As the holiday season begins, I find myself feeling very thankful for a number of things. First off, I’m very, very thankful for my wonderful wife and amazing daughter. I’m also thankful that we have a roof over our heads, food on our table, and jobs to keep us humming along. I think this season feels much more real in terms of truly understanding what we all should be thankful for.
As we look past Thanksgiving, it’s shaping up to be another Christmas season that is squarely focused on retail sales and how much stuff people buy. For us, it will be another season of trying to minimize the focus on “stuff” while we try to enjoy our families and friends. Of course, we’ll have our weak points and spend a bit more than we should as we get swept up in the frenzy but I think we’ll do okay.
In order to try to set ourselves up for success this season, my wife, daughter and I sat down and listed all the people that we plan to buy presents for and then listed the dollar amount we want to stick to for each. By doing this we will have a clear budget to work from which should help us control our spending and keep our bank account in good shape. As usual, we will not be using ANY credit to buy gifts. We will charge the presents on our Costco American Express but will pay the balance off at the end of the month so that we don’t pay any interest charges and still get to take advantage of the cash back that they offer.
Will we be participating in the after Thanksgiving sales? While I’ve seen a few deals that are rather tempting, I won’t be getting up early to go stand in line anywhere. One example of a tempting deal is LCD tv’s. The prices on Black Friday are rather shocking. We are still using the same old 32″ tube TV that came with our house. Frankly, I’m kind of hoping it will die soon so that we can justify finally getting a new flat screen tv. I guess it’s a good thing that the tv has continued to work because prices have come down so much, we’ve saved a ton of money by not buying one until the last possible moment. So, unless the tv decides to blow up in the next day or so, we’ll probably keep our focus on buying just the gifts that are on our list.
Anyway, I hope that you have a Happy Thanksgiving and don’t get too sucked in to the Black Friday feeding frenzy.