I've written several times in the past few years about doing all or nearly all of my Christmas shopping online, and in that time many, many more people are doing the same thing. When I hit my first "Submit Order" button in 1998 very few people were shopping online and surveys showed that most people were still afraid of the whole idea. Now many of us don't think twice and would rather shop this way than in a, heaven forbid, bricks-and-mortar mall.

This year I've discovered a new reason to largely confine my shopping to online: budgeting. I've been sticking to a careful budget for each person/family on my gift list and keeping a nice grid (shocked, aren't you?) with each family member, each gift and the cost including any tax or shipping. Now, the way I USED to shop was to go from store to store collecting gifts in a fairly haphazard manner, soon losing track of what I'd bought for which person and how much I'd spent. I'd get home and realize I'd bought several things for one child and only one gift for another, and then on the next trip out I might or might not "even it out" and might actually make the disparity greater. The result was almost always spending way more than I had intended, mostly because of disorganization and absent-mindedness.

Enter the Amazon Wish List. Because Amazon sells 95% of what I'm interested in purchasing for Christmas, I've bullied encouraged all my children to keep Wish Lists on the Amazon site. Then when it's Christmas (or birthday) time, I select gifts that stay exactly within my budget. There's no tax and no shipping as long as I'm choosing items eligible for Amazon Prime, and if they're not I add in the extra I'll be paying for those. I immediately transfer my purchases to my grid and as they add up I can see how close I am to my limit. It's easiest for me to shop one child (or one family for the grown ones with their own children) at a time but I can jump around since I can put in the exact amounts and watch the total for each one accumulate. And using an Excel or Google spreadsheet keeps the totals for you so you don't have to keep getting out the calculator.

Of course I buy a lot of things that aren't on Wish Lists, but I usually find most everything I want on Amazon anyway. Shopping this way saves me time, stress, money, and wear and tear on my body and my car. And it makes me feel very efficient.

Are you doing anything similar?

Labels: Holidays, Money