While the holiday season is supposed to be about spending time with loved ones, it’s easy to get caught up in all the stress and anxiety that comes along with prepping for the celebrations.
Instead of waiting until the last minute to buy all your gifts, save yourself the time, money, and energy by getting your shopping done early. If you haven’t already gotten it all done, you might want to take a look at the top 7 reasons you should start right away.
7. Save Your Time
If you wait to get your holiday shopping done a few weeks before the holidays, you’ll be joining the hundreds of other procrastinators. Not only is it faster to shop with fewer people looking through the same aisles, but starting you holiday shopping early will save you from circling around the parking lot for an hour, and waiting on the miserably endless lines. Save yourself all that time waiting around by starting your shopping before the mad dash for holiday shopping begins.
6. Take Advantage of Deals
While most people believe the myth that the highest discounts and biggest sales are only during the final weeks before the holidays, stores have actually begun offering holiday sales and promotions earlier in the season. Some stores even begin their holiday discounts as early as Halloween.
Starting shopping early also allows you to watch items on your list before purchasing, to look for lightning deals and get the best price possible.
5. Best Selection
We’ve all shown up to the mall to start shopping for gifts to find all the stores are practically bare. Stores are typically fully stocked with their best merchandise starting in late October, so starting before the masses pick through the best items allows you to choose from all the colors and sizes available.
4. Spend More Time with Family
The holiday season is about spending all your free time with the people you love, not running around shopping. You’ll already have your hands full if you’re hosting family dinner, or traveling back home. Getting everything done before everyone’s back home will actually allow you to enjoy that precious time together.
3. Save Your Sanity
As you get older, it starts to feel like the holidays are more about stress and doing errands than having fun with your closest friends and family. There are countless tasks like grocery shopping, cooking, and decorating that you can’t necessarily get done months in advance, so lighten your to-do list as best as you can by being proactive with the things that you can do early- like shopping.
2. Space Out Spending
Giving a gift you know the recipient will love is an awesome feeling, but it’s not awesome when all that shopping leaves you with nothing in your bank account. If you start early enough, you can spread out the spending by getting one or two gifts per week, which will help ease the anxiety that comes with spending your entire paycheck in one day.
1. Save Your Money
Aside from being able to wait for lowest prices, shopping early prevents overspending because you won’t be shopping under any time pressures. When there’s only a few days to get a gift for everyone in your life, it’s easy to panic and buy things you normally wouldn’t.
Late, desperate shoppers often have to resort to ordering things online when the stores no longer carry the item you need. And in order to get the item in time, you’ll have to pay pricey shipping costs to ensure the gift gets to you before the holiday.
Have you gotten any of your holiday shopping done yet? Share with us in the comments below.
[Featured image credit: theamericangenius.com]