Welcome the -ber months!

Something from the old baul also :)

Have you noticed how the Philippines have the longest Christmas celebration in the whole world? We start celebrating Christmas on September and even extend it until January. You may try dropping by some malls on the first week of September and you’ll probably see some Christmas decors in the market already. Christmas songs will be hitting the radios and the Christmas countdown will start.

Many foreigners find this quirky, but let’s not care much about what they say, what matters is that Christmas is in the heart of every Filipino not only in December.

So let’s welcome the –ber months and have a good start for Christmas 2005. What best way to start the season right but by doing our Christmas list. It’s the best time to start listing and budgeting for the season because with the –ber months here expect packed malls, busy streets and the unstoppable price hikes.

Here are a few tips on how we can plan ahead and avoid having empty pockets come next year…

Make a Christmas list…
Start by listing all the people you want to give presents to this coming Christmas. Make it a long list…it’s easier to cut down on a list than to realize later that you forgot someone.

Look at your budget…
Most people will wait for their thirteen-month pay to start shopping. The problem with this is that you’ll end up buying items that are double their price. Try to consider that this season is the best way to bring prices up because everyone will be shopping at these times. So, it’s better to budget the money that will come in from this month onwards.

Set aside the amount you will need for your bills and everyday needs. From the remaining money every month you may start buying some of the gifts in your list and other Christmas item you may need like trimmings.
You’ll see how lighter you’ll feel when December comes and you’re gifts are complete and the only task left to do is to wrap them. Your thirteen-month pay will serve best for food on Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
Remember that budgeting is very important. Your gifts may really depend on you budget.

Choosing the gifts…
Now that you have a list and have thought of how you would budget your money, write your target gift beside the name of each person in your list. You may want to ask some of them for their wish list…but then again it all depends on your budget…they might put a way expensive item in their list and you’ll just end up saying “o shucks I’m short”.

So after you identified the gifts, go store hopping and try to see if you can get better deals on the items. If you start early, you’ll surely get better deals.
After canvassing, re-assess you list…are you going to overshoot with this list? If not, then you can start buying the items one at a time.

If you think you will overshoot, your option is to cut down the list or change the gifts to cheaper but still good ones (I recommend the second one though).

Gifts need not be expensive they simply need to come from the heart. In fact, you need not actually buy all the gifts. You can probably just make some of them like candles, beaded bracelets, cards and other handicrafts. If you have more time to spare, this is a really good time to spend it. Personalized gifts are always better and more heart warming.

As for the decors…
Come on! Do you really still want to spend on this one? How about digging up on old decorations and cleaning them? That’ll do, besides the holidays is not about decors, it’s about love and unity and the family spending some quality time together.

You can probably stick to that old Christmas tree and trimmings. Just check the old Christmas lights, if they’re still working, then use them, if not well you can buy one…but try not to buy so much… think about the PPA.

You can be earth friendly this season too. Try recycling for a change. I saw one lantern last year in a place in Pasay City, a few years back which was made of plastic coke bottles and another one in a school in the same place, made out of crumpled newspaper and varnished to shine…now that’s recycling!

Now the food…
What you will put on your table on Christmas and New Year’s Eve is important but need not be overwhelming. You don’t want lots of leftovers afterwards.
Just make a list of how many people will be eating at the house on those occasions and start planning the meals. List down how many kind of food and how much of each kind you need to serve. Again, consider the budget.

Put in mind that December is only the last month of the year, but it’s not the end of life. You still have January and the following months to look on to and it’s not very pleasing to start the next year with zero or negative balance, so plan ahead and stick to the budget. You can save on time and money doing this. Besides, you have three –ber months to prepare until December…so happy planning and happy holidays!