Friday, December 9, 2011

How We Christmas Shop

The Thirty-One Giveaway winner was: Julie (aunteegem)! You should receive an e-mail shortly!

Don't forget to enter this week's giveaway for a $75 Best Buy Gift Card!

I do not remember ever getting up at 4:00 in the morning to peruse the Black Friday sales. It's just not something that appeals to me. Call me lazy or unmotivated, but I just can't bring myself to do it. However,  I've done some Black Friday shopping online as well as taken advantage of some Cyber Monday sales.

Buying things up throughout the year sounds like a great plan; but if I were to try that, my kids would like totally different things by Christmas than they did back in February. Or they would have a growth spurt and not fit into the awesome Christmas pajamas I bought them. (Ssh! Don't tell.)

So, my husband and I start shopping a little after Thanksgiving and finish up....well, a little after Thanksgiving. Within a week, we are usually done; and we get the double fun of having packages delivered to our door often through the month of December and getting to open them on Christmas morning.

Yeah, I know what you're thinking...how do we afford it? Well, we try to put aside a little throughout the year in our Christmas ING account. I know it's hard to find money to put aside, but it's the same money with which I would be buying all those gifts through the year.

Another thing that helps a little toward Christmas gifts is Swagbucks. All we have to do is create an account and do our regular internet searches on the Swagbucks toolbar. We accumulate points, or Swagbucks, as we do searches. When we get 450, we can redeem them for a $5 Amazon gift cards (among other prizes). We cash in our Swagbucks right before Christmas and shop with them on Amazon. Right now, they're having special deals:  Shop Amazon's Toys - Holiday Flurry Deals Week

While we're searching, we go to Ebates first.  Most online retailers (except Amazon, unfortunately) give you cash back on your purchases if you click through Ebates to their site. Ebates tracks our purchases and gives us 3-6% (or more!) cash back after the holidays. We earn money for doing the shopping we were going to do anyway!

At this moment, our shopping is all done, and boxes arrive almost every day. We might not have gotten the best deals of the year on Black Friday; but all of the gifts are paid for, and we didn't have to brave the crowds.

See how these other bloggers Christmas shop:

Judy @ Contented at Home
Joanna @ The LaVans
Jessica @ It's the Little Things

3 comments:

  1. If you are "lazy and unmotivated," then I am, too! I much prefer shopping online, and staying warm while packages are delivered to my door!
    (And I LOVE Swagbucks, too!)

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  2. Jennifer, "lazy and unmotivated" are two words that, I'm quite sure, do NOT describe you. :)

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  3. I knew there was a reason I loved you guys! I'm feeling better about shopping in my robe and slippers now. :-)

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