11 Weeks To Go!

Happy windsday peeps! 🌬🥶🧥🧣🧤

11 weeks til Christmas!! 🎄🎅🏻🎁🌲😁

The deals are out, the radio is advertising Christmas lunches, the sofa ads are still guaranteeing delivery. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. 😁

Usually it gets to this time of year and I get a bit panicky about the amount of paydays left compared to the amount of stuff I need to buy. But not this year.

I finally found my groove. If you’ve read my Christmas blogs before you’ll know we’ve had a debt free Christmas for the last 8 years (this is our 9th). That’s meant a lot of planning ahead, some entirely homemade years, some last minute panics as we couldn’t get our presents until last minute paydays.

I’ve tried saving with park (if you do you should get your cards/vouchers soon). I loved it but living in a small cornish town, we don’t have many shops that accept them. If you live in a bigger town or city, I highly recommend trying park.

I tried saving cash, but the jar is a little too easy to access (great in an emergency though).

So this year I started (as I have for many years) buying wrap/tags/cards/bows in the sales after last Christmas.

In the summer (when I had cash from extra shop work) I started buying kids gifts and small gifts (for friends and distant relatives) a bit each week, building up a stash. I’ve even bought 3 of my closer relatives’ prezzies.

Previously, I’ve done them in order I’ll see the people, but that meant my own family came last, which stressed me out.

My daughter already has her present this year so it’s not part of my usual budget. (Did I mention we’re going to see Hamilton??!! Normally would be too expensive for a Christmas gift but student finance allows me to take it from money that isn’t my Christmas budget.) Still I have bought some little advent/s. filler gifts for her (part of xmas budget).

So a bit of buying ahead in sales, paying cash throughout the year and prioritising which gifts I buy first have helped me feel more relaxed about this Christmas.

I’m now starting to look at the food planning while the deals are about…but that’s for another blog.

Stay safe peeps!

Anna x