And so it begins… Black Friday and other holiday shopping thoughts

Posted on November 26, 2010 2 Comments

It’s official: Holiday season has begun. And not the laid-back, spendthrift, recession-friendly kind we’ve had during the past few years. Holiday parties are coming back, gifts are big and flashy again (see iPad), and judging from my black Friday newsfeed on Facebook, people are ready to spend. As for me? Per usual, I’m approaching the whole thing rather sleepily. I haven’t started my shopping lists yet, I haven’t done a holiday budget, and my Thanksgiving foodover prevented me from getting out of bed before 11 today. Yawn… bring on the holidays.

Of course, there’s a flip side to this ignore-the-holidays approach. Usually, the week before Christmas, I discover I have nothing done, make a frantic to-do list, freak out about my procrastinating ways, and hit the stores hard in a last-ditch effort that leaves me in need of a drink – stat!

This year, I have the added challenge of needing gifts for my man-friend’s graduation from law school, which unofficially will happen the same week as Christmas. I also need to buy for a child I “adopted” through a charity giving program, and I need to make a few end-of-year donations to my designated non-profits. Needless to say, I need a holiday plan.

My strategy this year is to determine what gifts I’ll buy in advance for each person and how much I’ll spend, create a list, shop online to compare prices, and buy the best value I find. I usually put everything on my credit card to get points and pay it off once the bill comes. I need to start earlier this year than before, so I’ve been doing some online investigating already.

There are a few traps I need to avoid as I shop this year:

• I usually buy a little something for myself at almost every store I visit. I rationalize that those are part of my holiday “gifts” too. That’s pretty ridiculous and must stop.
• Sometimes I ignore my own spending rules. For instance, if my list says spend $20 on a grab bag gift, I’ll spend $30 or $40 and just pretend it was $20.  Or, if my limit for a brother is $50, sometimes I’ll get caught up in the moment and spend $75. I guess you could call this spending creep. Twenty or 25 dollars here and there can really add up.
• Shopping brings its own expenses with it. Gas money, meals out, drinks after… I need to remember that shopping is not a party and focus on getting in and getting out. I do not need to swing by the local brewpub for drinks and dinner after. I can make meals at home and save myself $50.

If I can stick to these rules, follow my strategy, and not wait until the last minute, I have a fighting chance of surviving this holiday season with my sanity and budget intact, and making it to every holiday party from here til January with gifts in hand. Now if I could only manage to come out of it with my waistline intact, too…

Category: Life
   Tags: holidays

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