Sunday, November 11, 2007

How to Spend this Christmas

Dinner time, my little sister shared with us her plan to go Christmas gift shopping next Saturday. She says she doesn't want to go to tiangges or bazaars and refuses to give gifts from there, instead, she will get gifts from the mall. There is no right or wrong venues for Christmas shopping but, we can get wise on how we should spend this Christmas.

Here are some Christmas Shopping Tips:

1. Give to share and not to impress - keep this mantra in mind, it is better to give a suitable and well-thought of gift rather than an expensive one that doesn't feel "personalized". Take for instance, expensive looking and branded soaps and lotions that come in baskets. They look impressive when you have them in tow on Christmas Party and under the Christmas tree, but really, soaps and lotions are hard to use especially when the person already has a preferred brand or has sensitive skin. Just an example :)

2. Set a budget - as early as today, think of how much you CAN spend this Christmas for gifts, as a whole, and not per person. Of course there are persons you'd like to give a special gift to, so just sketch out his/her percentage of your Christmas fund, say 25% of the total budget.

3. Make a list out of the budget - now that you have a budget, you can now list possible gifts that will fit in it. Maybe you can allocate amounts too per person and imagine the many things that you can afford. Keep an open mind and open your eyes. Restricted budget should not restrict your creativity! Last year, my mom's favorite gift out of everything was a pair of slippers worth 99 pesos.

4. Schedule Christmas Shopping - don't start gift shopping out of boredom or stress. Prepare for it and do not forget your list. It is okay to look, Christmas shopping should be fun! but do not go over your list and your budget.

5. Opt for recycled materials and forget about gift wraps - when i say recycled materials it includes: newspapers, pages from your old magazines, gift wraps from last year, or old plastic bags and paper bags. Don't be afraid to recycle, be afraid of global warming and make this your special Christmas gift to Earth.

These are just 5 tips but i am sure you'll come up with more. Christmas should be happy time and not the time to wallow because you don't have so much to spend. Merry Christmas!

1 comment:

frenzy said...

every xmas i always try to set my budget for gifts and stuff but in the end i always ended up broke! haha

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