I know…it’s September. However…I’ve almost finished my Christmas shopping…I’d say I’m 70% of the way there.
How I did it?
- I made my list back in January (on my phone) for who I buy gifts for Christmas and Birthdays throughout the year;
- I start to note down any gift ideas I have;
- I make purchases gradually throughout the year, especially when I see items on sale;
- I start shopping early and try to buy one to two gifts a month to break up to break up the cost among different pay cycles (instead of having one big expense in December); and
- I’ve blocked out time in my calendar to account for Christmas baking in December so I don’t fill up all my free time and realise at the last minute I’m going to be up all night cooking.
To this end, I don’t feel overly stressed about Christmas, actually I feel well organised and planned.
I feel as though I say this every year, but START EARLY. Costs are going up, so are interest rates and general expenses. But, we know Christmas is coming and we know when it’s coming. This isn’t a surprise, so plan for it now. Start putting aside all your spare change, open a seperate bank account and set some money aside each pay, if you are planning on ‘cancelling’ and not exchanging gifts with some friends or family raise this with them now. Now is also a great time to suggest a secret santa, or start planning your preserving if that’s your jam (see what I did there?). It’s also a great time to online shop as you need to plan for delays (I’ve already had a gift arrive faulty from overseas and they have shipped me a replacement but it’s taking such a longggggg time).
Can you start buying up items that won’t go bad? I’ve already purchased several bags of nuts for my baking as it’s great to spread the cost out for these sorts of things and get them out of the way now. Can you buy flour and sugar knowing that you will need those if you are going to do any sort of baking?
When I was shopping online, some stores offered a free gift wrapping servicce, which of course I’ve taken advantage of so if you can’t stand sitting on the living room floor and wrapping gifts for three hours (which is what I did last December) buying from places that offer this as a free service is a great place to start. Plus. who doesn’t LOVE a freebie?
Have you started planning Christmas 2022?
This is Minimalism 