[Lil'freeper]

Getting hyper-organized early really helped me. I was able to keep an eye out for deals and rearrange monthly budgets throughout the rest of the year accordingly. I'll probably hit the home-dec after-Christmas sales with an eye toward next year's decoratin'.

[ecurbh]

It does help that my family does the draw-names-and-buy-only-one-present-each thing. Otherwise, we would have had to split our means among my parents, 3 siblings plus 2.5 spouses (one sister is engaged), plus 4 nieces and nephews, plus Hair's family.