Last month, I shared about Planning Ahead for Christmas using Swagbucks and shopping online through cashback sites. This month, I’m going to share another way of planning ahead!

Make a list and check it twice! You’ll want to include every person you think may make your Christmas list. While it’s important to write down people’s names, there will probably be people on your list whose names you may not know now (teachers, people whose names you may draw in a gift exchange, service people you regularly interact with, etc). Make sure to also include people your children give gifts to as well as your spouse.

After making an extensive list of everyone who you think you will buy for, you need to begin brainstorming. Think about what each person likes and what you think they’d enjoy receiving. You’ll also want to set a budget for each person. (Hopefully you are regularly setting aside money in your general budget for Christmas and other gifts.) For example, if you’re spending limit is $5 for Aunt Sally and you know that Aunt Sally loves to cook, you may want to consider purchasing a Taste of Home cookbook while they’re on sale for only $5 instead of $24.99. If you have little ones on your list, you’ll want to check the clearance section of the toy stores you regularly shop at or check the Amazon toy section regularly. There are plenty of deals to be found for a fraction of what you’d normally pay. Last year, I was able to purchase the majority of my gifts at 75% off (many of them were closer to 90% off).

If you’re like I was before I started my frugal journey, you’re probably thinking “She may have gotten them on sale, but they probably weren’t that great!” I’d like to share a few of the gifts I was able to buy:

Although these are normally over $40 each, I was able to purchase them for only $2.99 thanks to a clearance deal and coupon at Target. That’s 92% off!

This Trivial Pursuit game sells for $44, but I was able to find it on clearance at Wal-Mart last year for $6. Since my family loves to play Trivial Pursuit, this made a great gift for my dad (I was especially excited since he’s the hardest person in my family to shop for)!

If you’re looking for winter clothes to give for Christmas, most department stores have theirs dramatically marked down on clearance. We were able to find cool clothes for our girls last weekend at Sears. We found tee-shirts for under $3 and novelty sweatshirts for around $6. I’ll probably pick up a few more to save for gifts throughout the year.

Lastly, make sure you keep your list with you and make sure you update it regularly. If you have a smart phone, you can always make a list in google docs or put it somewhere else on the web where you can easily access it and update it. I made this mistake last year. There were a few times throughout the year that I found the “perfect gift”, put it in my “gift closet” (actually it goes in bins in my office closet, but I call it the gift closet anyway since it sounds cooler), and forgot to mark it off the list, only to find myself scrambling at Christmas time to come up with a present for that person. I was surprised that I had about 8 gifts that I hadn’t marked off my gift list. (It was a pleasant surprise since that was 8 less gifts I had to buy around Christmas time).

Did you miss the beginning of this series? Don’t worry, you can catch up.

The Twelve Months of Christmas: Start Planning Now

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