Another year has flown by and after this Saturday when all of the Halloween decorations come down, you can bet you’ll be seeing the holiday decor start to take over. While it does seem early when you see giant wreaths  and  ornaments adorning every last corner of Macy’s, there really is no better time to start holiday shopping than now.

I have found over the years that by at least making my list now it gives me time to make sure I don’t leave anybody out (awkward!) and to also make sure I stick to a budget. What I do is make a list on either microsoft word or excel (pen and paper work fine too but I find it easier to edit and print with the computer programs) of all of the people that I need to buy for, then I make up a budget and a realistic allotted amount for each person, and next to that if I have any ideas about what I want to get for that person I jot those down too.

My niece who is 18 months will be receiving a Baby Stella (a soft, very life-like doll with toes and a magnetic pacifier) and my nephew who is 2 will be receiving the Plan Toys Banjo (what fun is being an Aunt if I can’t buy toys that make noise).

As the season progresses it gives me great satisfaction to cross people off my list. Also, by knowing your budget ahead of time and having an idea of what you want to get for each person on your list it affords you time to take advantage of sales that happen frequently throughout the weeks that lead upto the holidays and to monitor websites like coupon cabin and retail me not for coupon codes for online items that you simply can’t find locally. What do you do to make holiday shopping a little less stressful?

-Maryann

Tags: holiday shopping

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 1:00 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can trackback from your own site.