It’s Only September and Millions are Already Done Holiday Shopping

I truly enjoy picking out gifts for my friends and family around the holidays, and even though I might have already thought of ideas of what to get them, I usually find myself heading to the store about a week (okay, sometimes days) before Christmas to actually purchase these items. Apparently, however, this is not a normal trend and procrastinating on gift buying is something that Americans generally don't do.

It's only the third week into September, but according to two surveys done by CreditCards.com, over 32 million adults have already begun their holiday shopping, and a whopping 4.6 million have completed their list of gift buying completely. When breaking down the statistics of holiday shoppers, it appears that grandparents are the most on top of their game, as 7 percent of consumers over the age of 65 say they have finished their holiday shopping in entirety. No other age group had even over 1 percent saying they were totally finished. When comparing adults who are also parents to those who are without children, 20 percent of adults with kids have taken a proactive role in preparing for the holidays as opposed to 11 percent of non-parents.

Although it's really early to be thinking about dates that are almost three months from now, the early bird shoppers might actually be on to something. According to the study, last minute shoppers end up wasting more time and money in the long run as opposed to those who begin checking off their list months before. One reason for this being that they are not able to do the comparison shopping to see which items may be cheaper at different places and also might have a harder time trying to find a specific item that they are looking for. By avoiding the crowds, those who finish their shopping early are setting themselves up for less stress in an already hectic month.

Plus, by beginning early, one can lessen the financial burden that accompanies gift buying. A consumer who starts shopping for the holidays in July is able to budget more effectively and spread out the gift buying over multiple paychecks. Those who have the habit of waiting until the last minute usually wind up having less money to spend or end up spending more that they didn't plan on spending because they aren't able to take advantage of special deals and sales. The results of the surveys showed that people who are more financially secure and employed are often the consumers who put off shopping until later months, as they don't have to worry as much about price constraints as those who are not as affluent do.

The survey mentioned that one in five don't finish their shopping until Christmas Eve. When do you typically start your holiday shopping?