Christmas is just around the corner (lol), so I thought I’d prepare now just to get a small jump on my Christmas expenses.

Okay, I’m buying dividends for Christmas expenses but most likely I won’t use it until year 2012 or maybe even 2013…

I’ve had such great success with My Lunch Experiment, that I decided I wanted to do something similar with another source target for the stock dividends to be allocated for.  The beauty of the Lunch Experiment is that the money was free in some respects, since its money that would have been spent if I didn’t come up with the idea for the lunch experiment in the first place.

The money for a Christmas Fund is a bit tougher since the money for my lunch experiment was supplied by the money that I would have spent on lunch out at work.

I ended up gathering up money from sources where my paper money was just sitting doing nothing at home.

Money Sources included the following:

• Cash that was sitting in a drawer in my office.  This purpose of this money was used for cash gifts for Birthdays (mainly for the kids).
• Cash that was sitting in a small firebox in the basement.
• Money that I had stashed in my car for “on the road” emergencies
• A few small piggy banks around the house
• And finally 100 dollars I had in between a few pages of a book.

All told, I was able to collect about $1,200 for the purchase of the dividend stock(s) that will be used in the Christmas Fund purchase today.  I’m tempted by some high stock yields, but I’m probably going to settle on less risky dividend yields(shooting for the 3% to 5% range).

After I get money back from income taxes, I think I’ll add in $1,300 to the amount in the fund, bringing the total to $2,500.  This should be a great base for such a fund!

I think after a number of years, once I get to $12,000 in the fund, I will only contribute $500 per year.

I know it seems like I’m really focused on dividends lately, but I really want to get these funds established early this year!  I’ve learned thought previous experience if I don’t start them early when it’s still solidly on my mind, the task may get put off, sometimes for years.

-MR

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