Start preparing for the New Year now if you want to save money

New Year is a mysterious holiday. At first it seems that there is still a lot of time before it. And then suddenly he is already on the nose and you do not have time for anything. The pre-holiday rush is superimposed on the work rush before the long holidays. Prices are growing by leaps and bounds. And instead of a magical mood, you only feel anger, powerlessness and fatigue.

Strategic long-term planning will help you create a New Year's miracle with your own hands. To make it meaningful, you need to start working on the holiday now.

1. Organize a New Year's Eve trip

In general, this should have been thought about much earlier. Travel, like sleds, is best cooked in the summer before prices have risen. But even now, if you act quickly, you can plan a good vacation and not go broke. In addition, there is time to apply for visas.

2. Decide on gifts

In order not to run around in the shops in soap before the holidays, not to rake everything that is bad from the shelves, and not to push in queues, take care of this in October. Start listening to what your loved ones are saying: people often voice their desires themselves, you just need to be attentive.

You will have time to shop for the perfect gifts by choosing from a wide selection, rather than from what is left. You can easily compare prices and find the most attractive offer.

3. Make online orders

An obvious way to save money and get access to more goods is to buy from online stores, including foreign ones. But for shopping to be successful, it is important to consider that ahead of November 11, the day of the annual sale on AliExpress, and November 29 - Black Friday, followed by Cyber Monday. There are two conclusions from this: November will give a lot of opportunities to buy the things you like with discounts and paralyze the work of mail. Therefore, it is better to decide on the shopping list for the rest of the year now.

Then select from it the goods that you definitely need to receive before the holiday. Don't delay with them - order before the post offices are drowned in parcels. Pay special attention to Christmas decorations. Toys, garlands and other decorative elements can still be bought at reasonable prices.

What to buy:

You will also need the other half of the list. It will soon become clear which stores are participating in Black Friday and other promotions, and it will be possible to start collecting items in the basket. And also track price changes so that discounts are real and not exaggerated. Lifehacker has repeatedly written how to do this.

4. Choose an outfit

Closer to the New Year, festive outfits begin to cost so much, as if not sequins shine on them, but particles of pure gold. This is no coincidence: entrepreneurs understand that at corporate events and parties, many want to be in the spotlight and are ready to pay for it.

Planning early will help you save money and shine on the holiday. Think over the concept of the look now and start shopping. Grand sales are still a long way off, but off-season discounts can be good too. And don't forget about online shopping - fancy dresses are also sold on Black Friday.

5. Prepare your advent calendar

The Advent calendar is a traditional European element of anticipation for Christmas. The most common form is a cardboard house with windows, behind the shutters of which there is a small gift. There are 24 such windows in total, according to the number of days from December 1 to December 24 - Christmas Eve. Calendars are not necessarily made in the form of houses. It can be 24 numbered bags, jars, envelopes - it all depends on the imagination of the creator.

Compared to Christmas in Russia, New Year is celebrated on a large scale, so the Advent calendar often helps to wait for this particular holiday. Therefore, it is logical to extend it not for 24, but for 31 days. However, here you can choose at your discretion.

It is important that the Advent calendar is a great way to create a New Year's mood.

Usually this kind of entertainment is arranged for children. You can put sweets and small toys in the cells of the Advent calendar. Or let there be tasks for the completion of which the child will receive his gift. Of course, this is not about cleaning the floors. Tasks should also be New Year's - to make a snowman, draw a card for grandmother, write a letter to Santa Claus.

But the advent calendar will also help adults not to lose the New Year mood in a series of pre-holiday rush jobs and deadlines. The pockets may already contain something more piquant than in the children's version of the calendar.

Of course, it would be much more economical not to make an Advent calendar at all. But if you are still determined to have this long-lasting fun, then it is much more profitable not to postpone everything until the last moment. To realize the idea, everything needs to be prepared not by December 31, but by December 1. In addition, you need to come up with 31 gifts (or at least 30, if you want to time the main New Year's present to the last window), and this takes time to shop.

As for the Advent calendar itself, you can purchase a ready-made one. But it will most likely have 24 pockets. Every year there are more and more such calendars in stores. You will still have time to order one of the cute options from AliExpress.

What to buy:

Advent calendar made of felt in the form of Santa Claus with AliExpress, 213 rubles →
Advent calendar in the form of a wooden house with AliExpress, 1 708 rubles →

Or you can make your own Advent calendar.

6. Book a place for the party

If you do not intend to celebrate the New Year at home and want to rent a country cottage or book a table in a restaurant, it’s time to think about it. The closer to the holiday, the worse and more expensive the options remain.

7. Review New Year's films

Year after year, holiday films are not getting smaller, and it is frivolous to hope to review the top 100 films in one December.

It seems that money cannot be saved on this. But if you do not want to rake festive paraphernalia off the shelves in the last week of December in an attempt to create at least some New Year's mood, it is better to prepare the holiday atmosphere in small steps in advance.