Can't believe its almost September Christmas shopping under way!

Looking at the calendar today I was awestruck that it was pretty much September already. I can't believe how fast this year has flown by. It's crazy!

The month September for us is our wedding anniversary. This year will be 4 years! September also means crunch time for Christmas shopping. You might think I'm crazy but I bought the first Christmas present in April! We live on a tight budget and have a HUGE family that keeps getting bigger. So I figured I would tell you how we afford Christmas on a really tight budget.

First and foremost we remember Christmas is not about gifts it's about our savior's birth! We love Christmas but don't believe in racking up credit card debt to achieve a "good" Christmas. We set price limits, certain amount of gifts, couples a get couple gift and I shop early and I mean EARLY! My hubby gets paid every Friday and gets a Christmas bonus (if it's a good year) so I count back the pay check before Christmas and count back Fridays for how many people we have to buy for. This year I counted back to the last week of June, but found some presents in early April and I was super excited. I also keep a list on me at all times of who we have to buy for, clothes sizes and throughout the year if I hear or get an idea of some stuff they might want I jot it down by their name.

This helps me when I'm running errands or shopping and if I see stuff on my list on sale or clearance than I get it cheap and usually way under the set price limit we set. We usually try to exchange gifts with friends but when they all start having kids it gets expensive so we set a $10 limit for the kids and don't exchange with the adults. We only have two sets of friends with out kids we exchange gifts with and I usually do a gift basket of goodies or odds in ends.

Ex: Last year I did a movie night on us! I put cokes, candy, pop corn, pop corn seasoning, a blockbuster gift card for $10 (good for two new releases or renting an expensive video game before purchasing it), gift card to an ice cream shop for $5, and various flavors of cappuccino. It was a great hit for less than $20. And, we were able to keep the extra cokes and candy (saved on groceries).

Our parents, friends, and sister-in-law and her husband get a couple gift of no more than $40 per gift. Kids we usually set a price limit of $10-$15. My aunt and her husband, who live in Baton Rouge, have two kids that are the same ages as our kids and we all exchanged gifts last year. They got the movie night on us gift bag and my cousin who is Punkin's age got a gift from us and this year my aunt will also have a 7 month old baby. On my mom's side we draw names and set the price limit of $10-$15 too.

At our house, we set a limit of 5 gifts and the girls get 5 gifts plus santa and stockings. Our dogs also have stocking, they get a new toy, bone, and collar (because they usually need a new one by the time Christmas gets here lol). This also helps because we give them their stockings first and they go far away and eat their bones, so they are out of the way while we open presents. We also set a price limit on how much we spend on ourselves, yes it is usually more but when you buy a gift a week it doesn't break the bank and I end up getting almost everything on clearance or on sale :) We are also able to sit at home during the crazy shopping season and enjoy our family and a nice fire. We are usually done shopping before Thanksgiving other than the last minute candy for stocking suffers or the last minute Christmas party secret santa gift.

My husband makes fun of me for doing this, but he loves it when everyone is going crazy and running around trying to finish their shopping at the last minute because we are done! LOL.

I usually do buy the girls their stuff first because if all else fails my kids will have a

"good" Christmas and will not go without. For our extended family I buy their Christmas after their birthday (which I do the same thing for birthdays). Doodle Bugs birthday is at the end of October and I'm done with her gifts with the exception of one and thats because the past couple of times I've gone to the store they have been sold out. So here are a couple of goodies I have stocked up on this year so far!

This is Doodle Bugs birthday gifts, I put clothes as one gift. Usually two outfits and pjs.

Here are my Christmas finds :)

Outfit for my aunts new little boy, was $16 and I paid $6

Something that Punkin has been wanting so bad but it was $24.99 I paid $7.25, it was also the last one.

This is something else Punkin has been wanting, didn't get that good of a deal but not paying full price is better than nothing right? $19.99 and I paid $14.99.
This was my favorite find and I wish I would have gotten two. This is for my Aunts little girls the same age as Punkin. On clearance at target was $27.99 and paid $6.25. I got this is April, I could not pass it up and now I see it everywhere for the $27.99 price and I can't make myself pay that when I got it for $6.25 :(

Punkin loves dress up so we added a dress! only $10.00

Doodle Bugs two outfits, $4 a piece

Punkin's outfits same price. Another place I get cheap but good clothes is our Children's place outlet. I go in there all the time and they have shirts, jackets, and all sorts of goodies for .99 or $1.99. Once I found jeans on sale for $1.99 and racked up.

My new niece gets this, its a plush turtle that opens up and you put the balls in it, perfect for a 4 month old.
Starter for Punkin's stocking stuffers
My new nieces clothes
my little sister (age 20) said she didn't know they really made pig piggy banks and her favorite color is purple so we will put money in it what college student wouldn't want that right?
My best friends little boy's birthday gift he has an October birthday too. I paid $2 for the pants that were originally $12 and the shirts I got on sale for $4 vs $8.

I hope you don't think I'm off my rocker here but it really does help a lot especially when you can come way under budget on the price limits. My closet is about to burst though, but hey Thanksgiving will be here before we know it and we will be buying a tree and I can get my closet back. HAHA.