Christmas 2002, it will be here before you know it, trust me! (Tips For Hassle-Free Christmas Shopping)

Member Name: chele2002

Product:	Tips For Hassle-Free Christmas Shopping
Date:	03/01/02 (225 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Less stress, more time to get those last minute things

Disadvantages: None

Having seen yet another Christmas creep up upon us and go so quick like it had never been was not the ideal start. Due to having the two little ones to look after and little family support to give me a couple of hours child free break to get all those wanted presents, it was lucky that we managed to even get any this year. You see it has been a tradition of mine to leave everything to the last minute and that includes Christmas. So the Christmas that had just passed it was lucky that I am now a new agent for a home shopping catalogue as this year it saved our lives, well almost.

Come the 19th of December I went into major panic at the realisation there was less than a week to Christmas and started to explain to the older children that mummy and daddies presents might not arrive before Christmas day, which they didn’t seem to mind one bit. It was the thought that it would be our youngest of 10 months Rebekah’s 1st Christmas and not being able to see her little chubby hands tear away at the shiny wrapping paper, I felt sly and that I would be letting her down. So a last minute ditch to try and get something for all the children before Christmas, resulted in a browse through the catalogue, but I still had to be wise as being a new agent meant that I was limited as to what I could spend. Looking through I found a few ideas and a few second choices just in case they were out of stock and a good job I did too. So now we got our ideas of what the children would like, now its time to hit the net and order, avoiding all those items that said 2 week delivery, out of stock, etc and found a present each for all of them that were in our budget and in stock. Well that is that all done and now we wait and wait for a small miracle to happen (arriving before Christmas). Well by some small miracle it did, a couple of hours before I rang the catalogue up to see if they had any idea or could give an indication of when our order would be received, to be told it is
looking unlikely to be hear this side of Christmas, but they really seemed to pull out all the stops and get all our parcels to us on the 21st of December, well thumbs up to Empire Stores, you saved our bacon.

The only thing we really messed up on was getting the Christmas cards in, so those close friends and family on the net who we knew their email address got animated e-cards; others got text message greetings to wish them well and very few got cards bought last minute from the local news agent of the small collection that was left over.

Well that was Christmas 2001 and even though I make the same old new years resolution to start Christmas shopping early I just never seem to manage it. Well this year it is going to be very different and here is how ....................


Cards, labels and wrapping paper
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Christmas cards are very easy to come buy at the start of the year; I spotted a few packs of small cards ideal for neighbours, friends and last but not least the children in my son and daughters class, in our local Tesco’s for just 49p for a pack of 30. I decided that I would get 4 packs, which would give the children enough for all their friends and the remaining 2 packets would be plenty for work friends, friends and neighbours.

Family cards can also be found in larger card shops such as Bitz, at reasonable prices, and very often 4-6 cards for a pound, but watch out these offers don’t last long so jot down all the family members you intend to buy cards for and work out how many and what type they would need (sister/aunt etc) from yourself and if you have any, your children, this saves confusion and possibly forgetting someone. Then at the earliest convenience possible put some money aside and get them out the way.


For all those labels, that helps you remember who’s present is who’s, have a look at all the cards you and your family were giv
en and before you ditch them and add to all the waste, cut them to label size (you can always add a bit of glitter to them closer the time to make them look more fancy) and stick them away in a little box or small bag and put them along with all the other Christmas bits. This saves money, provides less waste and is one less thing to think about for the next Christmas.


I am sure you will probably have left over wrapping paper from the ends of the rolls, but before you throw them out I am sure they would be ideal for all those small gifts that you intend buying or perhaps you could make little parcels to hang on the Christmas tree if it needs any more (you will need and small box or container to wrap and a bit of ribbon or gold/silver tread to decorate and hang). Pop the up on top of a cupboard to help save them being squashed and leave a not in your Christmas bits box to say where they are just in case you forget. For new rolls of wrapping paper, these can be brought now in the local supermarkets for half of the original selling price or and card shop.



Christmas presents
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The key to getting all Christmas presents on time and while they are in stock is to start early and not do what I have done in the past and leave it to the last minute. Trust me it only leads to stress and disappointment.

The ideal time to get presents is now! What with the January sales, think of all the money that would be saved in the long run but you will have to be quick as most sales are over within a few weeks, some do go onto February but they are few and far between, and then you get others with the same ideas or just looking for that must have bargain, so catch them while they still have something worth buying.


Here is a list of what we have now started doing in order to make this Christmas a totally stress free one as far as presents are concerned.

1: We have started to save money, by saving I mean
money that we wouldn’t normally have, or money that is left over come every pay day. So far we have accumulated over £70, since Christmas day. Here is how we got to this mark in such a little time, we sold our scanner that was no longer needed as we have a multi function printer now that does that and a bit extra, it was just sitting there collecting dust and has it has now come down in price to around £40 new and was well over a year old we decided to sell it at a fair price of £15, we had £10 left over spare a day after our normal pay day, plus £45 of un-cashed child benefit due to the holiday season, and a bit of change in my husbands wallet that would normally be put in a tin any way. You see it was money that we wouldn’t normally have, we don’t expect to save this much each week but come near the end of the year anything that we haven’t got towards Christmas can be paid for with the money saved month after month.

On top of this I am now always on the look out for bargain to help cut the cost of living, things that we would need and would use but not in a while, I am buying them now to help save the cost of future purchases.

2: As I mentioned before I am a new agent for a home shopping catalogue and you can be sure that they will have sales on when there is a new season’s catalogue due for release and towards the end of Christmas and the New Year you can be sure to pick up a bargain, I am going to take advantage of these offers, the chances are that the next winter’s fashion will be similar to the winter that is passing us by, which is where most of the bargains are in home shopping is the fashion section, I have noticed that they have many toys on offer too, so I will be finding suitable gifts from the book and then checking online for availability. Not forgetting that the odd birthday or 20 will pop up between now and Christmas (like my poor day whose birthday is on Christmas day), so what doesn’t
get used for birthdays will be put aside for Christmas and I can spread the cost too.

3: I have started to browse the January sales on the net, looking at all the well known and popular stores such as Argos, Index, Mothercare, Toys r Us etc, for any great bargains and have set ourselves a limit to spend if we find anything suitable for our family members. So we can be sure that at least 20% of our Christmas presents will be brought before the month is over (provided they don’t all get used up for birthday presents).

4: For each month that passes we will be buying one present per month up until October, that will then give us time to sort through what we have and what else we need, the in November we get all those final gifts or other items needed.



Christmas decorations
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Before you rush and take your decorations down, if you haven’t done so already, take a note pad and a pen and jot down the areas lacking in Christmas cheer, think about what would look nice there next Christmas and put them on your shopping list. Re-evaluate the Christmas tree, take off the decorations that you have become tired of looking at and have become boring and think about replacing them with something more pleasant to look at, but don’t throw away the boring bits, jazz them up and use them in garlands or save them for your children to decorate their own bedrooms the way they would like to see it next Christmas or if you don’t have any children that would be at the age to want to decorate their room, pass them on to friends, family etc, I am sure that someone would be grateful and appreciate them. Start to look around the left over Christmas decorations in the shops, even if you only end out getting a box of baubles it is still something to brighten up the tree next time round.



Food
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To help buy additional food that we all seem to indulge in at Christmas, start savi
ng, each regular shopping trip, pick up a saving card at you regular supermarket and buy a stamp or two, most will give you a bonus when you have saved so much, giving you more money to spend.

As for meat, rather than buy food hampers that are too over priced with many food going to waste as no body would normally eat it, many butchers offer a similar saving scheme like supermarkets but not all butchers will offer his, you are better off going to the ones that have more outlets.



Last but not least
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When you can pay a bit extra towards your regular bills, from time to time, this will eventually cut the cost of bills due the end of the year giving you more money to play around with come Christmas time.

There are also various ways you can use the net to gain extra cash such as Dooyoo, save your miles till near the end of the year and cash in and put towards Christmas, or periodically request e-vouchers when you have the appropriate amount, I am sure you know of someone who would like a gift from Amazon or Blackstar, etc.


I have learned from the past Christmases that have now gone and I am doing something to take the strain out of this years, and to take better control of our finances and to be that little better off to invest or indulge.

Enjoy!! And thank you for reading, I hope this will help for the coming Christmas (before you know it, it will be on top of us all).

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