How do we create a Christian holiday budget for gifts, food, and decor?

Speaker A00:00:00

Ralph, the holidays always seem to drain my wallet. From gifts to food to travel and decorations. How do I make a holiday budget that actually works?Well, I thought we'd start with some statistics today. Abby, my producer, came up with these stats and these are perfect. Did you know the average American plan to spend $1,063 this year on Christmas?And out of that, $677 is going to go to gifts? That's like 2/3 of the budget. Now there's also things like food, decor and wrappings that average $387. Wait till you hear this one.Travel and experiences are estimated to be $735 each. Listen, I'm a math guy. You add it all up at $1600, that's the food, the gifts, the clothing, the decor, all those things.And the truth is, listen, I learned this as a young person when we had two young kids at home. Holidays add up fast. But I've got a solution with four buckets.I'm going to tell you about those four buckets today on the show and a written plan so we're not just guessing. You can truly enjoy this season without going into debt. That's what we're going to cover on today's show.

Speaker B00:01:08

This is Financially Confident Christian, your daily dose of gospel, grounded insight and faith driven tips to help you break the cycle of financial shame with confidence.

Speaker A00:01:20

Hi there, I'm Ralph. Thank you for choosing to spend some time with me today. We're talking about holiday spending and we're talking about doing it without the stress.Listen, I'll tell you right now, personally, I've seen how a written plan turns holiday chaos into peace. I remember his client, client came in to see me. Let's call him Bob.Bob came in to see me one January, said, Ralph, every single year, the holidays, man, I go broke, I got nothing left. He said, what can I do? I said, oh, I'm glad. I'm so happy you came in to see me. I got a plan for you. I said, this worked well. My kids were young.My wife and I sat down one Sunday and we said, okay, we got to get through Christmas this year. I remember the kids were like 2 and 5 years old. They were young fellows at that point.We sat down, we wrote down four categories, just simply four gifts, food, decor and extras. We wrote down a plan. I'm going to tell you how to do that in a few minutes. And we stuck to that plan.And he ended the season debt free for the first time in years. Well, this client said, Ralph, I'M going to try it. Help me with that. I showed him how to do it and guess what? He made it through.And I love what this. Now I'm going to butcher this dude's name. He's a French poet. It's Antoine de Saint X Puree. I think I got that right. And this is what he said.He said, a goal without a plan is just a wish. You know what? That is so perfect. A goal without a plan is just a wish. If we keep on making wishes, we're not going to get anywhere.So let's get right into my four bucket approach. Four buckets. Keep it simple. I'm a believer. I'm kind of a simple guy. Keep it simple.Get a piece of paper out and just write down gifts, food, decor and extras. Now, when I say extras, that's stuff like travel or events. Put those four things down.Next thing I want you to do is write down the realistic numbers that fit your overall budget. I don't know what your budget is. Think about it. What can we really.And we'll talk in this series more about how to get saved for Christmas, how to do those things to set that money up. But for right now, put a realistic number that fits your budget next to each one. Write it down because a written plan is guardrails on the road.Helps keep you safe. You know, it's not just that wish like the guy talked about. And when you do this, you're going to get peace in this because you're planning it.You're going to stop guessing because guess what? Here's the thing. When you start guessing, it creates stress. I remember when the kids were young, my wife would go buy something, I'd go buy some.We'd get together that night. I'm like, what did you spend? I don't remember. Then we had no idea how much we spent. By the time we got to Christmas, man, we had gone over and above.That's when you get into anxiety. That's when you're getting distress. But listen, a budget. Yeah, Ralph talks about budgets. A budget brings freedom and calm.Let's get right into the Bible. I love this Bible verse from the book of Luke, chapter 14, verse 28. It's all about planning. It says, suppose one of you wants to build a tower.I can't even imagine trying to build a tower. But let's just say we're going to build a tower.If we're going to build a tower, Bible says, won't you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it. Now that verse goes on to say, because if you don't and you can't build it, people are going to ridicule you. It's a really good point, isn't it?Let's pray today. Lord, we just come to you right now and we ask you for discipline to plan our lives accordingly.Help us to see the joy in the simple but intentional spending plans for this Christmas. We ask for peace instead of pressure this holiday. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen. All right, so here's your action step for today.I want you to create this simple four part holiday budget. Again four categories, gifts, food, decor and extras. And I want you to assign a dollar amount to each one. Write it down.Don't just think about it because listen, what did the guy say? Thoughts are wishes. This is a plan. For example, maybe you put gifts 500 bucks, food 200 bucks. Don't forget about the food.A lot of people don't think about that. And then all of a sudden you got this house full of people and and your grocery budget is out the window because you weren't expecting that.So let's say gifts 500, food 200, decor 75 and then throw some extras in for 150. Write it down today because you can turn that stress into a plan. So I'm encourage you write a few minutes today. Your future self will thank you.Now one of the things I want to offer you right now is I just finished writing my third book. It's really a way to learn practical God centered money habits.It's my 30 years of experience in this field and and I do some real live things of what has worked for my people that I've worked with. I want to give you a free copy of that book.You can get to that book by going to financiallyconfidentchristian.com/becoming I'm going to give it to you one more time. It's financiallyconfidentchristian.com/becoming go download that book. It could be a great gift to give somebody for the holidays as well.But for you it's absolutely free.Well, I want to thank you for joining me today and I hope this episode has inspired you to take those intentional steps so that you truly can have a joyful and and stress free holiday season. Remember this clarity, that joy, that feeling of peace starts with a plan and peace comes when you act on it.So let's make this season one of purpose, not pressure. Stay financially savvy. God bless you and you have a great day today.