Christmas Shopping on a Budget

The Holiday season often becomes stressful due to money. An early start is key to avoiding this

While Christmas may still be a bit of way, for the millions of people out of work this year is looking a little more gloomy than normal. If you start planning ahead, there are a few ways that you can do little things now to help make the holidays a little less stressful on yourself this year and a little more enjoyable for your friends and loved ones that you so care about.

The first thing that I recommend doing is to start saving now. As of writing this article it is September 12th and there are still 14 weeks to go. If you don't have much to spare, and many of us don't, then even as little as $10 or $20 a week can make the Christmas season easier. By the time the holiday gets here, you could have $140 saved up extra this year, or $280 if you save up $20 per week.

If you wanted to get a little more in you could do something that would be less noticeable. Start doing everything a little more affordable than before. Instead of going through McDonalds and picking up a supersized meal, why not buy a few items on the $1 menu, and put the rest in a jar in your car. For one person, on one meal, that could be an extra $3 in your savings. Imagine doing that for every meal and in every aspect of your life!

Let's also not forget about homemade Christmas gifts. These can often be done very affordably and can be very heartfelt gifts. You can create jellies and jams and people go wild for those. You can also think a little outside of the box with some home cooked items. Perhaps instead of a cookie platter this year, you could gift your friends and family with pickled items. I once made a batch of homemade pickles (very easy to make btw) and they were a hit! In fact, I found throughout the year that the people I gifted them to would be asking for more of them they loved them so much!

Another thing that you can do is start looking at some lay-a-way options. These are a great way to help spread out the cost of Christmas, and they offer up an almost free way to finance something out. Lay-a-way is perfect for those on a budget, and for those with bad credit who may not be able to secure financing or credit cards to help them through the season. In many cases, lay-a-way is available for as low as $5.00 which is a service fee and will get you through the season! In fact, this is a better option even for those with credit cards who no doubt will be charging you an arm and a leg for interest rates!

This year, many stores have brought back lay-a-way who have done away with in past years, this includes stores like Wal-Mart who in recent months have seen a decline in sales due to the economic crisis that all of us have felt. For the convenience of our readers, I have put together a list of some of the stores that have layaway. While it doesn't cover all stores, it covers some of the largest chains that most consumers will have access to and will be shopping at the most this upcoming holiday season.

In short, planning ahead is your best option. The further ahead you get started on saving and planning for your Christmas, the less stressful the final weeks leading up to Christmas will be. I urge all of my readers to start planning now so that everyone can have a holiday season focused on friends and family, not stress and money.