Holiday Spending

Holiday spending can sometimes wreak havoc on budgets. Early on I learned to go shopping the day after Christmas and buy paper, bows and ornaments for the next year. My grandma used to start Christmas shopping on December 26th. Holiday goods at 50% off.

My current tactic is to limit the number of people with whom I exchange gifts; there have been years I have felt obligated to give a gift to someone, and have resented it. Especially when mired under by debt. I worked in a small office a few years ago, and we planned to go out for a nice lunch and not worry about gift exchanges. Until one of the three said she had found the perfect gift for the other two of us. At that point, I felt I had to buy gifts for them so went out and bought something that they'd appreciate but was also inexpensive. That's right, vanilla lotion from Bath & Body Works. Someone had a bottle of it and the other two of us liked it, it was on sale, so perfect! Also a unisex scent.

Since then, I haven't been in a situation in which I've felt obligated to buy someone a gift and have pared down my gift list so it's minimal. I don't wait until November to buy gifts, but buy when I find them. That way, I find things people like and have most of my shopping taken care of by the time peak gift-buying season rolls around. At that point, all I need to do is set aside a few hours for wrapping.

Getting gifts out of the way early leaves more time and money for holiday activities, so there's less of a chance that I'll forego an activity because I haven't completed my holiday shopping. Or worse, be tempted to use a credit card for shopping.