5 Holiday Shopping Tips | Keep Your Sanity & Budget in Check
Do you shop the Black Friday sales? While I do love a good deal I do not love crowds and chaos so I typically do any shopping I’m going to do from the comfort of my living room. Every year I feel like the sales begin earlier and earlier with some new way to reel you in to shopping early. This year I’ve noticed many online stores, such as Loft, are offering early access if you are a cardholder. Old Navy did this a few weeks back when they offered 50% off for cardholder vs 30% for everyone else and, y’all, I became a sucker and reopened my account.
The two biggest struggles for me when shopping for Christmas are sticking to my list and to a budget. My girls are super easy to buy for and it is easy to end up with way more gifts in their pile. The boys, however, are super hard to buy for and their gifts tend to be way pricier.
I’m also not a mind reader! Giving a gift someone will love is important to me but I also hate just handing someone a gift card. In my opinion if we are going to do that at Christmas we can just all shop for ourselves, wrap our own gifts and cut out the stress! I ran across the Christmas List app and I’m intrigued. Not only can I create list for each of my family members, the list can be shared with others. This would be super handy to use for my nieces and nephews. The app tracks what you have purchased as well as how much you have spent.
Here are five shopping tips for keeping your sanity and budget in check this holiday season!
Make a list! Wait, make an organized list in one location. I make lists every year and they end up on sticky notes in my purse, on my desk, in my car and I end up at Target at 10pm trying to remember what in the actual heck was on the list.
Create a budget. It goes without saying you should not spend money you don’t have but I promise many of us choose to every single year at Christmas. So many years it took me half the year to pay off the damage I did on my credit card over the holidays. Shopping with cash would be ideal if I was an in store shopper but managing the budget while shopping online can be tough. It really helps me to use only one credit card instead of falling into the trap of using a different store card each time. I love racking up all the points to use for future travel on my Capital One card. Also using sites like Ebates for cash back will save you some dollars on the back end.
Trade a gift for an experience. I don’t know about you but I have more stuff than I’ll ever need and so do my kids. Instead of spending so much time out shopping this season, maybe you invest in some quality time instead. Buy tickets and take your niece to see the Nutcracker ballet. College Bowl games are just around the corner so maybe you snag tickets and take your husband on a little getaway to watch his favorite team. While this can be a pricey gift as well, I’d argue you will enjoy spending the money so much more.
Shop alone! Nothing will leave me feeling more crazy and stressed than spending an entire day shopping and having nothing to show for it. If I’m shopping with others I cannot stay focused on my list and the next thing I know I have a ton of packages and they are all for myself! Or I have made several impulse buys for people on my list based on what my shopping buddy had on their list.
Give a group gift. Last year my mother-in-law needed a new refrigerator so we actually all pitched in a little to give her what she really wanted and needed. Obviously this is on the very large side of a gift but there are definitely endless opportunities to find a way to give a group gift. Parents are especially hard to buy for so pooling money with your siblings can definitely help. Others this works well for include the boss, teachers and even nieces and nephews. If you have 4 nieces/nephews you are buying for instead of a gift for each you could buy a larger joint gift with more impact like maybe a trampoline, gaming system, etc.
What are your best tips for staying sane and within budget during the gift giving season?
