Let's plan a calm Christmas.
Set your budget in Settings to get started.
Welcome! Three steps to a calm Christmas
- Settings: enter your total budget and split it into categories.
- Gift list: add everyone you're buying for.
- Spending: log each purchase and watch the ribbon fill.
Charts
Tap a slice, a bar or a legend item to focus on it.
Spending by category
The line at the end of each bar is that category's budget.
Gift progress
From idea to under the tree.
Worth a look
Things that may need your attention this week.
How you paid
Credit card and buy now, pay later arrive as a bill in January.
Gift list
Everyone you're buying for. Spent fills in from your purchases.
| Recipient | Group | Gift budget | Gift idea | Status | Spent | Left | Card sent | Remove |
|---|
Wish list
Letters to Santa, partner hints and your own wishes. Bought items cross themselves out.
| Person | Wish | Store or link | Price | Priority | Status | Remove |
|---|
Spending
Every Christmas purchase. Pick a recipient for gifts and their Spent amount updates on the Gift list. Returned orders don't count as spent.
| Item | Date (day, month, year) | Category | Recipient | Amount | Store | Paid with | Order | Remove |
|---|
Hosting
Christmas dinner, parties and cookie swaps: a budget and a shopping list for each.
| Event | Date (day, month, year) | Guests | Budget | Planned | Bought so far | Status | Remove |
|---|
Shopping list
Checklist only: your totals come from Spending, so log the receipt there as Food & Hosting.| Item | Event | Type | Estimated | Actual | Bought | Remove |
|---|
Settings
Your budget, your savings and how the budget is split. Everything saves automatically on this device.
Budget & savings
Your data
Your planner lives in this browser on this device. Download a backup now and then, especially before clearing your browser.
Automatic snapshots. About 15 seconds after your last change, a copy is kept in this browser. The 5 newest are listed here.
Budget by category
Split your total across these nine categories.
User guide
How each part of the planner works, where every number comes from, and how to keep your data safe.
Getting started
Three steps to a calm Christmas. Want to look around first? Load sample family in Settings fills the planner with example data, and Clear everything empties it again.
- 1. Set your budget
In Settings, enter your total Christmas budget and split it across the nine categories.
- 2. List your people
On the Gift list, add everyone you're buying for with a gift budget for each.
- 3. Log purchases
Add each purchase under Spending and watch the Overview ribbon fill up.
Overview
The gold part is how much of your total budget you've spent. If you go over, a note shows by how much.
Days until Christmas of the year set in Settings.
Green bars are on track, gold means 85% or more of that category is used, red means over budget. The thin line at the end of a bar is the category's budget.
How many people are at each step, from Idea to Delivered. Bought, Wrapped and Delivered count as "have their gift".
Where the money went and How you paid are donuts with the share on each large slice; Budget vs spent and Spending over time are columns with the amount on top. Tap a slice, a legend item or a category column to focus every chart on it, or use the Period, Category and Paid with filters. Filters change the charts only; the ribbon and totals always count everything. Returned orders are never included.
Reminders: categories over budget, orders still on the way, gifts that are only an idea, cards to send, invalid dates and more.
Spending by payment method. Credit card and buy now, pay later are shown in red because they arrive as a bill in January.
Gift list
It adds up every Gifts purchase under Spending whose Recipient is this person. Returned orders don't count.
Left = Gift budget − SpentRename freely: purchases stay linked to the person, not to the name.
Allowed. Their names turn red as a reminder, and the Recipient dropdown shows them as Name (1) and Name (2) so you pick the right one.
Move each person from Idea to Delivered as you go, and tick Card sent when their Christmas card is in the post.
Wish list
Letters to Santa, hints from your partner and your own wishes, with a store or link and a price.
Set Status to Bought and the wish is crossed out. The totals at the top count only wishes still marked Wished.
The Wish list is for ideas. When you buy something, log it under Spending too so it counts toward your budget.
Spending
Search and filter by category, payment method, order status or month. The line under the filters shows how many purchases you're looking at and what they add up to. Filters only hide rows; nothing is deleted. Gift list and Wish list have their own filters too.
Pick day, month and year. A date that can't exist, like 31 November, turns red and shows up under Worth a look.
The list comes from your Gift list. Picking someone adds Gifts purchases to their Spent. If you remove that person, the purchase shows "(removed person)" until you pick someone else.
Set Order to Returned and the amount no longer counts as spent; the row is crossed out. Amounts can't be negative, so use Returned for refunds. Ordered and Shipped stay on your reminder list until they arrive.
A purchase without a category or payment method is counted under Other, so your totals always add up.
Opens in Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets.
Hosting
Christmas dinner, parties and cookie swaps, each with a date, guest count and budget.
Add each item and pick its event. Planned and Bought so far on the event come from these items.
Planned = sum of Estimated Bought so far = sum of ActualOver budget when Bought so far is more than the budget, Plan exceeds budget when Planned is, otherwise On track.
The shopping list doesn't add to your total spending. Log the receipt under Spending as Food & Hosting.
Settings
The Christmas you're planning for. The countdown and new events use it.
Pick from 40 currencies. Every amount in the planner, and the CSV download, uses it. Changing it only changes the symbol; your numbers stay the same.
Enter how much you've set aside and the planner works out the rest.
Still to save = Total budget − Saved so far Each week = Still to save ÷ weeks until ChristmasThe line under the categories tells you whether they add up to your total, go over it, or leave some unassigned.
Your data
Every change saves automatically in this browser. Nothing is uploaded anywhere.
Saves a .json file with everything in the planner. It's the only way to move your planner to another device or browser, so download one now and then.
Loads a backup file and replaces everything currently in the planner. Press Undo in the message right after if you picked the wrong file.
About 15 seconds after your last change, a copy is kept in this browser. The 5 newest are listed in Settings, each with a Restore button.
If the browser can't save, a red bar appears at the top. Download a backup before closing the page.
Clearing browsing data deletes the planner and its snapshots. Download a backup first.
Tips
Every list shows the newest entry first, right under its Add button.
After removing a row, press Undo in the message at the bottom. It stays on screen while you point at it.
Tab moves from field to field. On the tab bar, the arrow keys move between tabs.
Each row becomes a card, and the tabs stay at the top while you scroll.
Changes made in one tab show up in the other automatically.
Print overview in Settings, or your browser's Print, gives a one-page summary.