So Christmas is a few months away. Seems like a lot of time but we all know how quickly time passes to the holidays. It feels like you have plenty of time to get all the shopping, cleaning and organizing done before the holidays hit. But do you ever get it all done without stressing out?
Get a jump start this year and shop early online. Here’s a couple of big time and money saving tips that will relieve some of your holiday stress.
Many sites will wrap your gifts in holiday or any occasion gift wrap. Some online gift shops will do this service for free and year round as well! It is well worth your time to do a search for free gift wrap and can save you several dollars a package. It also saves you the time and trouble of buying gift wrap and wrapping each gift. Many shops will include your personal message and gift card as well, again saving time and money.
Start your Christmas shopping now so you can easily compare products and prices before you buy. A lot of gift shops are now offering a “Price Match” guarantee. Read each stores info on their program so you can take advantage of their offer to match competitor’s prices. This is a great way
to know you won’t be paying too much for your gifts.
Here’s a big secret in saving time and adding lots of convenience to your online shopping for Christmas. Some shops will actually let you purchase in advance and then specify a “ship by” date, i.e., buy in May and have it shipped in December. This is rarely advertised on sites but a quick e-mail to the shop may give you surprising results. No need to pay extra shipping having it shipped to you when you buy early, then you having to pay, again, to have it shipped to your recipient. This saves a lot of Christmas bucks!
How cool is that? Shop for Christmas in July, have it gift wrapped for free, free gift card and message and shipped in December! Look at all the money you can save and time you have left for cleaning, organizing and you!
Ms. Wutzke is owner of Log Cabin Fever Gifts & Decor.
We offer Free Gift Wrap, Free Gift Message and gift card and we will ship your package on the “Ship by” date you request! All this and great Cabin themed gifts & decor, fishing gifts, black bear gifts, deer antler scrimshaw and decorating articles.
All rights Reserved copyright © 2005 Log Cabin Fever Gifts & Decor
Going on a family vacation can be considerably more expensive than going with your partner only. Instead of buying two airline tickets and renting a double room in a hotel, you need maybe four or five tickets and at least two hotel rooms.
Fortunately, there are a lot of family-friendly offers that help keeping things in budget. Still, there are some aspects where you can cut on costs.
An expense that is often not recognized is the food. When on holiday, you often either lack the opportunity to cook or you’re not in the mood to continue that annoying household routine. Dining out is fine and surely an essential part of the recreation – after all, you want to enjoy your stay. But that doesn’t mean that every little snack has to be bought ready-made somewhere. If you can’t bring food, maybe because you’re going by plane and your luggage weight is limited, it might pay to look for a supermarket at your destination. And a sandwich, for example, does well as a replacement for a whole round of hot dogs as an afternoon snack.
If you’re staying in a hotel, you can try and ask at the reception if they
can empty the minibar at your rooms. Anyway, you should definitely avoid touching something in there, as the price is normally astronomic. And this way, you can make use of it as a fridge to keep some supplies there.
When you’re booking the trip and you’re not too fixed on a certain location that you want to go to, you can consider going to a travelling agent. Make a budget limit, and ask them what they can do with it. You might also want to check out several agents so you can choose the best offer. Instead of going to a hotel, renting a holiday house can be seriously cheaper. If you have a befriended family, maybe even with kids, too, then you can think about sharing a larger house. The atmosphere is more personal than in a hotel, and mostly you’ll find a cooking site – if you don’t mind gastronomical activities during your free time. If your family is insisting on a hotel, tell them what nice things you can do on your trip with all the money saved.
Brigette Meier is an occassional author for http://www.e-nterests.com – visit the site for more interesting articles.