My Headstart on Christmas Shopping..

I love Christmas.. it is my favourite time of the year. I love the atmosphere, the weather, the lights, the music, the food and even the shopping! (crazy right?)  However, last year after finding myself at our local Westfield partaking in their crazy 48 hour shop at 4am in the morning Christmas eve, I decided that WASN'T going to happen again this year!  I needed to be more organised with my shopping.. So I started early..

 

I'm not usually one to do the mid year toy-sale's because I usually change my mind by December or find the same toys cheaper come Christmastime (don't you just hate that?!) but I have decided with five kids to buy for I need to embrace the mid year toy sales and their longer payment terms, so this year I lay-by'd at both Target and Big W during the sales.. I shopped from the comfort of my bed between 12-3am on both of their websites and managed to get many of the kid's pressies, so I was pretty stoked. 

 

Normally I am terrible at sticking to in-store layby's -- I forget to make payment's and sometimes forget I have a layby at all until the letter arrives in the mail letting me know otherwise, so I was surprised to find how easy managing layby's online is; my Big W layby payment was calculated for me when I set it up and it automatically comes out of my bank account each fortnight and the Target layby I pay via Paypal or Visa as I please..

 

I had to make a change to an item on my Big W layby and it was really easy to call up and cancel an item off the order, However, when I tried to do the same with my Target layby I was unable, I will have to wait to pay it off then refund/exchange the item after collection ~ The little fella got 2 ride-ons for his birthday so he certainly doesn't need a third!

My Big W layby will be delivered to my door and I opted for a click and collect style collection from my local Target. Easy..

 

Since my head start via layby's I have also picked up a few things in store as I see things on special/things that the kids will like, as well as a few things on eBay.  I was lucky enough a couple of months ago to be the Facebook Fan of the Week on Bambini Pronto and scored myself a $50.00 voucher to use on their website, so tonight when i saw that they were having a 40% off sale on various products for their 11th Birthday I jumped at the chance to use my gift voucher on some fantastic Skip Hop Products for my littlest one for Christmas! I ended up buying the Zoo Dog Suitcase, Zoo Monkey Backpack, Zoo Monkey Lunchie, Zoo Dog Bowl & Plate set and all I was out of pocket was $40.00 for all of those great products..

Hubby chose the Monkey design for the backpack and lunchie

 

& I chose the dog design in the suitcase & bowl/plate set .(I like the dog But the little guy does have this thing for Monkey's.. so who am I to argue.. personally if it was for me I'd get the Owl, they are sooo cute! )

 

 

I'm pretty happy with the way my Christmas shopping is going thus far.. I know I'm never going to be able to resist the temptation of going shopping physically during Christmastime but least this way I will be a little better prepared and instead of shopping at 4am Christmas Eve I can be sleeping!  Have you started your Christmas shopping yet?