`As my sister pointed out to me, Thanksgiving is only three weeks away! Yikes! In theory, I knew this. But it's suddenly hit home that BLACK FRIDAY, my favorite shopping day, is almost here and we still don't have money for Christmas!! Usually I put aside money for Christmas well in advance, say from income taxes or an extra large paycheck or whatever. Then I slowly chip away at it, buying a present here and there. I do the bulk of the shopping Black Friday and after. And I like it that way.
But this year has just been really rough. We didn't expect his Uncle to stick him with no work in the beginning of the year. It took quite a while to get caught up from that. Hopefully it was a good thing because it forced him to find other work. He's been working completely on his own projects since June. Which is scary. He loves the freedom, but you really don't know when the money will come in. And then jobs just kept getting delayed or cancelled. Jobs that were supposed to leave us with extra money ended up with extra expenses or just took so long that the "extra" money ended up having to go to bills. And we've just been struggling too much with the regular bills to put any aside. So pray for us that he will get a job big enough to put aside Christmas money-and soon!! And feel free to mention him to anyone who is looking for work done to their homes!!
Anyway, thinking about all this has left me wondering.......how do you, dear readers, do your Christmas shopping/planning? Do you set aside certain amounts to spend on everyone on your list? Do you just buy and then try to even it all out? Do you make a list? Do you buy it all months ahead of time and have it all wrapped and waiting? Do you ask others for ideas for presents or just completely wing it? I'm not looking to change my methods, I'm just curious how others do it.
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4 comments:
umm....i start buying in june i guess, or whenever a christmas gift crosses my path...so i pretty much space it throughout the whole second half of the year so it's not one big buy. i like to wing it so i suprise people but for some, like my dad, i just have to ask! where i get most of my gifts is from the book guy that comes to my work every 6 weeks or so (hence the opportunity to shop early) and on amazon...i don't like to shop in stores unless i have to :-)
good luck steph and i will definately be praying for you guys, holidays can be a stressful time of year! (even without having to worry about money)
I also start my shopping very early in the summertime. I go through the same thing when it comes to extra money for shopping, it is never there when you want it to be. I listen all year to what you kids need and then I go and get things a little at a time, so as to not have it come out of a pay all at once.
I also, do layaways, but Walmart's are doing away with layaways after this year. That stinks BIG time for me. Next year I will really have to plan ahead earlier.
There were times I started right after Christmas when the sales start and just put the things away for the next Christmas.
I only went out a few times in my life on BLACK FRIDAY, but I can't stand the way people act or the crowds to tollerate that shopping day.
Please have the faith that our Lord will see you through this and provide for your needs or wants. He always does. He likes testing our faith a lot, just remember that, OK!
For me it is a combo of shopping early and slowly and credit cards.
I always have good intentions to get started early, but it never seems to happen. Then November rolls around and I begin to panic (that would be now...LOL!!). My biggest frustration is not knowing what to get everyone.
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