It has been our policy to have a Christmas shopping list and to abide by it. Our list contains the names of people for the intended gifts with corresponding amount for buying the said gifts. Usually, the amount is not enough so what happens is we overspend at the end of the shopping. So now, we try to be realistic with the costing of gifts so our budget will not run short.
We also use shopping list especially when shopping for Christmas gifts in December. We always start earlier since prices are always high during this month. We also focus on shopping for food more than any other stuff. People appreciate gifts of food more. We also set aside some cash because we tend to spend more in December than any other month.
Just buy the gifts during Black Friday. That is when all the discounts are around. Coupons are also very handy and helpful. Another thing I learned is to buy before the Malls are filled with people. The earlier the better. When it comes to online, it is better to buy locally because shipping is cheaper.
I usually make my list earlier before the event of Christmas and buy some of the gifts on time in order get them at a normal price, because most times during Christmas periods there is always increased on demand and sellers tend to take advantage of this and inflate the prices of the commodities. But if you do your shopping on time, take for instance around September and stock them, you are definitely going to get them at cheaper rate, thereby saving a good amount of money.
I think these days there are lot of apps allowing the cashback and the shopping option. So that's something worth checking out. I am sure that in future there would be more options in due time. But as of now I am thinking that it's something worth thinking about the budget in terms of online vs offline spending. That way things can be lot easier to handle.
I love gifting people. I budget by getting things on sale. I window shop and see what's available this year at our stores. Hawaii has weekly sales from grocery supermarkets to shops like Target, has weekly sales, so I get a wide variety of gifts to give. I find that everyone loves food gifts, so I always get food gifts for gifting. I like to keep withing a budget too, and I try to stay on budget, but I will admit it isn't easy sticking to a budget at all!
A good way to budget what you want to get for Christmas is simply shopping around the times of sells and shopping online while looking for some good promo codes. Another way to budget what you spend for Christmas is to make a list before hand, adding no more once the decision if final.
Since it is the usual thing for every person to gift-giving, it is but required to prepare a budget. So that everyone in the list should be given a gift. But others are wise enough. Since they have so many gifts received last year in various items, they could spend much for their gifts to share. They recycle those gifts and share them to others.
