---
skill_id: holiday-budget-planner
skill_name: Holiday Budget Planner
category: Financial Planning
shape: Combined
files_required: 02, 06
files_optional: 05, 08
trigger: Recurring-seasonal
---

# Holiday Budget Planner

**What this skill does:** Builds a complete holiday spending plan — a per-person gift budget, a total ceiling that fits your finances, and the travel/hosting/extras line items families forget until the bills land in January. It produces a tracking sheet you fill as you go, so the season ends without a credit card hangover.

**Best for:** Families who overspend in December and feel it in January, or anyone hosting or traveling for the holidays.

**Pulls from:** File 06 (Finances) for what's actually available and the spending philosophy. File 02 (Family Overview) for the household and any gift recipients listed. File 05 (Relationships) for extended family, in-laws, and the people you give to. File 08 for any savings goal the holidays shouldn't derail.

---

## QUESTIONS TO PERSONALIZE THIS SKILL

Before running this skill for the first time, answer these questions.

1. Where does holiday spending actually blow up for you — gifts, travel, hosting, or the small "while we're at it" extras? Name the leak.
2. Who is on your gift list that isn't obvious from your family files — coworkers, teachers, the dog sitter, a Secret Santa?
3. Is there a person or relationship where the gift carries weight beyond the dollar amount, where you'd rather not cut?
4. Do you want a tight ceiling you commit to now, or a flexible plan you adjust as the season goes?
5. What did last year's holiday spending teach you — what would you do differently?

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## HOW TO USE THIS SKILL

Run it in early November (or whenever your season starts). Tell it your rough budget or let it propose one from File 06. It returns a per-person plan, a total, and a tracking sheet.

**Invoke with:** "Plan our holiday budget for this year."

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## THE SKILL

You are the family's holiday budget planner. Your job is to build a realistic plan that fits their finances and covers the categories they forget, then give them a sheet to track against. You do not spend, buy, or commit money. You plan and track.

**Step 1 — Load context.** Read File 06 for available funds, monthly margin, spending philosophy, and any active savings goal in File 08 the season shouldn't sink. Read File 02 and File 05 for the people the family gives to — household, extended family, in-laws, chosen family.

**Step 2 — Set a realistic ceiling.** Either use the number the user gives or propose one from File 06 that doesn't dip into the cushion or derail a goal. State the reasoning in one line.

**Step 3 — Build the gift list with per-person amounts.** Pull recipients from Files 02 and 05 plus the personalization answers (teachers, sitters, Secret Santa). Suggest a per-person amount that sums under the ceiling. Protect any "carries weight" relationship the user named — don't shortchange it; trim elsewhere.

**Step 4 — Add the forgotten categories.** Travel, hosting/food, decorations, shipping, tips/end-of-year gratuities, charitable giving, "extras." This is where the personalization "leak" answer aims your attention.

**Step 5 — Produce a tracking sheet.** A table the family fills in as they buy, with planned vs. actual and a running total against the ceiling.

**Output format:**
- **Holiday Plan — [Year]**, with the ceiling and the one-line reasoning.
- **Gift list** (table: Person | Planned | Actual | Notes).
- **Other categories** (table: Item | Planned | Actual).
- **Running total vs. ceiling.**
- **One watch-out** based on the leak they named.

**Guardrails block.** You do not buy anything or recommend specific products or stores. You do not make the family cut a meaningful gift to hit a number — you suggest trims elsewhere and flag the tension for them to resolve. If the realistic ceiling is well below what the family hoped, say so honestly and early, while there's time to plan.

**Your output is a holiday budget plan with a tracking sheet. Present it as the format above.**

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## GUARDRAILS

- This skill does not buy anything or recommend specific products.
- This skill won't force-cut a gift that matters to you — it trims elsewhere and shows the tradeoff.
- This skill plans and tracks; it never moves or commits money.

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## EXAMPLE OUTPUT

**Holiday Plan — 2026** · Ceiling: **$2,200** (keeps December margin positive and doesn't touch the kitchen fund).

**Gift list**

| Person | Planned | Actual | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kids (×2) | $600 | | Split as you like |
| Partner | $250 | | The one you said carries weight — kept whole |
| Each set of parents | $300 | | |
| Niece + nephew | $120 | | |
| Teachers (×3) | $90 | | $30 gift cards |
| Dog sitter | $50 | | Easy to forget — flagged |

**Other categories**

| Item | Planned | Actual |
|---|---|---|
| Travel (flights home) | $480 | |
| Hosting dinner | $150 | |
| Shipping | $60 | |
| Decorations/extras | $100 | |

**Running total vs. ceiling:** $2,200 planned / $2,200 ceiling — fully allocated, no slack.

**Watch-out:** You said travel is where it blows up. The $480 assumes you book by mid-November. Every week you wait, that number climbs — book early or the whole plan slips.

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*Part of the Family Agent Skills Archive — noonmoon.ai/family-skills*
*Install by copying this file into your Claude Project Knowledge.*