It’s officially 7 days before Christmas, I hope everyone has done all their holiday shopping or are almost done!  You know, I hear that December 23rd is officially the busiest day for shopping (must be all the last minute shoppers frantically trying to find something for their loved ones).

Krystal over at Give Me Back My Five Bucks asked how much her readers spent on Christmas presents this year.

I thought I would do the same.  I ended up spending about $450 this year on about 13 people.  Some presents were very small, that only cost about $9 or so (cute passport holders).

I did a lot of online shopping this year, bought a present on Cyber Monday.  I also bought some presents (three to be exact) ahead of time in October when I was in Hawaii.  I went to the Premier Outlets and bought some nice sweaters and zip ups that would otherwise likely cost about $50-$60 here in Canada.  I bought them for $20 each.  You can’t even get a T-shirt here in Canadian malls these days for $20.

I used one of the daily deal sites for a $10 chapters gift certificate worth $25 and bought a book for my brother.

I also redeemed my Air Miles points ahead of time for a $50 gift card to the local sports equipment/ outdoor lifestyle store earlier and bought BF something from there (I won’t be specific in the rare chance that he is reading this).

I only went to the mall once and it was pretty horrid.  I think I have developed an allergy to the mall.  Not sure what it is, perhaps it’s the crowds of people, the overzealous sales staff, or the increasingly stringent return policies.  I spent a few hours trying to find a decent sweater for my sister that would cost $20 (which was what my budget was).  It was pretty difficult, so I ended up going over budget and spent $33.  To my chagrin, the sweater was NOT on sale.  I was desperate to find a present.

I am looking forward to try my best to avoid experiencing the Boxing Day Hangover this year (it’s like Black Friday for Canadians) …I think that would involve staying away from the computer (buying online) and the malls.

Meanwhile, here are some great PF Blog Links to distract you from Christmas shopping until the 23rd

• Financial Samurai shares with us the Clubber’s Guide to Saving Money and Having a Good Time
• Consumerism Commentary justifies that it’s the time to by a house (but not as an investment)
• Frugal Zeitgeist teaches us how to avoid holiday overeating (all these treats at the office are NO help! )
• Canadian Finance Blog does a review of Mint.com (I’ve been using it more and more, I like the functionality of it, but I don’t like the seemingly lack of security)
• Sustainable Life Blog shares the details of his most expensive month EVER!
• Every Day Tips and Thoughts creates a list of items that EDTT refuses to buy generic
• Boomer and Echo share things to take care of before year end
• Sustainable Personal Finance helps calculate how charitable donations work
• How to Save Money does his weekly round up of Canadian hot deals
• The College Investor analyzes how much you should tip the people in your life (including the mail man)
• Canadian Profiteer is this site that aggregates all the good personal finance info all in one place- pretty handy I’d say
• The Financial Blogger also has a post on how to prevent stress while last minute shopping

Readers, how did your Christmas damage budget pan out this year?

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I know a lot of personal finance bloggers have mentioned the Latte Factor at some point or another, but I really like it- it really ‘hits home’ for me so I wanted to write about it too.  What is the Latte Factor, you ask?  The Latte Factor is a phrase coined by David Bach, the author of The Automatic Millionaire.  He says that most people have these small seemingly insignificant purchases daily (like the latte that you get at Starbucks before you head to work) that really add up.

If you spend $3.50 on a latte every day when you go to work, that adds up to be  about $17.50 a week (for a five day work week).  Multiply that by 52 weeks and you get $910 a year.  Yes, that’s almost a grand per year on coffee!

Let’s say for example you decided to sock away the $3.50 per work day into savings instead every year for 25 years.  If you compound interest that amount at a reasonable rate of 6% per year for 25 years, you’d end up with $56,827.91.  So that grand that you end up saving per year becomes 55 grand in 25 years.  Pretty crazy, huh?

If you somehow manage to cut those daily expenses out, you’re saving money big time.  I’m not saying deprive yourself of your life and its perks, like if you absolutely HAVE TO HAVE that latte, maybe you can buy one of those machines to make your own before work.  Compromise, right?

What’s MY Latte Factor?

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