Has anyone else noticed the Christmas creep? That’s right, it’s here! I’ve already seen displays for Christmas decorations. Come on, people, it’s a little early to be thinking about Christmas.
Or is it?
On some level, it might be a great time to be thinking about Christmas. I do a lot of yarn work (knitting and crochet), and one of the stores I often buy from has been sending out advertising e-mails about getting ready for Christmas gifting. This makes sense to me – if I want to make gifts for people, it would be good to start now (or have already started, given my pace).
Also, if you like to buy gifts for friends and family, it’s not a bad idea to start setting aside a little bit of money each month so that you do have holiday money to spend. Same thing if you travel for the holidays. Start planning now, and you’ll be ready by the time Christmas comes.
That said, it’s probably a little early to be buying ornaments and yard decorations. I can’t imagine that the stores are discounting them that much, no matter what they say.
I love Christmas. But July is just a little early to start seeing little red and green elves in the store.
Megan is a 40-something government employee in the Washington, DC area. She got interested in Personal Finance when she got out of college and realized that her paycheck wasn’t going to go as far as she had hoped. Since starting this blog, she has managed to buy a house and make a solid start on her retirement goals, and hopes to help others do the same. Here is her story:
In 2007, I was a gainfully employed 20-something with no debt but not a lot of knowledge about personal finance. It was a co-worker’s comment about Roth IRAs that sent me to the internet, searching for information. It was then that I realized that I really didn’t know a whole lot about personal finance and that my current financial situation was due a lot to inherent frugal tendencies, generous family members, a fear of debt, and good luck. While that was working for me, clearly I needed a better plan.
While I had no debt, I was also pretty much living paycheck to paycheck and not worrying about going over budget (I say this as if I had a real budget) because I had an emergency fund set aside to cover any overages.
Except that’s not what an emergency fund is for.
So I did a lot of research, read a lot of blogs, and decided that I needed a plan. I needed to budget. I needed to know what I was spending my money on. I needed to prepare for the future.
I decided to create a blog not only to make myself accountable to others but also to share the knowledge that I gained along the way. I’ve learned so much from my fellow bloggers, and I hope that my readers can find something useful in what I have to share as well.
I read somewhere that retailers are pushing Christmas right now because of the economy. Since Christmas is one of the few things that Americans are ALWAYS willing to spend money on and everyone is looking to save money right now, they’re offering early bird “Christmas sales” to convince shoppers that if they buy now, they’ll get a better deal (thus increasing sales for struggling retailers). It’s an interesting idea, but I agree with you. I just don’t think people are ready to think about it. Why not focus on back to school? People are usually willing to spend on that stuff, too.
I totally agree with you (from someone who has spent the afternoon writing their Christmas list and started to source pressies! 🙂
I agree that it’s much too early to be seeing elves in stores! On the other hand, I started working on Christmas gifts mid January. Of course, that might be due to the insane idea to knit a double sided scarf on size 3 needles. I must be insane, but I AM about half done. 🙂