Make Christmas Easy (Tips For Hassle-Free Christmas Shopping)

Member Name: GuruOnAMountain

Product:	Tips For Hassle-Free Christmas Shopping
Date:	02/06/08 (44 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Gets rid of a lot of hassle.

Disadvantages: Means you need to be organised ahead of time.

As the nights get longer, the days get brighter and we all start looking out the sun cream, I relax in the good weather and...start to plan out the Christmas gifts!

It might seem a little odd, and I admit, it IS a little odd, but its a habit I've got into after years of being a skint student. Lots of my friends have birthdays round about Christmas time, too, so I learned pretty quickly that leaving the present hunting until too late in the day was just stressful, not to mention very expensive. So here's my top tips for hassle-free Christmas shopping.

1. Start early. As I've already said, if you have a lot of gifts to buy, leaving it until December, or even November will probably lead to stress and big credit card bills. The shops get so busy leading up to Christmas that it becomes almost impossible to move and often the gifts you want to buy are already out of stock. I find it helps to stock up over the course of the year. You don't need to go out and buy all next years Christmas gifts in the January sales, although you can if you want to! I usually pick up little gifts if I see something that I think someone will like as the year progresses and then start to space out the buying of the rest of the Christmas gifts from about late August/early September. This means plenty of time to find the perfect gift, but also means the cost is spread out a little more.

2. Use the internet. The internet often has a wider array of gifts and its often easier to find an unusual gift online than it is in shops. Plus, it tends to be cheaper shopping online and you get to avoid the hussle and bustle of busy shopping centres. Even if you don't feel comfortable actually buying online, you can search high street stores' stock online and find the perfect gift BEFORE heading into town to pick it up. Some stores like Argos will even let you reserve an item online for pick up in one of their stores.

3. Consider delaying gifts or cutting back. If money is tight, then it might be worth cutting back on what you buy. It might be a bit embarrassing telling friends that you think its about time that you stop buying for each other, but it is far preferable than running into debt just for the sake of saving face. If you have kids to buy for, then this can be a bit more problematic. You don't want to disappoint them, of course, but kids tend to remember the fun times spent as a family, not the presents they were given each year.

4. Set limits. Have a limit for each person you're buying for. There's been years when I've bought a present for someone, then a few days later seen something else and bought that too. Before you know it, you can end up giving someone multiple gifts and appearing too lavish. It only makes it worse next year as they'll feel obliged to spend a lot on you and you'll have to keep up the large amount of spending! So don't get into that vicious circle. Set a monetary limit for each person you're buying for and don't go past it by more than a couple of quid. If you see the perfect present for them after already buying something, consider saving the 'perfect' present for their birthday or next Christmas, or buy it and give the original present you bought to someone else.

5. Leave the kids at home. If you have kids, try to get someone to babysit them when you blitz the Christmas shopping. You'll probably try to do this anyway, so their pressies are a surprize on Christmas day, but even taking them shopping when you're on the lookout for presents for other friends and family members can lead to tantrums on their part and overspends on yours. Especially as Christmas draws near, advertising and marketing reach fever pitch as they try to draw in kids to beg their parents for 'the next big thing'. Kids can't help but respond to this, but it can only add to the shopping stress, so avoid it when possible.

There you go, take the laptop out into the garden and enjoy the sun while browsing for the Crimbo gifts. If nothing else, you can feel amazingly smug in 6 months time when the Crimbo panic starts and you've already got a cupboard full of pressies just waiting to be wrapped!

Summary: Start Christmas shopping early!