Christmas planning!

Vince and I made a commitment to get completely out of debt so that we could start our farm and not be burdened by debt.

Dave Ramsey makes this seem much easier than it really is. It was easy enough to say, “No more credit cards, just cash.” It was pretty easy to start that emergency fund, and not use it. It has even been easy enough to budget and pay off more than minimum payment.

It was not fun to have to get a new car, when I wanted to put that money to debt, but we have to be a two car family and with baby Isaac on his way, we were willing to spend the money to get him a safe car.

My biggest issue is that every month it is 2 steps forward and 1 step back. Why? Because interest is evil!

What makes it worse is that it is interest on student loans. I sit here and want to complain about it but its student loans, they were needed. Its not like it was a trivial purchase and now we are regretting the interest. No, it was an investment in our future that now we are spending our future paying off… there is something very wrong with this system, but that is a rant for another day.

I started all this to say that since we are working so hard to pay off the debt, I have been getting creative with Christmas gifts.

Both Vince and I love giving gifts, so while we set a strict budget, we still want to give as much as we can. This meant I started planning Christmas gifts at the end of September.

I will admit it… part of me wants to scrap the whole debt thing and go crazy for Christmas, but I am trying to be good… trying to focus on the end goal… someday we will make it.

What I have come up with is that we will give loved ones a nice store bought gift that stays within the set budget, and then on top of that I will make homemade gifts also. I really want to share the homemade gifts, but they shall remain hidden secrets till after Christmas.

Thankfully our families understand our goals and seem supportive. Part of me thinks this might be because our goal of a farm is beneficial to them (farm fresh food and cute farm animals to watch. My mom has always dreamed of land with cows to watch).

Now I just need to make sure I finish everything by Christmas… Hopefully I can make it!