I Will Honour Christmas In My Heart

I will honour Christmas in my heart,
and try to keep it all the year.
I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future.
The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me.
I will not shut out the lessons that they teach!

~ Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

Saturday, January 25, 2025

Financial Planning for Christmas 2025 & New Buys, January Rudolph Day, 2025

 

 
   

 

 

 Welcome to my Christmas Blog, A Debbie-Dabble Christmas!!

 I am so happy you decided to stop by my Christmas Blog!!

  Every room in our townhouse has a different Christmas Theme and Color Scheme!!
 
 I prove that you do not have to live in a large home to have several Trees, over 20, in all shapes and sizes!!

The majority of my Christmas decorations are placed in the same room every year and I know that this is not what most Decorator's care for but to me, it like seeing old friends again when I decorate each year for Christmas as many of my decorations were gifts from family and friends........... 

I do try to add a few new things and change up things a bit but for the most part, these decorations are part of my Christmas Traditions and bring back a lot of treasured memories.....

    
 I post 3 TIMES A WEEK on MONDAY, THURSDAY AND SATURDAYS.....
 
 As always, click on each picture if you would like to enlarge it....
  
 PINTEREST
 
If you would like to Pin my pictures, please click on them to enlarge them to do so....
 
  A NOTE ABOUT COMMENTS
 
I enjoy reading your comments and will return the favor by visiting and commenting on your blog or reply to you directly here if you do not have a blog but I do have my comment section set to Moderation due to spammers and hackers so your comment will not appear immediately...
And since I have a very busy life, like most of us do, it may take me awhile to return your comments but I promise I will....
 
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 In my last post, over on Debbie-Dabble Blog, I shared how I changed my Powder Room over from Christmas to Winter/ Valentine's....

 

 

 

Click HERE if you missed that post!!
 

 I want to thank these 2 Bloggers for choosing my post, Rearranging my Family Gallery Wall, as one of their features from last week's parties!! 


Lisa, over at Boondock Rambligs, a fellow Blogger from Pa., chose my post,  as one of her features from last week's Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot Party!!
 

 Thanks so much, Lisa!!


And Andrea, over at The Cottage Market, for choosing my post as one of her features from last week's A Morning Cup of Joe Link Party!!
 
 Thanks again, Andrea!!
 
Please stop by and link up to these charming parties!!!

 

HAPPY RUDOLPH DAY!!!!!

  Rudolph Day is celebrated the 25th of each month......
 
 
 
Most will share something to do with Christmas on Rudolph Day....


I thought I would use this post to share some of my After Christmas Buys....

These large bushes were only $1.00 in Gabes....


 
And these were only $2.99...

 
 I will be sharing where I used these soon as they are part of my Kitchen Winter decor....
 
 
I went to Hobby Lobby with a gift card I had and hardly anything was left 2 days after they dropped all Christmas down to 90%....
 
 
 
 I will use these ornaments in my craft room next year.....
 
 
 
 I already shared where I used these 2 plates, that were only 50 cents each as they were slightly chipped on the left side, in my Den for Winter....
 
 

 
 
 
 And HERE



I will use this ribbon in my Kitchen year round....


This one can be used other than for Christmas.....



 
I stopped in Michael's and bought these for 80% off..........
 
 I will be using these in a Valentine's display....


I think I may use these in decorating my doll house....



I have been watching sales to buy another 4 ft. Tree for the Den with a sturdy metal stand....
 
 You may remember that I shared that the 4 ft. Table top Tree in the Den is 20+ years old and has a plastic stand and that it tipped over when I was stripping it down to re-decorate it for Winter...
 
What it looks like now decorated for Winter....
 


I have been watching pricing on this National Tree Company 4' Kingswood Fir Pencil Tree...
 

 Macy's came in with the low price of $35.99, Amazon & National Tree Company was high at $49.90...
 
Walmart sold out of it at $39.99...
 
BOSCOV's has it for $42.99 but is now offering an additional 40% off discount on select Christmas items so I ordered it for a mere $25.99!! 
 
Not bad for a Tree that was originally selling for $75 to $90!!
 
 I prefer to light my own Trees which I will do next year when I set it up for Christmas...
 
And that is it for my After Christmas shopping with most of what I bought not going to be used for Christmas...
 
  
I made this Christmas Planner well over a decade ago ....
 
 
 
I first got this idea when I came across the site, Organized Christmas 

This site also provides FREE printables to use in your Planner....

I still have to print out some of these that I use but I have written notes down to use in this planner as a lot of things changed this past Christmas....

I will touch on how I use this planner in future Rudolph Day posts but for today, I want to discuss Financial Planning for Christmas of 2025...
 
 

How many of you used credit cards to get through this past Christmas whether it was for gifts or even for food for the Holiday Season??????


How many of you are now in more debt because of Christmas???

I found this statement online....

"This season, 36% of American consumers took on holiday debt, according to a new survey from LendingTree. Those who racked up balances this season took on an average of $1,181 in debt, up from $1,028 in 2023. However, that is still down from $1,549 in 2022, LendingTree found"
 
My mother worked full time as a sewing machine operator in the Garment Industry her entire life...

She always had a Christmas Club that she used to get through the Holidays...

If you are not familar with this, it is money that was taken directly out of your pay weekly or monthly and was available to you at the end of October...

When I started working as an RN in a Hospital, I started my own Christmas Club...

I continued it until I stopped working in 2019....

I not only used that money for Christmas gifts.....
 
But also for both my son's Birthday gifts as their Birthdays are December 7th and the 29th...
 
 
I used it to pay for all the Holiday meals starting with Thanksgiving Day as I hosted my immediate Family for all Holiday dinners..
 
 And I used it to pay my HOA yearly fee....


Which is $400 a year and will rise to $500 next year....

You get a discount of one month for free if you pay this in full by March , which I always do...

When I was working, I contributed $3500 to my Christmas Club yearly...

I did not continue it when I retired which was a mistake...

At the end of 2023, I insisted ( to Joe) that we start another Christmas Club at our Credit Union ( have not used a bank in almost 40 years) as we had just become first time grandparents to our twin granddaughters....
 
 
Whose Birthdays were also on the 29th along with their Uncle Joey's!!

YEP!!

4 Birthdays in December!!

And I thought 2 were bad enough!

Can I tell you how thrilled I am that I started that Christmas Club????
 
When Joe passed away, I increased my monthly contributions to it so that I would receive $1000 which was deposited in my Savings Account automatically in October... 

Because of that, I was able to maintain my debt free status , even after Christmas and 4 Birthdays!

Yes, I have ZERO credit card debt.....
 

 My advice to you , instead of paying on credit cards after Christmas, is to Join a Christmas Club and contribute to it...

I kept records of all I spent on gifts, which is mainly money in cards, what I spent on all Holiday meals, including baking supplies, as I also gift cookies and even the cost of stamps for Christmas cards and church contributions....
 
 I will get into this in future posts...
 
In reviewing all of this, I increased my Christmas Club to $1800 for this year...
 
I hope to add more to it, which I can do electronically in the Summer months, when I have a decrease in my monthly bills, so that I bump that up to $2000....

And there you have it...
 
 My first tip in planning financially for Christmas 2025 is to start a Christmas Club so you do not incur more credit card debt after Christmas.....
 
 Thanks for stopping by this Rudolph Day post....


I hope to see you here again in February on the 25th for Rudolph Day when I will be sharing more on Planning for Christmas 2025...

 
 
In my next post on MONDAY, over on my regular Blog, Debbie-Dabble Blog, I will be starting my tour of the Kitchen decorated for Winter with a touch of Valentine's...
 
 So I hope you will stop by to visit again on MONDAY!
 
 
 Stay safe, healthy and most of all, HAPPY!!

Thanks to those who took the time out of their busy day to spend a little bit of time with me!!
 

If you do not have a blog, PLEASE  give me some way to reply to your comment, maybe by including your email in your comment.  If I can not find a way to reach you, I will reply on the post where you commented so please check back......


I am linking up to these parties:
 



  THURSDAY
  
 Please take some time to visit these terrific hosts and all those joining in on the fun!
 
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