Besides harmoniousness, companionship and happiness, the Christmas time may also represent a big financial trouble to several families. In a world dominated by appearances and disguises, the thirst of consumerism is what makes people move: buying Christmas gifts is now a ‘must’, whether a person has money or not.

After reading this first paragraph some might have started thinking that this is another moralist article critizing Christmas, but take a deep breath: I ensure you that that’s is not my target. By the contrary: my only target is to talk about an easy way to spend less money with your Christmas gifts. This is a question I’ve been discussing in Prendas de Natal (my weblog about Christmas) and that I want now to discuss here.

I believe the majority of people haven’t realized yet the real meaning of the proverb ‘time is money’. Time is so worthful, just like money… literally! In fact, we can make (or at least save) money every Christmas out of a good use of our time. What am I exactly intending to say? As today is November 10th, it’ll be Christmas night in 44 days, which seems a lot of time. My answer, nevertheless, is much more cautious: are you sure it is?

Following my experience, I would say that most of the people overtrust the fact that 44 days is a lot and leave the decision of buying the gifts to the last weeks. What these people don’t get is that this mistake cost them money every single year! There are various strategies to save money at Christmas, but an early planning is the best of all, for 5 reasons.

1- An early planning means you’ll have time enough to make a decent research and price comparison, which allows you to buy the exact same thing at the lowest price. The despair we tend to feel when is almost Christmas night and we have nothing makes us forget about the price: we simply buy on the first store we can find.

2- With so many people making their Christmas’ purchases during the last weeks, the sales are totally on fire. Thus, the risk of stock ruptures is something you must be prepared for. This can cause the need of thinking of another gift, and we already know that last minute purchases aren’t the best scenario.

3- Every store increases its prices during December. The stores’ managers know that people tend to buy their gifts very late, so they inflate the prices. And just like I said, you don’t look so carefully at the price when you’re in a hurry, so you buy anyway.

4- Starting your gift list in October allows you to think decently of what gifts you will offer. You can then effortlessly avoid dangerous precipitate decisions, and don’t forget that a last minute purchase is the best halfway to a bad gift: it’s something that you buy when you’re desperate – you want to offer a gift to a person, but with no ideas and no time to get one, you simply buy the first thing you see.

5- If you buy your gifts early, your Christmas will be much more fun and relaxing. You avoid the overpopulated shopping centers and have more time to tranquially enjoy the season. And even better than that, you’ll live your Christmas day with the comforting feeling of having money in your wallet.

Just to give you an example, I typically buy all my Christmas gifts during the first 2 weeks of November. And yes, it always saves me a considerable amount of money that I can use to other stuff. (For more gift tips and ideas: http://www.presentesparanatal.com/).