If a blogger posts and no one reads it...: holidays

Sure, the holidays are wonderful and I look forward to them, but this year, more than in years past, I'm feeling stressed and pinched about the cost. I'm trying to think about what is different this year - after all, our income is higher than it has been in several years, so you would think it would be less of a pinch this year, no?

I guess it boils down to a few factors:

Cash and carry. In previous years, I would try to fund most of our holiday expenses with cash, but had no problem falling back on the credit card to cover what I couldn't. I don't do that anymore - my motto is, if I can't pay cash for it, I can't afford it. And, I refuse to dip into savings, either. So, it is causing me to have to really budget out exactly what I plan to spend and when, in relation to our pay periods. I think the fact that I can't buy everything I want right when I want to, is making me feel tense.
Elevating Hanukkah's Status. At our house, we celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah (the former in the weird, Jewish way that my family always did, which involves no tree, but plenty of presents, and a bagel brunch. I know, we're weird). In general, the lion's share of the presents have arrived via Santa at Christmas. For Hanukkah, I would generally get the girls each a small thing for each of the 8 nights. But, Sadie's getting older, and I want her to embrace her Jewishness, too, so I feel like it isn't going to cut it to give her markers or a coloring book as a Hanukkah gift. Since I'm not willing to diminish the present orgy on Christmas day, either, it means that I'm committed to buying more stuff than in years' past.
Eden's Birthday. Eden's birthday falls in early January. I don't want her to feel shortchanged by broke parents who blew their wad at Hanukkah and Christmas, so I've been trying to set aside money now to fund her party and presents, as well. I actually paid a deposit at the place for her party and already bought her main gift (bedding for her big girl bed she'll be getting from her grandparents), but the balance of the party expense will be due the day of, and I don't want to feel a pinch that week.
The ~~money pit~~ house. Aside from the usual house repairs and expenses, we've had a nice opportunity pop up, which will be a good thing (cost-saving measure) moving forward, but it translates into an up-front expense. Evan got a hold of a free woodstove insert for the fireplace. Putting this in and burning the endless amounts of wood scraps he accumulates downstairs will be a free way to heat much, if not all, of our house this winter. That said, given that our fireplace has not been functional since the day Evan almost burned the place down when he was renovating it (a story for another entry), there is a lot of work to be done and money to be spent to get they system functional. We just bought huge slabs of bluestone for the facade (we needed to build it up as the woodstove extends five inches out past the brick firebox). They are beautiful and it is going to look stunning, but beauty comes at a price. Then, yesterday, we had the chimney sweep come and clean and inspect the existing ceramic chimney liner to see if it was safe and usable. $109 dollars later and it is none of the above (we suspected as much, but figured it was worth a shot). So, we now need to purchase a metal liner. We've been pricing them out and they run between $600-$800 dollars. Realistically, without dipping into savings, we're not going to have that together until at least February. Which means we won't have the thing functional until early spring, which kind of defeats the cost-saving purpose for this winter. Oh well. Anyway, that's a long-winded way of saying that at the same time I'm trying to buy holiday and birthday magic for my kids, we're also trying to squirrel money away for other things.
Total Debt Liberation. The last factor contributing to money woes at our house is my obsession with and determination to, completely eliminate all debt except for our mortgage. We don't have credit card debt anymore (thank goodness!), but between the two of us, we have three student loans and a HEL. I've been following this 'snowball plan' to eliminate it and very aggressively paying it down. It is a great feeling to see it go down, down, down, but at the same time, I'm having a hard time giving myself permission to ease up for a month or two to accommodate other expenses. That's just something I need to work out for myself, I guess.

Anyway, in light of all of the above, I'm feeling pinched this year and will probably breathe a sigh of relief if the kids love their presents and we still have a roof over our heads and food on our table come January 31st.