I don’t normally pay much attention to payday since we keep enough cash in our savings and checking to cover a couple months bills. Sure I notice when the money shows up in our account, but I don’t exactly count on the money in order to cover expenses on the same day I get paid. (think of all those people who rush their checks to the bank to cover checks they’ve already written etc)
So, you can imagine my surprise when I realized that I get an extra paycheck in December. Since I get paid every two weeks, that equals two extra checks per year. To be honest, I have no idea which month I got three checks earlier this year, but it is going to be nice to get that extra check during the holidays. We’ve already estimated roughly how much we will be spending during the holidays and we won’t even be using half of this extra check, so we’ll be one of the rare families that has MORE money after the holidays, than less, and we won’t have any of that “hangover” debt.
If you are one of the millions of people out there that get paid every two weeks, check to see if you also get three checks in December. If you do, commit to using that money to cover all of your holiday expenses and DON’T charge a thing for Christmas. If you don’t celebrate Christmas, well then Happy Festivus. (Seinfeld reference)
Anyway. Just one idea to potentially avoid the pitfall of putting all your Christmas expenses on the plastic.
You got paid three times in July. You are on the same pay schedule as me.
Hey Hazzard, you got 3 paychecks in July…I know because my wife is also paid every other week and will be getting 3 paychecks this December as well.
Not going into debt for gifts that often give pleasure for a few moments is obviously good advice. It seems like most of the time a present is not really interesting or exciting after it is opened, but the credit card bills can last much longer if you overspend.