‘I stash an envelope with my Christmas decorations’

A mum’s genius plan has gone viral as she shows how she makes her life easier around the holidays.

There are lots of things mums do to make their lives easier in the future.

They might meal plan for the whole month, or make double dinners all week to stock their freezer.

Maybe they pick their child’s outfits for the week and put them in labelled drawers for ease of getting dressed in the morning.

One mum took the idea of future planning to such an extreme, her future self didn’t even remember she’d done it.

The woman shared the plan on Facebook, with many followers labelling it “genius”.

“Decorating my tree and totally forgot I’d done this!!” she captioned a photo of a red envelope which was labelled, “Takeaway fund! Merry Christmas!”

Her past self realised what a big, tiring job decorating for Christmas was, so she’d stashed $60 worth of notes in the envelope so that next year she wouldn’t have to make dinner, she could just order takeaway.

But even good deeds can fall victim to inflation.

“Got to say, takeaways were cheaper last year clearly judging by the $60 I put in the envelope.”

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The surprise takeaway envelope made life easier for the woman at Christmas. Photo: Facebook

Mum's Christmas envelope hack goes viral

Followers were inspired by the clever gift-to-self.

“What an amazing idea!” one person wrote.

“What a fabulous idea, go you,” wrote another.

“This is a great idea, I’m so going to do this when we put the tree away.”

RELATED: Mum of six shares her tips for budgeting the sh*t out of life

And while we’ve never heard of it before, apparently it’s a fairly well-known practice, with some commenters saying takeaway and decorating was an important part of their Christmas traditions.  

“I do this too! Takeaway and tree trimming night is a tradition for us!! Can't remember how much is in our envelope... might not be enough!” one person said.

RELATED: The cleverest hiding spots for your Christmas stash

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Stacey Solomon's husband stole her Christmas pizza money. Photo: Instagram

Husband steals wife's Christmas stash money

Last Christmas, UK TV presenter Stacey Solomon shared how she stashed pizza night money with her Christmas decorations, but her husband took it.

“Omg Joe stole my pizza night money that I packed away with the decorations and I nearly forgot about it until his guilty conscience came forward," she wrote. 

"He's holding the corner he ripped open like I won't notice.

"Best idea ever @cleanigram, put away a takeaway stash with your decorations and it's such a lovely surprise. I'm surprised he didn't find it through the year and take himself to Nandos."

The Christmas money stash has got us thinking, what other events throughout the year could we stash a little pizza-money envelope for to make life easier? 

Around kids' birthdays would be good, because after hosting 20 four-year-olds in the park, a spot of takeaway might be just what you need. The end of term is another prime time when takeaway is a godsend because everyone is limping towards the finish.  

What other times of years could your family do with a surprise stash of pizza money?

Originally published as ‘I stash an envelope with my Christmas decorations’