Ok, I know so many of you aren’t ready for this onslaught of festive cheer. The Grinches among us are scowling. But part of the reason they don’t like Christmas could be all the stress and pressure the holiday creates. The way to combat that, dear readers, is to get organised in advance! And that starts in your own mind.
What I want you to do is start listing! Open a notebook, or the notes section of your phone and start 5 different pages.
The first list is for all the family and friends for whom you will be giving a gift or card or celebration. Don’t forget to include a secret Santa if that is likely to be part of your work Christmas party and a few spare people – can be called spares on your list, that’s fine. Count how many people you have, so you know how many people you will be shopping for.
The next list is called budget. List all your paydays between now and Xmas. There will be alarmingly few already, because it really is soon, as much you hate me for pointing it out. Figure out how much money you can put aside for gifts, not food, per pay. Multiply that amount by the amount of pays, and divide that answer by the number of people on your list for a rough budget of what you can afford to spend. Example, by now we have only 4 pays left in our household before Xmas. If we can save $250 per pay for gifts, then that is $250 x 4 = $1000. If I have 20 people on my list that would be $1000/20 = $50 per gift. (This is an example only, yours is likely to be less than $1000 and hopefully less than 20 people.)
Now figure out how much you can afford to put aside for food per pay. From here, I want you to start buying a small item or 2 for the day in with your weekly shopping too. Anything from napkins to decorations to tinned or dried fruits, long life creams or custards. Just start stocking up. Make sure you do put money aside for bigger items like the turkey or ham and trimmings that need to be fresh.
The next list for your notepad is gift ideas. If you don’t want to make this a separate list, it is ok to go back to your first list and start jotting down ideas next to each person on the list, keeping your budget in mind. Remember, you aren’t committing to these ideas yet, just jot down things you know that person might like that you can afford. Keep the list on you so if you see something on the list, you can purchase it and tick it off the list. Personally I find it easier to use cash for this, so you know exactly how much you have and how much you have spent and it isn’t eating into the rest of your money that you need for everyday essentials. If you are looking for gift ideas, check out my previous posts here, and follow the other links in that post for more tips and tricks.
Your next list is about who is getting a card or an email from you to wish them well. Again you will want a list of people, and next to their names I want you to jot down a category or 2 of sentiments you wish to write for them. Some may be light and funny, some may be generic, some may be sentimental and others may be heavy. It depends both on your relationship with the person and what that person’s year has been like. If you are looking for specific words and examples of each category, check out this post I wrote a last year. Or if sending a funny meme or 2 is more your style, then these memes may help.
Your last list is a breakdown of your time! You need to mentally make some time to go shopping for the gifts and cards, write them, wrap them and deliver them. You might choose to focus on one person per evening, or try and do 5 every weekend. You may choose to do cards all at once on your day off, or buy and wrap every gift on the same day. Whatever way you choose to do it, make sure you leave yourself ample time to get it all done. Your goal, ideally is to be ready for Christmas by December, so then you can focus on yourself, food and house decorations, party and event planning and costumes. All the gifting and card writing will be done and you will have plenty to place under your tree when it is up!
I really hope your heed this advice. I do this every year, and it really is a wonderful tool to help you keep on top of things. Especially if you are like me, and everyone you know also seems to have a birthday in the first 3 months of the year that will also need your attention so you can’t burn out after Christmas is done!
Happy Listing!
❤ Love,
Your Best Friend ForNever
xx
The time to start is now!