Christmas Shopping!

[catsarecute]

Have you started your shopping yet? Do you have to shop for a lot of people? Online or in store?

Both families do Secret Santa exchanges so I just shop for one person for my family and one person for DH's family plus my two nieces and DH. I love shopping online because I use ebates and try to get cash back where I can. I'm obsessed with using coupon codes and finding discounts! So far, I think I have about 1/3 of my shopping done but I try not to get it done too early because then I tend to catch that late holiday fever and end up buying more and more the closer it gets to Christmas.

[awick14]

I'm almost done, the only people I have left to buy for I have no idea what to get them.

They are all for DH's family so hopefully he can figure it out.

Edit: we only buy for my parents and my niece on my side, for my 3 siblings and their SOs we go out to dinner in Dec/Jan as we only see each other 3-4 times a year and it gives us a chance to catch up. (My siblings are hard to buy for)

Dh's side it's 2 siblings/1 SO, 1 niece and 1 nephew and his parents.

[papie]

I am shopping for 17 people total and I have 8 people left.  Well, I am half way done for 4 of those 8 people.  Most of my presents are also either wrapped and under the tree, or in shipping. 

[degal99]

We're pretty much finished. Amazon is my savior, and luckily we don't buy for a lot of people, basically just immediate family.

[changedname]

I buy for about 45 people.  It's a nightmare. I start in January each year and try to spread it out in order to manage costs. I finished about 2 weeks ago and have to wrap this weekend. I keep a spreadsheet of what I get people so that I don't forget and repeat the next year (also to help me stick to a budget).

[SJ]

I haven't even started other than my elfster exchanges.

I will buy for DH, my parents, brother, BIL/SIL, and 4 sets of grandparents.

[catsarecute]

Dec 6, 2013 12:59:07 GMT -5 changedname said:

I buy for about 45 people.  It's a nightmare. I start in January each year and try to spread it out in order to manage costs. I finished about 2 weeks ago and have to wrap this weekend. I keep a spreadsheet of what I get people so that I don't forget and repeat the next year (also to help me stick to a budget).

That is intense! Bravo to having such a great plan though. Even though it sounds overwhelming, it must be fun to shop all year for people when you see something they might like!!

[simpsongal]

We buy for quite a few people. I've already purchased online/Amazon things. Now comes the hard part of going to the store to look for clothes, accessories, and other gifty items (mostly for the ladies).

[changedname]

Dec 6, 2013 13:01:19 GMT -5 catsarecute said:

Dec 6, 2013 12:59:07 GMT -5 changedname said:

I buy for about 45 people.  It's a nightmare. I start in January each year and try to spread it out in order to manage costs. I finished about 2 weeks ago and have to wrap this weekend. I keep a spreadsheet of what I get people so that I don't forget and repeat the next year (also to help me stick to a budget).

That is intense! Bravo to having such a great plan though. Even though it sounds overwhelming, it must be fun to shop all year for people when you see something they might like!!

  I love Christmas shopping so I don't mind. Basically there are about 20 people in Dh's family (kids keep being born) and 20 in mine plus his assistants, SS, friends etc. The first year I was with DH, I went all out with his family but have had to rein it in last few years because of $$. I am constantly on the lookout for that special something for people and keep a list in my phone of what is pending. Thank God I am type A lol.

[vmars]

I have about 17 people to shop for, only 8 people left.

[lulu21]

Is it bad I haven't bought anything!? I do have one gift card that I am regifting, does that count?

[redpenmama]

I'm done and have been for a while. With a Dec. 31 due date, I started very early this year. I don't have a ton of people to buy for (H, DD, my parents/brothers). H takes care of his family. Just need to wrap everything and put together a few of DD's items.

[sh10]

My list of who is left is small, but I hate shopping for 20 something men. My BILs are so difficult. They are huge sports fans who have everything they could want for their teams, and are no frills kind of guys. I'm thinking of buying the 21 year old a nice bottle of vodka since he's in college. I'm also stuck on DH, but we are going to the large mall next Friday, so I might get him something he picks out there. We'll see. Anyone have any good men gift ideas?

[humpforfree]

We are done also! Well.. Besides the bottle of wine I need to get for my SIL. I will stop at a shop across the street from my office in the next couple of weeks for that.

I loooove ebates also. I am so pumped for our February check- over $250 already! Haha. I don't count those refunds in when I budget for gifts so it really is "free" money later on. Awesome.

[Deleted]

I am done except for one generic gift for the gift exchange at H's side of the family's party. Woot.

[hillarywhitney]

I am so behind this year. I've only bought a gift for 2 people. Ah! We pretty much know what we are getting everyone else. It's just a matter of ordering/buying the gifts. Maybe I should work on that this weekend

[chicago]

I feel like this sounds so awful, but we don't do any gifts at all, neither for each other nor our families. We stopped a few years ago and just never picked it back up. H and I "gifted" each other with a trip to Thailand two years ago and to Mexico last year; this year we are saving more for a down payment on our eventual house, money for baby stuff, etc. Neither of us really needs anything and buying gifts was starting to feel forced instead of fun and thoughtful.

When we do buy gifts, it's usually some sort of experience vs a tangible item (tickets to a concert, musical, etc).

[rainorshine]

I have not bought any Christmas presents yet. I wish our families didn't exchange gifts. I just want to buy for my nieces and nephews because it is fun to shop for them. It is stressful to shop for everyone else.

I will start shopping this weekend, online. Everything must be shipped anyhow. We are 2000 miles from our families.

[Wonderwall]

All done!

We only shop for immediate family. H and I do not exchange gifts.

Thank goodness for online shopping

[chicago]

Dec 7, 2013 12:25:13 GMT -5 MNH2013 said:

chicago do you have a blog? You go some awesome places!

I don't! I have a photo share site if you ever wanted to look through thousands (literally) of photos, but I am too lazy to write about all our trips.  I am much more visual than I am verbal.  That's why I'm not much of a poster here either; writing is so exhausting!  We have definitely done a lot of traveling in the past eight years! 

[chicago]

@mnh2013, I'll pm you the link! I haven't put our last few trips up yet (New Orleans, South Africa/Seychelles, Iceland), but there's still a lot there!

[sonrisa]

The very last Christmas order went out today. Everything else has arrived and been wrapped or will arrive tomorrow.

As an aside, I miss traveling. Our last big trip was a month in Southern Africa (Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe) before DD was born. We'll get out again someday. Right now both kid-free-time and money are tight I realized this spring my passport had expired and I hadn't even noticed. My last passport went to 18 countries - I'd lived in three of them. My latest replacement will be lucky to go to one or two.