Christmas Sinking Fund Planner

Christmas is the most predictable expense of the year and the one most households meet with a credit card. The date never moves; only the decision about when to start paying for it does. This planner makes December a sinking fund instead of a surprise: the whole holiday costed in January — every person’s gift with a cap set before the shops open, plus the food, travel and decor nobody budgets for — then spread across twelve monthly set-asides, with spending logged as it happens so the fund balance is never a guess.

What it does for you:
– Start Here — 2-minute setup: this year’s Christmas date and the January you start saving.
– Gift List — one row per person: gift idea, Budget Cap, Spent, Under/Over (flags red when a person goes over cap) and Status (Idea / Bought / Wrapped / Given). Samples: 10 people, $1,000 of caps, $357 spent, 5 gifts already sorted.
– Holiday Fund — the WHOLE holiday in one table: Gifts (pulled live from the Gift List) plus Food & Drink, Travel, Decorations & Tree, Cards Wrap & Postage, Parties & Events and a Buffer — Budget, Spent and Left to Spend per category. Sample total: $2,150.
– The set-aside math — Monthly Set-Aside (total ÷ 12 = $179.17 in the samples) and Weekly Set-Aside ($41.35), calculated from your real total, not a round-number guess.
– Fund Schedule — January to December: set-aside in, cumulative saved, spending logged in the month it happens, and a running Fund Balance that ends the sample year at $1,648.04 still standing after $502 of early spending.
– Dashboard — total budget, spent, left, both set-asides, fund balance, and how many gifts are bought, wrapped or given, at a glance.
– Expense Log & Monthly Budget — a zero-based budget with a Christmas Fund category, so the set-aside leaves the account like a bill, monthly.
– Sample rows pre-filled so every formula works the moment you open it; formula cells are locked (password disclosed in Start Here) and every formula is error-wrapped. A planning tool, not financial advice.

What’s inside (.xlsx, works in Excel AND Google Sheets): Start Here · Gift List (per-person caps) · Holiday Fund (full budget + Jan–Dec fund schedule) · Expense Log · Monthly Budget (zero-based) · Dashboard · Monthly Summary (12 months).

Instant download. No shipping, no waiting. Message us if you need help setting it up — we answer fast.