this app will have to replace those!
Yeah, it’s super simple. I just saved the webpage as a shortcut on my phone’s home page.
Clearly, I need to download this app. Gotta love Dave Ramsey!