05 Feb Useful Tips on How to Avoid the Christmas Rush, Save Money, and Beat Out the Holiday Stress
Cagayan de Oro is no stranger to the Christmas rush and this is no surprise since CDO is a fast growing (too fast as some are commenting) metropolis now comparable to other busy cities around the country. It’s more than certain that there will be a last minute rush buying for gifts, decorations, and food items for the noche buena or midnight dinner, and with it will come the budget problems and the holiday stress.
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Imagine the Christmas rush this way: Hour-long traffic jams, buying almost shoulder-to-shoulder with hundreds of others, rushing to buy alternatives for some items already sold out, the long lines at the pay counters, and not to mention trying to keep one eye out where the kids are and another eye on pickpockets (this is a Filipino reality, live with it). Hopefully we can help out for the holiday season by offering some tips and tricks on how to avoid the Christmas rush.
Shop Early
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These are the two words often ignored until the shopper realizes too late while he or she is getting elbowed in the ribs by other shoppers. Many tips stress this so much, but being Filipinos, it seems to be a penchant to do things at the last minute (think voter’s registration, get it?), so this year forget being a Filipino and do things differently:
- Make an early Christmas gift list
Gone are the days when you have to give a gift to everyone. Times are kind of hard, financially speaking, so concentrate your gifts on your immediate family, very close friends, and the usual office, school, or organization party exchange gift. Once you have your list down, try to think of what could be appropriate for each person. Extra tip – sometimes small but useful gifts are better than the biggest presents.
- Shop all year round or at least start in September
If you happen to see an item that you know is appropriate for a family member, close friend, or for an exchange gift, grab it and keep it for Christmas. Make sure to keep all your Christmas gifts in one place so they don’t get separated and you forget where you put everything. Keep an eye for bargains, sales, and discounts. If in case you’re reading this too late, at least start shopping on the first week of December; from the second week onwards the Christmas rush becomes the Christmas crush. If you can set a deadline for yourself, all the better, since prices tend to go up starting on the second week.
Plan your noche buena early
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Here’s another oft ignored tip; shopping for your Christmas dinner will sometimes go hand-in-hand with shopping for gifts. However, since you can’t be shopping all year round for your noche buena, you can start as early as September. Remember, prices spike as early as the second week especially for food items. Plan out what you intend to serve and list down all the ingredients for each. Whenever you do your regular grocery shopping put in around 3 or 4 of these ingredients and store them away.
When you do your regular food shopping, you’ll discover that you’ll be buying fewer items since you bought most of them early. Avoid going to the market or grocery a day before Christmas. Buying everything by the first week will free you for more things you can do for the rest of December. Try to see if there are items you can buy instead of cooking, such as baked goods. Buy items like ham and fruit cake early as prices for these spike around the second week.
Decorate Early
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Believe it or not, even if many Filipinos have a silly notion to start a Christmas countdown as early as August, not everyone decorates that early. This is the beauty of artificial Christmas trees because you can clean them easily and set them up as early as November. Decorating early also means you don’t have to finish everything in one day. You then get to enjoy your handiwork for more than a month and get into that festive holiday mood.
Expensive wrapping paper is a thing of the past
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It’s a waste of money to have gifts wrapped in expensive Christmas wrappers that get torn and thrown away anyway. It’s less costly to just buy those wrap bags or tote bags and you simply slip the gift inside and seal off the top. Another funky idea is to use old boxes that you saved all year round and wrap the gift yourself using glossy magazine pages from old magazines. Decorate with colored ribbons and a Christmas card rather than an ordinary gift tag.
Budget ahead of time with real money
Budgeting ahead of December means that you can shop for food and gifts early. When you make your gift and food list you also need to see if these fit into your budget. Don’t forget to also project ahead for possible parties at the office, with close friends, with extended family, or your kid’s school parties. It’s better to pay for everything in cash so you don’t rack up a large credit card debt in January.
Be cautious online
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Some people try to beat the Christmas stress by shopping online for gifts. There’s nothing wrong with this, but it still pays to be extra careful. We’ve seen our fair share of fiascos and blunders ranging from the delayed deliveries to the wrong item being delivered. Make sure you shop only from reputable online shopping sites, make sure they can deliver just before the date you need the item, and be sure they deliver the correct item.
Booze up your gifts
If you have a hard time finding gifts for adults, why not try buying wine as gifts? Red or white wine is already a regular fare at noche buena so your gift receiver will surely appreciate your wine gift. There are special tote bags for wine that come with a Christmas tag so you don’t have to wrap up the wine.
Don’t schedule medical stuff starting the second week of December
If you need to go to the dentist, have a checkup, take a blood test, or whatever medical stuff it is, don’t schedule it starting the second week of December. Finish off everything by the first week, by November would be better actually. It doesn’t make sense to do your medical stuff and then join into the Christmas rush afterwards.
Well, as the song goes, it’s that time of the year, the most wonderful time of the year, but it doesn’t have to be a stressful time of the year. Put the fun back into shopping for food and gifts by not joining into the stressing rush n’ crush. Spread out everything the whole year round or at least starting on September and you’ll find yourself enjoying the holidays better rather than worrying about other things. Happy Holidays!
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