We haven’t even carved our pumpkins, and the Christmas trees are already up at the local retailers’. Their objective is to have you start thinking about Christmas now, start spending now, and keep on spending until the end of the year. They are counting on you to make their holiday profitable.
There is nothing wrong with thinking about Christmas now. In fact, if you haven’t already, I highly recommend that you do. Christmas, like any other expenditure, is best on your wallet when it is planned for. Set a budget. Determine how much can you save from every per pay period between now and Christmas. Start putting that money aside now. Make a list of people you will be buying for. Now using your budget amount determine how much you can spend per person. Make it equal by dividing the budget by the number of people, or allocate by who you’d like to spend more on. Beside their name note any ideas that you have for them. Keep your list in your wallet. Trust me this is the best place for it.
Start spending now. Go ahead! Look for sales on the items on your list. Keep the gifts in your budget range, and don’t forget to mark the name on the list “completed” when you have their gifts.
Keep on spending. . . until you have marked all the names off your list. Then STOP! This is why it is important to keep your list with you. If you are out shopping and see the most adorable thing for baby Q, stop, pull out your list. Do you still need something for baby Q? Have you spent your budgeted amount there? Don’t buy it if you have!
Let the retailers decorate their trees in October. They may intend for it to make you spend more, but you know that by planning now, and shopping carefully until the holidays, you can have a Merry Christmas without the burden of spending more than you could afford.
[...] presents Keeping Christmas Spending Under Control posted at Unclaimed [...]
[...] presents Keeping Christmas Spending Under Control posted at Unclaimed Money, saying, “Making a plan and start shopping now to keep your [...]
Great tips! We went overboard buying for my son last year for just this reason (started shopping in October and the cute toys kept on coming in to the stores right up to Christmas Eve!) We put half the toys away in the attic for this year, so we’re done, and so is Santa! The trick will be to keep from buying anything else–it’ll take nerves of steel! Found your article through Carnival of Family Life.
I find its important for each kidlet to have a toy with WOW factor to it- the one thing they’ve really been wanting or talking about.
For my eldest daughter, its easy to figure out. She is into American Girl dolls. At $87 per doll, not the most economically friendly! She gets one doll/year at Christmastime. For birthday or other holidays, we might give her an outfit or accessory– plus I sew clothes myself. This year, we had an early CHristmas miracle. Due to a shipping mistake, the exact doll she is hankering for was delivered to us BY MISTAKE. And we got to keep her for FREE. It will never happen again– but what a savings for this year.
My 5 year old son is crazy into Harry Potter. The figures put out for the movie this year are more collector oriented- so I have been eBaying it for a few months now, buying older figures from the earlier movies that are more play friendly. His other big present is a Fisher Price digital camera that will be from my aunt. We will get him paper and printing cartridges for the docker we already use for our adult digital camera- I anticipate a big surge in picture taking!
My littlest daughter is 2 1/2- she will be getting a special baby doll from my aunt. Santa will bring her a small doll cradle, magic dolly bottles, etc. Her other presents will be some Fisher Price Little People stuff- she plays with them for literally hours.
Our baby son is only going to be 7 months old at CHristmas time. He will be getting clothes and a few things for the boys room. We certainly have enough baby toys to reuse! I will be wrapping up some toys we’ve squirreled away for under the tree. How many teething ring towers does one family need to buy new? One has been plenty- and the kids never notice.
Check out the hot new items to hit the shelves this Christmas that I’ve found to be great gifts for the my kids or even a freind. Photokinz is a plush animal that has a digital photo frame in its belly, and i-Sing is a portable handheld Mp3 karaoke player and I just know my 11 and 9 yr old daughters are going to love them. If anyone wants to find any information on these new items you can go to http://www.itsoutrageous.com! It’s a Great Buy!
[...] Dustin Burg wrote an interesting post today!.Here’s a quick excerptWe haven’t even carved our pumpkins, and the Christmas trees are already up at the local retailers’. Their objective is to have you start thinking about Christmas now, start spending now, and keep on spending until the end of the year. … [...]