Comments on: How to Keep Christmas Shopping from Taking Over Your December Paycheck

By: CA Girl

CA Girl — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:19:53 +0000

I do both, a spreadsheet and savings. I have a spreadsheet that lists everything I have gotten for the past three years. Each year, I add a new column and put in the gift and the cost. That keeps me from getting the same gift for the same person twice, and from spending much more one year than on a previous year. I also start an xmas fund in ING with my tax return and contribute to it each month. I buy presents throughout the year when I see things people would like and take the $ from savings. I keep all gifts in one location and note them on the spreadsheet so I know what I have for each person. Right now, at the end of October, I have half of my shopping done and enough cash still in savings to get the rest.

By: jane

jane — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:36:18 +0000

Great ideas! I usually end up scrambling in December when I have to shop, charging everything…I have been thinking about doing this for awhile, and I really think the savings account will work. It’s easy enough to come up with $20 per cheque from now until Xmas to boost my shopping fund.

By: castocreations

castocreations — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 17:15:13 +0000

Christmas is my absolutely favorite holiday … and I LOVE shopping for gifts. Sometimes I find things early but for the most part I take joy in going out during the “season” and finding the perfect gift.

Of course if I find something during the year I may pick it up, but I generally forget and end up spending more.

We don’t have a Christmas fund but do have a general Gifts fund for all holidays / birthdays.

By: The Friday Gathering: Reader of the week

The Friday Gathering: Reader of the week — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 09:49:33 +0000

[...] How to Keep Christmas Shopping from Taking Over Your December Paycheck @ Mrs. Micah – Yep, it’s almost that time again and this is great advice. I do the very same thing. [...]

By: Bijan's Mom

Bijan's Mom — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 02:46:11 +0000

My young teenaged nieces and nephews really like gift cards. It’s a lot easier to buy one gift card ($25) every two weeks instead of shelling out $300 on plastic cards in the height of the December frenzy. I can ‘homemake’ or find great, fun bargain gifts for everyone else on the list, but the kids like the money, and I do like to indulge them this little bit – $25 does seem like a lot when you are 15 years old

By: shalom

shalom — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 17:57:36 +0000

We set aside $25 per paycheck for Christmas. it’s part of a larger, automatic transfer to a separate savings account that we use to accumulate money for Christmas and other big, non-monthly expenses like insurance, vacation and property taxes.

But I will buy gifts year-round, if I find the perfect thing for somebody. I pay for it out of the special savings account.

I have an Excel spreadsheet that I’ve used for years, that lists each person we buy for and the budget per person. When I buy something, I list it and its cost in the spreadsheet by the person’s name. (Having a budget per person helps me to not over-buy for my favorite people, like my child, or for the people, like my SIL, that are just easy to buy for.)

After Christmas each year, it’s easy to update the list. I delete everything I bought, and adjust the numbers if I think we need to spend more or less next tiem around. Also after christmas, I usually buy wrap, packaging and cards for the next year.

The system doesn’t work as smoothly as I’ve described it, mostly because I also fall prey to the “found a cooler present later” problem; but it keeps me honest about how much we’re spending, so I think it helps.

By: SavingDiva

SavingDiva — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 12:29:24 +0000

I usually set aside money the months leading up to Christmas. However, this year I started to purchase gifts early…only when I saw something special…

By: Mary@SimplyForties

Mary@SimplyForties — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 20:45:07 +0000

With the cost of shipping so high, the main disadvantage I see in shopping early is that you can’t have things shipped directly to the recpient. Almost everyone on my list falls into that category. As a result, when I Christmas shop I tend to shop in online stores with free shipping.

By: mrsmicah

mrsmicah — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 19:53:54 +0000

Some great ideas! My problem with either a personal wishlist or a gift idea list is remembering where I put it. Fortunately, you can do something now like store it in a Gmail draft.

@Aryn, excellent point about regifting. Most things aren’t so unique that you only know one person who’d want them. (if you think of it…which I didn’t when writing this.)

@MoneyGrubbingLawyer, if you either don’t keep track of them or misplace them, I expect that shopping early could lead to buying more. My coworker had a list, which is much more organized than I would have been that early in the year.

By: MoneyGrubbingLawyer

MoneyGrubbingLawyer — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 19:40:24 +0000

I like to just set aside a bit of money throughout the year and then do my traditional Christmas Eve shopping .

Another downside to starting your shopping so early is that you may tend to buy more, either due to new ideas or the simple fact that you don’t realize how much you have already bought. Now of course, it the presents are for me, that’s okay…