Holiday Shopping Like A Pro

You’ve heard of extreme couponers, but have you heard of extreme holiday shoppers? We aren’t AT that level, but we would like to think that is what we are striving for. In order to level up to extreme holiday shopper status—and we mean extreme in the most positive way—you need to have a strategy and stay organized.

No one wants to be stuck running around town two days before YOUR family arrives because you forgot to order gifts or told yourself you’d have plenty of time but forgot shipping is a thing. It’s happened to all of us, no judgment here. But we want to help you so that doesn’t happen, and you can get your shopping done in a timely fashion and then relax and enjoy the season the way you should.

To keep you organized for the holiday shopping season, and so you can brag to your friends that you are becoming an extreme holiday shopper, here are steps to follow to say organized when shopping this holiday season:

Step 1: Make a list of all the people that you will need to purchase gifts for. This includes family, friends, coworkers, the barista down the street from you, your children’s teacher, and anyone else you could possibly be buying a gift for.

Step 2: Determine your overall budget for holiday gifts. In order to make sure you don’t overspend and are being realistic given all the people you will need to purchase gifts for, make sure you are deciding on an ideal budget that you feel comfortable spending on all of your holiday shopping.

Step 3: Decide on a budget for each person you are shopping for. We promise this isn’t a repeat of step two. You will ideally want to have an overall holiday shopping budget and then a budget for each person you are purchasing a gift for. For example, you might plan to spend more money on your kids than you would your dog walker. Knowing how much you are comfortable spending on each person will make it easier to decide what to get them and where to get it from. And, of course, will help keep you on budget.

Step 4: Create a deadline for your shopping. We all know those people that get their shopping done the week before the holidays. That might be effective for some, but if you’re like us, procrastination doesn’t work out in our favor. To stay on track, set a deadline for your holiday shopping. Account for delivery times, too. This should help you give you enough time, so you aren’t stressing at the last minute. Setting this deadline can also help if you need to return a gift and/or buy a new one because you changed your mind or decided on a different gift idea. Bonus points if you set a shopping deadline for each person on your holiday shopping list.

Step 5: find the best platform to keep track of who you are shopping for and your budget. Personally, we recommend using Excel or Google Sheets. But if you prefer a Word Document or your phone’s note app, go for it! No matter what you choose, you are going to want to add the following information:

• Your overall budget
• Your shopping deadline
• The names of each person you are shopping for
• The allotted budget for each person
• Gift ideas for them and/or stores to purchase gifts from for them
• Mention of whether you are purchasing in-store or online
• Links to gifts if you are purchasing online
• Decided gift you are purchasing, including link to or name of the store you are purchasing the gift from
• Status of gift for each person. We suggest these categories for gift status:
  • Researching gift options
  • Purchased gift on [INSERT DATE]
  • Gift in transit
  • Received gift on [INSERT DATE]

Visit this document, file, or app that has all this information at least once a week and update it accordingly until you have completed all shopping.

Now let the holiday shopping begin! Good luck.

P.s. for more extreme holiday shopping content, check out our post that details how to budget for the holiday season.