High Shipping, and Instane Prices

Start as early as possible to avoid mall stress, high shipping, and instane prices. We all know things get pretty wacky the closer you get to the end of the month - and heaven forbid you go shopping at the last minute!

The key is in the system that you simplify and organize your shopping into steps - each step is easy! Let's get started, shall we?

1. Get a piece of paper (for notes), and a computer (for research)
2. Take a deep breath. Relax! This will be fun!
3. Make a list (on the piece of paper) of the people you are gifting.
4. Write a ballpark dollar amount next to each person as a budget
(This is a sensitive topic, because some people don't like to attach real numbers. They like to impulse buy on the credit card, and deal with the sticker shock when the bill comes.)
5. Separate your giftees into groups - men, women, old, young, trendy, geeky, or whatever category seems good.
6. On your computer, fire up the web browser (we recommend FireFox)
7. Proceed one group at a time through your list!

For each list:
- Do a bit of research on a well established, informative or commercial site such as Yahoo Shopping, MSN shopping, or the website of a print magazine like "Lucky", "Maxim", "GQ", for gifts that might suit this group.
- Don't deviate, even though you can bookmark stuff for later.
- Make sure you go to at least two sites.
- If their web designers and marketers did a good job, you should have a general idea of some general gifts that are suited for your target group.
- If shopping on Amazon.com, note that their other product recommendations are often very VERY accurate.
- Jot down a number of gift ideas from what you saw, and move on.

When you have completed this for all of your groups, it's time to start purchasing!

Look for sales!
- Sites like BensBargains.net, Amazon.com, FatWallet, Woot.com, and many others specialize in extreme discounts, incredible coupons and short-lived promotions for electronics.
- Google your prospective purchase and find out what the going rate is. It's not uncommon to find some products free after discounts, with free shipping!

Sites like VanityBaskets.com offer a specialized range of gifts that have exploded in popularity in recent shopping seasons. Hand-made gourmet gift baskets have swept the scene, offering a wide variety of high-quality gift combinations that satisfy their recipients on several different levels. While traditional 'single gifts' consist of only one item, gift baskets blend an assortment of related, themed items in a pleasant package, for an affordable price.

This seems like the best of both worlds, since the gift giver can pick a unique blend of items that suits the receiver's personality.

You can often save money on shipping by purchasing multiple items from the same site.
If you have a preferred ecommerce site, like 'VanityBaskets.com' for gift baskets, in mind, compare the prices you see with the prices on your preferred site.

Dealing with disreputable vendors just to save a few pennies will only add to your stress, and increase the chances of a Christmas gift mishap.

Good luck in your gifting, and Happy Holidays!