Plan Your Holiday Gift Shopping

You hear your friend say she just bought her last Christmas gift for this season and your stomach turns a little as you realize Christmas is two months away and you haven't bought your first gift yet. Here's a plan to get you started…and finished…in time to enjoy your Christmas holidays!

Every year, procrastinators all over the country put off their Christmas gift shopping all year until suddenly the big day is upon them and nary a gift is in sight! Don't despair-by spending a bit of time planning now, you can complete your shopping with time to spare.

The first thing you must do is decide who you will purchase gifts for. This list needs to be thoroughly thought through. You might begin by considering the major areas of your life, and what your gift-giving needs are for each one. The following list is a place to start.

Work-gift exchange, bosses, co-workers, clients

Church-your children's teachers, your staff, gift exchanges

Friends-are there friends with whom you usually exchange gifts?

School-classmate gift exchanges, gifts for your children's teachers

Family-yours and your spouses

Service workers-postal carrier, garbage collector, newspaper deliverer, florist, hair stylist, etc.

Your list may be much smaller, or much larger, but take the time to think through your gift giving needs. List the names and the expected time you will need to have your gift ready for giving.

This brings us to the next step: use a calendar to plan when you must have each purchase completed. You will want to allow time for things like school and government holiday time, business closing and shipping time required. You will want to spread out your shopping, and therefore spending, over the weeks remaining before your deadlines.

You will also need to determine your budget. I suggest you determine the maximum amount of money you wish to spend, and then plan how much you will spend on each person. Plan on spreading out your shopping over the time you have before the holiday. This will spread your expense over several weeks rather than a huge amount at one time, or having to raise the balances on your credit cards.

At this point, you should have a list of gifts needed, the date they will be needed and the amount of money you will have to spend altogether as well as for each gift. Keep a master list of these things with you at all times so you can reference it when you find a potential gift.

Now is the time to get creative. You may be able to make some of your gifts. The internet is full of simple, inexpensive, yet classy gifts you can make that will save you half or more of the cost of a store purchase. Just enter a search for crafts, or easy crafts, or simple crafts, etc. Some gifts may be monetary. Some may be gift cards. Some may be homemade baking. Be sure to plan numerous small (an hour or so) chunks of time to work on crafting or baking or shopping.

When you are out during your regular shopping times, keep an eye out for clearance, sale and marked-down items that would be suitable for someone on your list. Add a weekly stop at your local dollar store. Their stock usually changes from week to week. Often you can find several items that can be assembled together to make an attractive, useful gift. Of course, if you're comfortable with internet shopping, don't' forget to utilize this most useful tool. Many places offer discounts for multiple purchases or free shipping.

Each week, make a point of crossing several gifts off your list. Bring them home, remove the price tags, and wrap them as you go. This will save you from having to spend an entire evening gift wrapping!

One last hint-save your receipts! By keeping your lists and your receipts handy all in one envelope, you will save yourself plenty of headaches on a return. You will also be able to evaluate your total spending and gifts after Christmas-useful information for planning next year's Christmas gift shopping.