That is a good idea, Christmas always kills people's budget so if you plan ahead, you are ahead of the game!

I believe that everyone needs to have a budget put in place right from the start. It is one thing that I have noticed a lot of people struggle with. I've always placed the extra money that I have each month aside and then at the end of the year I have money for Christmas or to pay something off.

I used to be great at coming in under budget and then saving the extra money, but I haven't been paying that much attention lately. I really need to get back to sticking closely to a budget.

I like the idea of not spending all the money you have budgeted. I always take any extra money that was in the budget but not spent and put it in the "vacation fund". It is how we pay for our vacations each year.

Great point DJAMES and EGGHEAD. There are tons of helpful information on budgeting in this forum.

I agree with that. With certain categories of the budget, you can always strive to decrease the spending (like groceries or utilities). The key is to use that 'found' money wisely - either paying down debt or building savings. This can help you achieve your goals much faster.

If you don't always check the blog here I recommend giving it a look. I was just reading this post about some negative aspects to budgeting.

It was really interesting, and I especially liked the comment about needing to be flexible sometimes, though I would add that this can also mean you don't have to spend all the cash you have put away for a certain thing each month. Say for groceries or whatever. If you have spare cash from something at the end of the month put it away.