Christmas shopping was so much simpler when the kids were younger!
Their Christmas wishlists were so predictable that I could do most of my shopping for them even before I asked them to tell me what they wanted for Christmas. Those were the good old days – the days of dolls and dressing up and of Lego and magic tricks and the days where it was probably more about quantity than quality if I’m honest.
Now, at the ages of 14 and almost 12, Christmas is a whole different ball game.
Last year, I tried to make it more about experiences than gifts because I’d rather give them memories than more things that they’ll forget about in a couple of years time. I can confidently say that Master Frugal won’t ever forget his main present last year – leading out his beloved Boro at their home stadium in front of a 30,000 crowd and then having a kickabout on the pitch with his favourite players.
This year is going to be a bit different again though I suspect as both kids are now in secondary school and I think as part of growing up they’re going to be asking for the designer labels and the expensive brands.
Miss Frugal actually has a Pinterest board rather than a list this year and she’s kindly added me to the board so I can see exactly what she’s after and even Master Frugal, who’s always been the least materialistic child ever, has started preparing his wishlist.
So this year, for the first year since they were born, I won’t have the majority of my Christmas shopping done by the end of October because this year, I’m waiting for Black Friday in the hope that I get some good deals on the things that I know they want. I have a set amount of money put aside so the more deals I get, the more presents they get!
Here in the UK we spent a massive £1 billion on Black Friday last year according to this article that I read earlier on which doesn’t surprise me too much because of the reputation that Black Friday has for deals. What did surprise me was that the Monday after Black Friday, now called Cyber Monday, wasn’t that far behind with spending topping £943 million!
So what I don’t get on Black Friday, I can try and get on Cyber Monday!
It’s easy to get distracted by all the bargains that hit your inbox when it comes to Black Friday and Cyber Monday so this year, I have a plan to ensure that I end the day with some great deals on things I was planning to buy.
I’m going to write myself a list of things I want and be ready to buy what I need and ONLY what I need. This is where I’ve tried and failed with Black Friday in the past – I’ve been distracted by brilliant deals for things that are great but not what I set out to buy. I’ll also have the My Voucher Codes site open in one tab as they have people searching the web for the best deals that weekend to share on their pages.
I’m also going to actually read all of the random emails that I get leading up to the big weekend as last year I got so many telling me about great deals that I just started deleting them and I’m sure I missed out on some bargains just by not know that they were there.
So that’s my plan – now all I have to do is hope that Apple, Micheal Kors and Beats have a huge 90% off sale and I can get the kids everything they want within my budget. 😉
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