December 11, 2013
by saraeholmes

Each year, the experts at PNC Wealth Management calculate their “Christmas Price Index,” which looks at all the items in the song The 12 Days of Christmas and figures out how much it would cost to buy all of them today.
This year, if you bought everything the way the song sings, where you are purchasing that day’s gift plus all the stuff from the previous days, you would be spending a whopping $114,651.18, which is a 6.9% increase compared to last year.
Here’s the full breakdown:
• A partridge in a pear tree. The partridge is $15 and the pear tree dropped in price by 3.2% from 2012, down to $184.
• Two turtle doves will cost you $62.50 per dove.
• Three French hens also remain the same price as 2012, totaling at $165. A month-long MARTA pass is significantly less.
• Four calling birds increased from $519.96 to $599.96, a 15.4% jump.
• Five gold rings will run you $750 altogether.
• Six geese-a-laying will be $210, or $35 per goose. That’s roughly equivalent to a month of high-speed Internet to make teleworking possible.
• Seven swans-a-swimming tends to be the most volatile on the index, however this year have remained steady at $1,000 for each swan. You could save more than this each year by carpooling to and from work a few days per week instead of driving alone.
• Eight maids-a-milking cost $58—in other words, each one gets one-hour minimum wage of $7.25. You can earn more than that in monthly gas cards by riding in a 4-person carpool.
• Nine ladies dancing vaulted with a 20% increase this year, costing $840 per dancer.
• Ten lords-a-leaping cost a heaping $5,243.37.
• Eleven pipers piping are around $240 a piece.
• Twelve drummers drumming will cost $2,854.80 total.
Everything costs more these days. That’s why as everyone looks for a fresh start in 2014, it has never been more important to examine your household budget and look for ways to save. Metro Atlanta households spend more on transportation costs than we do on food. So once the holiday season wraps up, consider signing up with the Clean Air Campaign for Georgia Commute Options programs, and see how much you could be saving on your commute.
It all adds up.