Preparing for Christmas

The run up to Christmas has surprisingly been nowhere near as stressful as usual! The only real stress I have had was people buying Josh the same gifts as me, and being unemployed for a few weeks, I couldn't buy him as much as I wanted to. That being said, I want to be extra prepared for Christmas 2022!

Money

I have opened up an every day saver with my bank, and every month in 2022 I plan on adding money into it so I'm ready to start spending next September. I was going to do the Park vouchers, but I tend to do most of my Christmas shopping online, and with as many small businesses as possible, so I feel the vouchers would be wasted on me.

I also signed up to the YouGov surveys but didn't fill out enough in time to bank the £50 for this year! But it will come in handy for next year, and hopefully I can get a few more through it.

I spent roughly £400 on gifts this year, so I'm aiming to save around the same, and maybe £100 or so extra for Joshs December birthday.

Gifts

My family always do Secret Santa now, then extra gifts for the kids. This year it was the same with my in laws but I'm not sure yet if that will continue! There's not really a lot I can do to prepare gifts but I plan on being more open about what I'm getting people! Twice this year someone bought Josh something I wanted to get him - or did get him, in one case - and I'm still pressed about it! It doesn't help that his birthday is two weeks before Christmas. I reckon I may be able to buy some small bits for my nephew and nieces in the January sales though.

I think that a lot of my gifts will be coming from my Amazon wishlist this year. Next year though, in my attempt to live more minimally/sustainably, I think I'm going to ask for experiences or gift vouchers. I'm signed up to the Buy a Gift newsletter so I'm always seeing experiences I'd love to do!

I'll also be referring to all the preparation blog posts from Christmas with Katie! There's some brilliant tips on Katie's blog and I'll definitely be implementing some of them - that's where I got the Christmas savings account idea from!

How do you prepare for Christmas? Let me know in the comments!

Until tomorrow,

Saph x