Christmas, the Budget Buster

Oh.My.Gosh.

How on earth did this happen?

We planned to spend $200 per child on gifts, plus stocking stuffers, and hoped to come in at about $500 total for their Christmas gifts.

But we have no self control.
No legitimate budget.
No concept of how much we're spending.
No restraint.
Nobody to reign in our spending habits.

My husband made me sit down and write a list of everything I bought for the kids and how much it cost, so he knew how much money he had to play with. As I wrote it down, and my daughters list covered the entire front of a sheet of notebook paper, plus some of the back, I realized we had a problem. A huge problem. A $700 problem.

That is right. My five year old is receiving $700 in gifts for Christmas, including all new bedding for her room, a Nintendo 3DS with three games, and a whole lot of Lalaloopsy dolls (Misty Mysterious, Marina Anchors, Rosy Bumps & Bruises, Suzette La Sweet, Silly Hair Jewel, and approximately 10 mini's). There is more, but I can't remember it all. In comparison, my son had very little, so my husband went crazy buying him stuff this weekend.

That does not include items I plan to make them (tee pee's, pillows, my daughters dress up costume).

I added up our current credit card totals. We put $3000 on credit cards this month.

We have not bought for the adults in our family yet. And I don't know if I'm supposed to be buying for nieces and nephews.

And suddenly I feel like my throat is closing up and I'm getting panicky because I know I have a serious shopping problem.

I vented about this problem to some of my friends, and ultimately felt like I was being attacked back. I had already acknowledged that I had a problem, and I felt like they were just piling on.

Anyway, I told John that going forward, we're going to have to limit it. I'm going to start a Christmas club after the first of the year and we are NOT spending anymore than we save for Christmas next year.

I had been feeling so excited because we were going to have credit card bills paid off once we got my bonus and tax return at the first of the year, but now my bonus is paying for Christmas and we're going to owe on taxes, so now I just feel completely overwhelmed. I'm thinking about getting a part time job, just to pay down credit card debt.

And on that note, here's what our debt looks like as we end November.