Online Christmas shopping helps you Survive the Crush
Frustrated with long lines, rude clerks, and canned Christmas music in the malls and stores? Online shopping may be your ticket to a stress free Christmas.
I absolutely love Christmas. What I don’t like is the blatant commercialism of the season. To me, it takes the whole idea of Christmas and tosses it out the window. The rush-rush-rush of the season leaves me breathless and disheartened.
Last year I decided to take a new approach to Christmas shopping, one that I will thoroughly utilize again this year. As a writer, I commonly pick up jobs on the side and I started freelancing almost on a full time basis last year after looking at my finances from my regular job as compared to my bills going out. It was not a pretty sight. And as the parent of a then 8 year old daughter who loves American Girl dolls, Harry Potter and Scooby Doo DVDs, I was in a bit of a pickle. Why? Well, all the money I was making was wrapped up in my PayPal account on line.
It was then I decided that instead of transferring my money from PayPal into my checking account – and waiting three days for it to get there – to go Christmas shopping at 12:30am at the local Wal-Mart to avoid the rush, I was shopping online. It was the best idea I ever had. Gone was the rush-rush-rush of long lines and rude people and I was able to listen to my Christmas music at more comfortable level.
Don’t spend more in shipping costs.
While many people are still unsure about shopping online, it really is a great way to beat the rush of the season. For one thing, you can start your Christmas shipping considerably earlier when you find online bargains in the middle of the summer. Yes, I do understand that you can do that any time of year, but with gas prices peaking over $4.00 a gallon, shopping online can save you the money it would cost to put in your tank and drive all over a 100 mile radius looking for that ‘Tickle Me Elmo’ doll your child has to have. Shipping costs have gone up, but if you shop early, you can have items shipped via ground, the cheapest method possible, without them being late.
Additionally, anyone who works evening or midnight shifts sometimes do not have the luxury or getting to the stores when they are open. It may seem like there is a Wal-Mart on every corner that is open 24 hours a day, but if you try to shop before you go to work, you can get bogged down in a long line. And let’s face it, when you get off of work, all you want to do is go home. Online shopping allows you to shop whenever you want to for however long your want while sitting in your fuzzy slippers and sweats after a long day of work.
Online shopping offers you many choices
Online shopping can also take many forms and sometimes you can get one heck of a deal if you’re willing to take a chance on auction sites such as eBay or discount sites such as Overstock.com. eBay is great for finding one of a kind gifts that fit every member of your family. Yes, you have to watch the auctions, but if you have list of items and you know how much for each you’re willing to spend, then you already know how much to bid.
Paying for your online items can be done with an e-check which is an electronic draft from your checking account, your credit card, or an account such as PayPal, which is like an electronic wallet that holds the money you put into it for whatever purpose you like. Always make sure you look for websites that have URLs prefaced with ‘https://’. That ‘s’ at the end is the indicator that the site has security measure in place to protect your personal information.
A popular website to shop for 2008 Christmas gifts is Gifts.com.
I think this laptop desk is one of the best presents around this year. Great price too!
December 4th, 2008 at 1:38 pm