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Here’s How To Get All Your Holiday Shopping Done With Only A Few Weeks To Go!
Leaving your Christmas shopping to the last-minute is not a good idea. If you are like me, you haven’t started your holiday shopping yet. Wondering how you will get that done with all the other things you need to do? I am not concerned about getting my shopping done this year. I know just how to do it and will let you in on the secrets of how you can shop smarter and faster than Santa.
Oh yes! It is so easy. By following this strategy, you can have all your shopping done in 2 hours flat! Actually, I think I will be able to do in less time than that.
So, instead of aimlessly buying presents and draining your wallet, use this shopping guide to cross everything off your list in a single day. Avoid the stress and pressure that commercialism creates around Christmas shopping.
Here’s What You Should Think About First
Before you get going, have breakfast. I know they say shop til you drop, but it isn’t necessary. Dress not only for comfort but with style. I noticed that when I go shopping looking like I just rolled out of bed; it makes me want to try on new things, so I end up spending more. Do you ever feel the same?
When you walk by that mirror in the store a give yourself a little, “umm hmm honey, yes! I am working it to-day!”
Now, let me help you shop smarter and faster.
If you don’t have the ScanLife app, download it now. This app will help you shop smarter and faster. Just scan a product’s barcode and it will let you know what store, both local and online has the best price. You can start saving money before you leave the house!
How Can You Shop Smarter and Faster? Here’s The Secret!
Theme Shopping! Yes! Isn’t it just a fantastic idea?
See, when you decide on a theme for gifts, you can go through shopping so much faster.
You decide on a theme and it helps you shop faster and smarter because you have direction and focus.
Whether you are shopping for your son, daughter, mother, great-grandma, it doesn’t matter.
Once you have selected your theme, you can think about what gift from that category you want to purchase. All you need to do is choose specific and unique gifts your family will love.
You can make this a great and fun project without breaking the bank. You don’t want to make your theme “socks”. That would just suck and you won’t enjoy the process.
Make sure your theme is a little broader. I have put together suggestions for you that will allow you to shop faster than those reindeers could ever go.
Here Are Five Themes To Help You Shop Smarter And Faster For Friends, Family, And Colleagues
1. Wall Art Make For Great Presents
You do not have to be some creative mastermind DIY superpower for this. There are lots of beautiful prints you can get. I love having wall art, paintings, quotes, and pictures on the walls in our home.
This is a great theme as the wall art does not need to be Christmassy.
Wall Art can be gifted to any age range. Here are some I love.
2. Photos Always Make Great Memory Gifts
Well obviously. Tis the season for the selfies, falalalala – la – la – la – la!
Photos are ALWAYS a lovely gift! Especially for family members. If you are gifting pictures to friends or colleagues, do not gift them a selfie or a picture of just you in it. #awkward
Frame a nice picture of a group of you together. I have a picture of myself and four friends I went to Barcelona with. That is an example of a picture I would gift one or all of them, along with something else. You can gift the same picture, in similar looking frames to each of the friends in it. You will all have lasting memories captured in that shot. Get the picture? LOL. Again, another easy way to shop smarter and faster.
Get all the frames in a single store, and as many copies of the picture as you need.
3. Books, Books, And More Books!
I love to read so I love to be gifted books and to give them as presents too. I could spend hours on end in a bookstore if only I had the time. When choosing books as a gift, you may need to exercise patience. It is important to gift a book the person will actually read.
If you have a friend who loves John Grisham books, find out which ones they haven’t read yet. Another loves cooking? Get a cookbook. Have a creative mind in your friend group? The War of Art is an amazing read! Has someone you know recently embraced a minimalist lifestyle? Get them a beginners guide book.
The limit is endless and you can do this in an hour. If you want to shop smarter and faster than Santa, you can have the list ready prior to going to the bookstore and be done in 20 minutes.
I personally love this book: 52 Lists for Happiness Journal but here are some other suggestions to help you with brainstorming.
Want to know how to get your holiday shopping done in less than two hours? Find out my secret.Click To Tweet
4. Accessories For Him And Her
This is by far the toughest and likely most expensive of the five themes. Accessories for women and men are easy to find, but oh so hard to choose the right one.
Anyone who knows me well knows I love bags! You can never have enough handbags. I also love silver or white gold earrings, and scarves. All kinds of scarves!
For women, a scarf will always work. So what about accessories for men? When I think of accessories for men, the first things that come to mind are watches, glasses, ties, wallets, belts. The choices however, are greater than that.
This brings me back to themes. If “he” is a whiskey drinker, or car fanatic, then get items surrounding those themes. Ones he will actually use and be thankful for. Look for items that are unique.
I say you can shop smarter and faster if you divide and conquer. Go to one store and get items for him, then to another and get items for her. Write down what you plan on purchasing before you leave the house.
Focus on two stores, and have one extra as a backup if you don’t find something in one.
What do think of this unique Slim Charging Wallet?
5. Monogrammed Gifts
Easy peasy to get this done. Just make sure it is not too corny. You can pretty much monogram anything these days, right? Figure out what item you wish to purchase and have it personalized. Get your creative juices flowing by thinking about style, colours and fonts. This should be lots of fun and makes for a unique gift.
Little Things To Remember When You Want To Shop Smarter And Faster
So now that you know how to gift by theme, and shop smarter and faster this year, you have nothing to worry about.
Remember to buy less expensive stuff first. Once you spend on something costly, your brain loses perspective on what’s a good price. I hate standing in lines, so when possible, pay for your items in less crowded areas of the store. The men’s section is almost always next to empty so I tend to navigate to that there.
Waiting in long lines in the women and kids section only makes me spot things I had no intention of buying.
Try not to take credit cards with you. Decide on an amount that won’t hurt your pocket and spend no more than that. There are way too many sales going on for you to overspend.
Whatever you do, don’t take your toddler to Toys“R”Us. I learned the hard way. Try shopping alone so you don’t feed off ideas of others and what they think you should be getting.
All done! Christmas shopping completed, you know how to shop smarter and faster, so now you can focus on your plans for the holiday.
Are you having family and friends over? Have you started shopping, or already done?
Will you be trying out theme gifting? I’d love to know.
Share your thoughts and plans with me in the comments section below.
Happy Shopping!
54 comments
I think that you can do all sorts of things with themes. I just always had such an ecclectic group of people to buy for so I would have had a hard time using the themed shopping model. Although I can see how it would work well with certain situations like co-workers or something like that.
Maybe you are just not putting in the effort. Just kidding! I come from a family with five kids, almost all with partner and kids. So I know about “ecclectic shopping”. Theme shopping works easy for all kinds of people. Try it out just to see. I can imagine it doesn’t work for everyone, I personally love it. Let me know if you give it a go.
My theme this year was definitely photos! I love it, shopping with a theme definitely makes the process less daunting – especially when you have a mountain of people to shop for!
That’s right! I find it gives a focus which automatically narrows down the number of stores you need to go to. Thanks for the feedback.
I never thought to “theme” shop before but I can see how implementing it could definitely cut down on time. Can’t believe I’ve still got some online shopping to do myself! Great suggestions, I’m thinking of gifting my grandmother and sister some wall art.
This is a comprehensive gift guide for those who are still left with Christmas shopping. The perfect last minute guide.
Great hacks, looks really helpful. Thanks for sharing information. 🙂
Books are one of the best and smart gift idea. Coz it doesn’t chooses gender and literacy are for everyone. And yeah, first edition with author’s signature are most treasured.
Christmas is not a holiday that I need to worry about too much. But these lists are helpful when I buy gifts throughout the year.
This was such a great and perfectly timed read. One of my pet peeves is wasting hours shopping . I’m definitely bookmarking this post for future reference.
Thanks Joy ❤️
Great gift ideas! I like this accessories for him and her. So much easier
Those sound like good gift ideas. I usually ship throughout the year as I come across things that I think people will like.
That is a great idea too. My best friend does the same. She loves to theme shop after Christmas when prices drop.
Such a fun guide!! I did buy a lot of photos and wall art this year – I thought it was a new fun gift to give.
Yayyyyy that’s perfect! I am sure your friends/family will be thankful.
Wonderful suggestions and great tips! Books and monogrammed gifts are the ones i bought mostly this year!
Some great tips for last minute shoppers or anytime shopper actually. I like the idea of shopping in smart, well dressed attire.
I couldn’t stop laughing when you advised not to take your toddler to Toys R Us. I know my baby will start demanding toys in a few months and this will be really helpful. You have shared some great gift ideas, there is something for everyone here!
I absolutely love the gift ideas. Believe it or not, I still haven’t done my Christmas shopping. So this gave me good ideas.
I totally believe it. Hitting the stores this weekend.
The scan life app sounds really useful. I am going to check it out. I like your tip about not dressing like a scruff when going shopping .I think you are right in planning your gifts so to stop doing impulse buys.
Such fun ideas! I love the idea of books and monogrammed gifts. I have seen quite a few DIY on the latter one but I think I will skip the hassle and look for handmade for now 🙂
love these tips! Books are such a good idea, I’ve got Tom a couple of cook books for xmas! x
faster and smarter is what we really need! Monogramed gifts are always fantastic! The wine tumblrs are fantastic even thoughI’m not sure I would like to spend that much on a single mug! They are soo cute though! Lovely post! Thanks for the ideas!
You are most welcome.
I am loving the tips here. I like the sound of theme shopping. That will surely save time and money.
If you try it out, let me know how it goes. 🙂
I did almost all my shopping in one go which made it so much easier. I’ll try this method out next time though!
I’ve never come a cross this ScanLife app it sounds very interesting. These are lovely tips. I love to do the holidays shopping before, but you always leave something for the last minute 😀
Yes, happens to me too. I always feel as though I have time for all the other things when the presents are done, but there is always something that comes up last minute.
Haha love the title of this how to shop smarter and faster than Santa. I love the wonderful wall art x
What amazing tips!! So many great gift ideas and I love the tip about not taking your credit card with you, it’s way too easy to over spend isn’t it?
Way too easy. Not worth the aftermath once Christmas is over. 🙂
This is a fabulous idea to make shopping faster. Definitely a fantastic help to us so close to Christmas.
What a fun idea. I seem to tend to buy in color themes even though I don’t plan it that way LOL.
xoxo Christie
Colour themes are awesome. I love that when buying gifts for friends.
Such a cool guide! I really loved the idea of theme shopping, something I am going to keep in mind while going shopping next time.
This is actually a great idea! I always struggle to find a gift for all! Thanks for sharing your idea!
2 hours flat shopping for all, indeed that could be the life’s fastest record I would’ve done. But yes t work upon the theme and then moving out to shop seems a great idea to me.
You can do it Jhilmil, I believe in you! Once you know where you are going and idea of what you want to buy, you will see how much faster it is to shop. 🙂 xoxo S.
This is a great plan for getting your shopping done in less than 2 hours. And I need to heed your advice on getting dolled up before I head to the mall. I too dress way to comfortable and end up coming home with a new wardrobe. That is not necessarily a bad thing. I only visit the mall during Christmas one once at the end of summer to catch up on all the summer sales for next season. I try to refresh my own wardrobe black Friday weekend.
Hahaha! How can a new wardrobe ever be a bad thing? LOL. Black Friday weekend is a great time to get great sales prices…online. I could not imagine store shopping in the US or London on Black Friday. xoxox S.
Interesting I never thought of buying less expensive first! Great tips to know before my gift shopping starts!
Happy Shopping Soonjoo 🙂
Girl this round up is amazing. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of the wall art or prints. That is seriously genius. ANNNND! I got his and hers sunnies thanks to you! My husband is going to be so excited.
You are the best Lauren! Thanks for the feedback. Glad to know these tips are working in your favour. S.
I just love this title of this post! 🙂 Awesome tips. ):
Good ideas for shopping and not spending a fortune.
These are great! I love theme shopping! Thanks for sharing!
Accessories or monogrammed products are my top picks. Wall art & framed photos may not suit the overall interiors in their house when we gift one to someone and in that case they may not hang it!
What a great idea. I love themes as it does make things easier! Never thought about it for holiday gifts though!
I love the book and monogram idea something that would last a life time and treasured in my opinion. These are great tips especially for me that hasn’t finished for some family members.
LOVE the tips! Such a great idea to buy more inexpensive things first. And I must second not bringing your toddler to Toys R Us! Right now we are just buying for our 4 kids, so looking back I realize I unintentionally did theme shopping – they are all into their one main thing a year! But this is great advice when buying for family and friends. Anything that makes this chore easier, right?! Great post – but I’m still gonna shop in my sweatpants. 😛