Shopping numbers

I've saved up cash for the last 4 months and bought some items earlier to prepare.

I went over budget on both sets of grandparents, my father-in-law's birthday (but its his 60th), my sister, Alex, Andrew, and Mark. Sean and Ryan will come in right on target -- lots of stuff I made myself for them or got for $1.

I made 10 gifts at Staples for $100. I went to Toys R Us and spent $70, saved about $50. I went to Kohl's & Mervyn's & Ross earlier because they usually have about equivalent deals a couple weeks before t-day, between the three stores I spent $190 and saved about $205.

I talked my dad into picking up a gift for Alex at Kmart for $65 that would normally be $90. I'm paying him next Friday for that one.

Alex and I got to Wal-Mart at 5 am yesterday. I spent $150 on approximately $325 of merchandise. We went to Bed Bath & Beyond and spent $30 on a $50 item.

I went to the local Harley store for a special gift for my father-in-law's 60th birthday for $15. I went to ShopKo and spent $70 on $125 of merchandise. I went to Target later and spent another $90 on approximately $200 of merchandise.

I am almost totally finished. I'll buy Mark's Christmas gifts the week or two before Christmas to save cash now. I'll buy the twix's trikes the weekend before. And I have to order my mom's gift online as I can't seem to track one down in stores. And I have to go to the Lehi Mill to pick up mixes -- I'll do that when my parents are here to have help with the chicklets.

Last night, I boxed 8 gifts in the free Christmas boxes they came with, I bagged 2 gifts, I wrapped 65 gifts -- for 50 Christmas and 15 birthdays. So 75 gifts dealt with last night, took me 7.5 hours to prepare. Of those, 27 will be leaving the house.

So, my grand totals are:

Spent: $100 + $190 + $150 + $30 +$70 + $15 + $90 + $65 +70 = $780
Saved: $205 + $175 + $20 + $50 + $110 + $30 + $55 = $645

I will spend an additional $160 on the remaining gifts. Of which I will have saved $120 between now and then.

My grand total will be: $940 on 82 gifts averages out to about $12 a gift.

Last year my grand total was: $1250 on about the same number of gifts, I averaged about $20 a gift.

So, I improved. Next year, I will have saved the entire year for Christmas and will hopefully not have to worry about going over budget as much. I'm an impulsive shopper, most of the time I went over budget because I found something I thought was perfect for the recipient, and should have continued looking because it was over the allotted amount.

This blog is really mostly for me -- a reminder for December 2008 on what I will spend and how much harder I will try to stick to my budget.