Part of my problem with wanting to buy gifts early for Christmas is that I really like to give the gifts. So if I start buying Christmas gifts in, say, June or July, that's a really long time for me to wait to give the gift. It's been my goal to start Christmas shopping around that time each year so that we can spread out the spending over a longer period of time and more easily absorb it into our regular budget. I've managed to do some early Christmas shopping in the last couple of years, but not to stay on track with starting early and continuing at a regular pace. It still helps, but I'd like to be more organized about it.
The other problem with buying gifts early is that it's hard to figure out what to get for some people, and for others such as Rachel, what if she doesn't still want the Purple Unicorn Pillow Pet by the time Christmas rolls around? Or what if she requests it as a gift from Mom & Dad and decides she wants Santa to get her something else, when Santa has already bought the Pillow Pet and stowed it away?
So you see my dilemma.
Still, in 2011, I pledge to start Christmas shopping for the easy people no later than June and to buy a few things every month thereafter. I can also probably start putting away stocking stuffers early since stockings can get expensive, too, if you buy everything for them all at once.
My other thought was that I could start a line item in Quicken for Christmas spending and start diverting some money from checking each month into that line item. That way, I could shop later in the year if I need more time to come up with ideas, but the money's already "spent" in our budget and accounted for.
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