I never thought that at age 45, I'd celebrate my first Christmas. But nine months after meeting my current partner, I'm all set to do just that.

Being Jewish, I never celebrated the holiday. When I was little, and on behalf of younger relatives today, there were Chanukah presents. But those are small and only given by, or to, close family members. Sure I counted many Christians among my friends and exchanged a few gifts over the years, but one present here and there doesn't require much strategy.There are non-Christians who celebrate the holiday with a tree and presents, just for fun, and many who've pooh poohed the idea that Christmas is just for Christians. They say that putting up a tree and opening presents is for everyone, regardless of religion. I beg to differ. A holiday should mean something. Encouraging an empty observance feels just that to me: empty and vaguely insulting to those for whom Christmas has meaning.

I won't get into how it feels to be on the sidelines of the holiday season (although it's a lot worse than getting picked last in gym class), and I won't get into how having a birthday in December adds to the misery of not participating in the dominant event (but the former is always overshadowed by the latter, something you don't even celebrate). WalletPop is a personal finance site after all.

All of the above is emotional, not financial. But as I've recently discovered, the two are inseparable when it comes to Christmas.

This year, I am seriously involved with a man who celebrates Christmas. He has a large family and three children, all of whom eagerly plan for the holiday. There are parties, dinners, wish lists, letters to Santa and church services, and I am lucky to be included in all of it. Better yet, for the first time in my life, it doesn't feel false.

But it's also humbling and I've done pretty much everything wrong when it comes to shopping. It's a humiliating thing for a retail reporter and contributor to a personal finance site to confess, but there's an end of the year urge to purge, or er... splurge. Let my mistakes be a lesson, to me and anyone else in a similar position.

1. I Didn't Budget. Yes, I write for a personal finance site, and sure, I'm considered financially savvy, but they say doctors make the worst patients. The same apparently applies to finance writers.

I thought, "There's just these few people. How much trouble could I get in?" Plenty as it turns out, as I struggle not to give in to every urge. "Look, these fleecy pajama pants are perfect for ______," even though I'd already gotten her two presents and would have to buy one more for her older sister in the interest of fairness. Had I made a budget, this would have gone down quite differently.

2. I Didn't Make a List, for them or me. I made a mental list, but not having something solid for reference has me waffling at the store, and this indecision is leading to over-buying (see mistake number 1) and not writing down things that I want, which means I'll likely ponder returning a gift and risk hurting someone's feelings or hanging on to dud gifts. I'm used to buying myself the things I want or need; it would have been nice to receive them as gifts instead.

Consumerist Budget Spreadsheet Balances Your Money, Encourages Your Nest Egg

The saving-savvy folks at The Consumerist blog have put together a template Excel spreadsheet for managing personal finances. It's the kind of thing you always say you're going to do, but they went ahead and did it for you, and it's free.

It's not a new thing, but Consumerist's budget spreadsheet, crafted during the days the site was one of our blog network brethren, has come back, after being lost to the vagaries of server maintenance. The site has instructions on setting it up, including tips on thinking through your monthly expenses and advice on how much you should plan on socking away for a rainy day, retirement, and other expenses.

Maybe you use Mint or another automated spending/saving tracker instead—but then again, maybe those tools are so automatic that you don't get a good look at your real money situation.

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Wednesday, December 22, 2010

personal finance

Consumerist Budget Spreadsheet Balances Your Money, Encourages Your Nest Egg

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