Tricks of the Trade: Christmas Shopping
Did you know that it’s only 44 days left until Christmas! Ahhh – that means there are only 44 days left to shop. Have you started your shopping yet? Thanks to some great clearance deals at Target last July I have the majority of my shopping done – and at below budget! Yay!!
The whole thought of shopping for gifts makes some people break out in hives – but for those of you like me it’s a fun, exciting challenge! I LOVE (most of the time) hunting for that perfect gift – then when I know it’s the perfect gift, I love to watch who ever it’s for open it! Not all of my gifts end up being as perfect as I think they will be but when I do nail it on the head I LOVE it!
But – going into the shopping season I MUST have a list. If I don’t have a list then I just end up wondering around aimlessly not buying anything! Some people love to just wonder and they find the right gift but I really need to know what I’m going to get otherwise I waste time, energy and usually spend more than I have budgeted!
On my list I write out who I need to shop for, how much I plan to spend, what I’m thinking of getting them (sometimes I have more than one idea per person) and I also write out where I think I might buy their gift at.
A benefit to knowing what you’re going to buy everyone (aside from making shopping faster itself) is that you can keep an eye on all the ads every Sunday. Then, because you know what you’re going to buy, when you something on sale you can buy it! I would encourage you to start making your list now and try to have it ready by Thanksgiving so that you can have a list already for the fabulous BLACK FRIDAY sales! (Yes I’m one of THOSE crazy shoppers!)
This year I’ve created an excel spreadsheet to help me keep track of everything – from how many gifts I need to buy, to how much I have to spend on them, to how much I actually spent. (I love that computers do the computing for me!) And since I have it made already I thought I’d share it with you. You can Download the .xls Planner HERE (its an Excel 2003 file) or if you prefer to write it out you can View & print the .pdf Planner HERE.
I tried to make it a simple form to fill out but if you have any questions (or suggestions) to make it better please email me! This is my first “downloadable” file so hopefully I’ve thought through “it all”.
If Christmas shopping still seems like a long ways away – just remember that Christmas is only 44 days away! And by making a plan you’ll be able to do it with speed, efficiency and hopefully keep at or maybe even UNDER budget this year!
To see the most recent deals for Christmas that I’ve posted about go HERE.
Related posts:
- Kids Christmas – 90% done!
- Tricks of the Trade: Christmas Treats
- Tricks of the Trade: Get the Most Grocery Shopping!
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