Heavy traffic, no parking places, crowded stores, long check-out lines, tired and less-than-courteous service, poor quality, get it home and it is broken or on Christmas morning it doesn’t work. The list of possible Christmas disasters can easily be two, three or more times as long with only a little effort.
Not even Amazon Smile can make those problems disappear because despite its bold claims, Amazon can’t meet every need. Some on line shopping just doesn’t work well, at least not for me. I can’t buy shoes on line. Buying clothes can be equally difficult. Those colors showing on the screen just aren’t exactly what the real item has and it is tough to see the quality of seam stitching in the little picture. Online shopping may save time, but the hassle of returns can offset against those savings pretty quickly.
Nothing can make all of the holiday shopping pain disappear, but here are a few ideas that might help a little. In fact, these ideas apply even to on line purchases and can save a lot of money and annoyance.
1. Have and stick to a Christmas budget
This is harder than it might seem at first thought. One problem is that you don’t know what price increases have hit the things you haven’t even thought of yet.
Once you have a budget, the problem is sticking to it. Probably the best discipline for holding to a Christmas budget (or any budget for that matter) is to leave the credit card at home and just pay cash – out of envelopes with each gift recipient’s name and filled with the budget amount and no more. The reason is obvious. If the gift you want is “just a little bit more,” it is easy to spent that extra amount. Again and again and again!
You can even start making small contributions to that Christmas budget or fund and you can teach your family members, especially your children to do the same. When in a restaurant for a meal, you have a choice. You can buy that expensive soft drink or iced tea, or you can just get water and save the money not spent towards your Christmas gifts – or towards any other savings fund you may have. If you start this early enough you will find that not only does water go with the meal just as well as a soft drink or iced tea, but you can fund several gifts that way and save a lot of money. The key is to start early and plan ahead.
2. Start early and plan ahead
Christmas eve is a bad time to start shopping for Christmas gifts. Start early, don’t procrastinate, make a Christmas list and plan your shopping so you do not have to make five trips to the same store. It really can be a lot simpler and less painful. Just get it done.
If your shopping is going to be online, especially if it is going to be on “Black Friday” or “Cyber Monday,” plan ahead. Know the stores and the websites you will use, know what times the special sale items go up for sale or the store opening times. A few minutes research a day or a week in advance can save hours of time in traffic or annoyance with slow searches when Internet traffic is high.
3. Keep your eyes open
If you stay flexible and keep your eyes open (and perhaps carry around a Christmas shopping list on your phone) you will likely be surprised at the opportunities that present themselves. You will pass a store going out of business in August, or a clearance sale in September, or a table of clearance items at a store as you walk in. Remembering who you may be shopping for at times allows you to grab both a bargain and a perfect gift. It also takes the pressure off as Christmas approaches because that is one more person you have already shopped for.
4. Generally, pass on the extended warranty
Many years ago I bought an alarm clock/radio with a 30-day warranty. On day 31 it died. Despite that experience, I still generally do not believe extended warranties from retailers are a bargain for anyone other than the retailer.
On the other hand, if it is something that is very breakable and the extended warranty covers breakage, an extended warranty may pay off. That would be doubly the case if the item is for a child who is accident prone.
Either way it is a very uncertain gamble. Over enough years, you can probably save the most by not paying for the extended warranties, but it is your choice.
5. Regifting-mania
Most of us have done it, so don’t hang your head unless you were the one who re-gifted something hideous back to the person who gave it to you! You should at a minimum remember and not make that mistake.
Instead of keeping unwanted gifts for the purpose of re-gifting them, consider giving unwanted gifts to charity and find something really good for someone you love enough to give gifts to. Think about creating something special, something from the heart, perhaps even making a personal Christmas gift for someone special.
One thing my wife and I like to do is shop at local art and craft stores or shows and look for something special for people we care enough about to give gifts. Maybe those gifts end up being re-gifted, but they really were bought with someone special in mind. We have come to accept that not all gifts will be welcomed, but that we have done our heartfelt best to give something meaningful and special to people who matter to us.
To continue this thought and the solution reached by many others, read on.
6. Is a gift-card a real gift?
There is a lot of room for debate about the answer to this question. The answer depends upon a lot of issues, but what kind of a gift is it if you give a $50 gift card to a friend, family member or neighbor and they give a $50 gift card to you? How awkward is it if you give a $50 gift card but they give you a $100 gift card? Will they think you are a cheapskate?
On the other hand, after many years of searching for the perfect gift for someone hard to figure out, perhaps a gift card is the best choice. If you lean this way, try Gift Card Granny and perhaps you can buy a discounted gift card and save a few dollars.
7. Can it be returned?
This can be a challenge, but almost every business will accept the return of defective merchandise. Most will also accept returns and/or exchanges, at least after Christmas. If you give someone a gift they may not like or may not want to keep, there is no shame in attaching a gift receipt to the item or to the box.
If you are the one returning an item, be aware that there may be time limits beyond which the merchandise may not be returnable. Some retailers also have a “restocking fee” policy and will not refund the full purchase price.
Knowing the return policies can help you chose between what appears to be a bargain and what is less of a bargain than merely the price alone may seem.
You won’t make perfect choices, you won’t please everyone, you will invest time and energy into shopping, even if it is online shopping, but you at least can avoid some of the pain of the holiday madness. Christmas does not have to be a disaster.
About the Author
John Campbell has retired from a 40-year legal practice as a trial attorney in Tampa. He has served in multiple volunteer roles at Idlewild Baptist Church in Lutz, Florida, where he met Jesus. He began serving as the Executive Director of the Idlewild Foundation in 2016. He has been married to the love of his life, Mona Puckett Campbell, since 1972.