I don’t know about you but I always seem to overload myself around the holidays. There is something that goes on inside of me that makes me want to cram every single thing I can into the few weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas and then I end up stressing out! Why do I do that? I’m still trying to figure it out! Although I haven’t figured out why I stress myself out during the holidays yet, I have done three things this year that have really made my holidays less stressful! They are listed below!
- Black Friday shopping– okay okay okay, before you throw your daggers at me and scream “BLACK FRIDAY SHOPPING IS ANYTHING BUT LESS STRESS, CRAZY LADY!!!” let me explain myself. Black Friday shopping can, by all means, be absolutely insane. But I have gone every year for years and there are certain things that my family does that makes it a very successful shopping experience. Here they are:
- We don’t go for door busters. Door busters are where the craziness occurs. We wait for cyber Monday if we are looking for any door buster type deals (usually on electronics).
- We go around 2 a.m on Black Friday morning. It’s dead at that time and the workers are putting back all of the merchandise that was neglected during the hustle and bustle of the earlier hours. So we have always scored some awesome stuff.
- We go with a goal in mind. We have things that we know we need and we don’t get things that aren’t on our list. No frivolous spending here.
- Last but NOT least…we share purchases using Square Cash. I would say that 90% of the stores we shop at have larger discounts for the more you spend. So…if my mom and I combine our purchases we always end up saving tons of money! After we are done shopping for the night I just send my mom money using the touch of a button on the Square Cash app and viola! It’s like she never missed the money at all! You can learn more about Square Cash and how easy it is at cash.me!
My cute parents and I, Black Friday shopping this year! 
This is what the Square Cash app looks like not the inside. It’s so easy to use! You just link your bank account, add in an amount, find who you are sending your money to and click “pay”! 
I also absolutely love how secure it is.
- Find a party planning buddy– I don’t know why we are always so tempted to plan parties all by ourselves. My sister in law and I both wanted to throw a family Christmas party this year but we didn’t know that the other was wanting to throw a party. We were texting one day and it got brought up so we decided to join forces! Life was SO much better and easier when we did it together. It was half of the work. Once again, using Square Cash helped to make our jobs easier because at the end of the party we split costs right down the middle and she paid me what she owed me with the click of a button! Easy peasy.
Some pictures from our fun Christmas party last year! 
- Start planning in October– I know that it’s almost Christmas for 2016 so there is nothing you can do now. However, come next October hopefully you will have it in your mind to start preparing for Christmas NOW! I always make my husband and my families picture calendars and it STRESSES ME OUT because I have always waited until The second week of December to work on them. This year I knew things would be busier after having Evie girl and I started them mid October. I finished them a couple weeks ago and I have never felt more prepared!
If you want to download the Square Cash app (because life is SO much easier if you have it!), it’s completely free!
Click here to download it for your iPhone or iPad.
Click here to download it for your Android device.
