Well, Christmas has come and gone and for many of you, the bills have started rolling in. Me, not so much as I pretty much paid for everything by debit, but it was still a good chunk of change. I spent a lot more money than I had intended to due to a new relationship. Isn't that always the way? Each year I say I'm going to boycott Christmas because of the amount of moolah I fork out in such a small time frame not to mention the increase in my cortisol levels. That lovely stress hormone. My shopping starts late summer for my family overseas so that I can mail their stuff by the end of October and hope that it gets there on time and not the following February like it did a couple of years ago. The postage fees are so ridiculous that I swear it costs more to mail the gifts than the cost of buying them.
Anyway, I love Christmas too much and though the idea of not having to buy gifts again is very appealing and my bank account would love me but I don't think it's gonna happen. So I thought, how can I make this less painful and not have to practically take out a second mortgage at the end of the year? I need to organize myself a little better. A lot better!
That's when I decided this year, I'm going to buy one gift a month. On average I have about 12 people or so to buy for so I figure if I purchase one a month, it would be more manageable.
I usually send gift cards to my friends and fam out in B.C. simply because it's much simpler and now thanks to Visa gift cards, I can load up one for each of my family members overseas and spend less than the cost of a Starbucks coffee to send them. I"m liking the sounds of that!
I figure if I spend on average $25 per gift per month, I'll be in great shape come year end and I'll have some extra cash to treat myself to something nice since I have budgeted throughout the entire year.
If you have a lot of people in town that you need to buy for, keep your eyes on the sales all year long, buy stuff and put it away. Come December, you'll be glad you did! Don't get it twisted though, I'm not talking about hoarding here! More often than not, your friends/family will mention things they'd love to have or could use and that's the time to make mental notes or plug it into your smartphone.
If you have a list and budget and stick to it, your holiday season will be that much more enjoyable and you won't be one of those folks frantically starting their shopping the day before the big day! Or in some cases the day of, if you celebrate Christmas eve!
What stresses you out the most about Christmas shopping? The Urban Organizer wants to know!
Here's to living a more organized life in 2011!
Marie
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