How to Organize your Holiday Shopping

Welcome to day four of my Holiday helpfulness, and today we are going to talk about how to organize your shopping for gifts.

Shopping for gifts can be incredibly stressful, especially if you wait until the last minute. Christmas' past I took the "have no idea what I'm getting anyone and going shopping on Christmas Eve approach" and decided to abandon all hope on that that ever working and trying a more sane approach this year, and boy has it worked wonders.

Although I'm not much of an organized person on the inside I try my hardest to be on the outside. Nonetheless I pride myself on my ability to guide others on how to be organized and maintaining your sanity this holiday shopping season!

Let's get started!

1. Money: Set a budget! Before you do absolutely anything, you need to lay out how much you can spend on pampering your loved ones. You can really work with any amount, and I'll explain later why, so you don't need to spend hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars on gifts. But without a budget, your spending can get really out of hand. Going along with that idea, never use your credit or debit card if you can help it. Pull out how much money you want to spend and keep track of it that way. It's so easy to lose track of spending when you use your plastic. If you do go over your budget, which happens, it's best to pull out more money instead of just using your card.

2. Make a list: The first list is of who you are buying for. I don't know how else to say it besides putting it in order of importance, for example, parents, then siblings, then friends, then the mailman, you catch my drift. That's really not necessary but I do it because there's some people I want to spend a little more money on, and I put them at the top, like my niece, because of course she will enjoy getting actual gifts more than say my sister or dad. Now, when setting up your list I recommend making an actual physical list (I prefer paper but your phone works too). Don't try to just remember it because you're lying if you say you'll remember, you know it and I know it.

3. Talk to them: Find out what people want the most. Now, when it comes to me, I ask the hardest people to shop for what they actually want and get it for them, because that's too much energy for those hard-to-shop-forers, but if you really just want to get people what they want, all you have to do is ask. Since I like to DIY presents, this is a step I commonly skip but definitely useful for many people.

4. Go back to your list: whether you asked them what they wanted to not, it's time to write down when you're getting them, or potential gifts. I will usually break it off into two sections, DIYs, things I want to make them and BUYs, which are things I could buy OR can buy if I'm not able to make them their gift. 

5. The actual shopping: So my #1 tip is BUY IT ONLINE. This doesn't work for everything but WOW it comes in handy when it does work. Sometimes you can find items cheaper online and find good deals. Although Cyber Monday has passed, definitely consider it next year. If you are going to be shopping in stores, I highly suggest getting it all, or most, done all at once. Maybe dedicate a whole Saturday afternoon to just Christmas shopping. It will really help keep you in your budget, and I think that it's easier to keep your momentum going, because it can be tiring. 

Something else; if you are shopping for the same thing for multiple people (maybe nail polish, fuzzy socks,  etc.) look out for sets of things, and divide it up. It will be a lot cheaper.

6. If you are DIYing: This is the stage I'm currently at. IF yo uare going to be making a lot of presents, look at your list of gifts, and make a separate list with all the gifts you'll be making, and under each gift what materials you will be needing. Example:

-Shadow box for _____

-Shadow box

-Picture

-Stickers

-Paper

-Ring dish for ______

-Clay

-Gold leaf paint

When you go to the craft store it will make life so much easy to already know what you'll need instead of running around for hours trying to remember what each project will need.

I hope this helps keep you on track for showering your loved ones with affection, but most remember, the Grinch gave us an important lesson on giving this time of year: