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My Mailbox is Stuffed with Catalogs

With the holidays quickly approaching, there has barely been room in our mailbox for bills and letters. A few days ago, our mailbox was stuffed so tightly with catalogs that I had to pull everything out with both hands and a lot of muscle. Yesterday, the mail carrier had to bring our mail to the door because he couldn't fit it all in the mailbox.

If we receive a catalog I know we'll never buy from, I simply contact the company and ask them to remove us from their mailing list. One phone call generally does the trick.

But for me, getting catalogs in the mail makes holiday shopping very convenient. As far as I'm concerned, the more, the merrier. I spend limited time shopping in individual stores or malls. Most gifts that I purchase are items I see in catalogs. There are often very unique finds that suit the interests of the people on my gift list.

As I'm flipping through a catalog, I often find myself saying to myself, 'That would be just perfect for my sister, Jude' or 'my dad would really love that!'

I tear out the page the item is on and the back page which often includes a catalog code in order for me to take advantage of any special offers. The remainder of the catalog gets recycled. I then put the pages into a file folder, go online later and order everything I need.

Every year, within just a few weeks, I've taken care of most of my holiday shopping, without ever having to get in the car, search endlessly through stores, stand in line or lug tons of packages to my car.

Sure, I occasionally make a few trips to the mall or take a walk along Main Street in town and purchase from the local merchants.

BUT, the majority of my holiday shopping time, in the comfort of my home, has saved me a tremendous amount of time, energy and sanity.

Don't Forget to Use the Rewards You've Earned

I took my daughter shopping at Mayfair Mall in Milwaukee for some back-to-school clothes a few days ago. Nearly every store now has some sort of Rewards program.

Gymboree for example, has a program in place called Gymbucks. In a nutshell, for every $50 spent at Gymboree during a specific earnings period, you get $25 worth of Gymbucks that can be used during another specific period of time. It's a very good deal--IF you remember to visit the store during the earnings periods AND IF you remember to return to the store during the redemption period.

It's a lot to remember, especially when several stores are running similar promotions on various weeks of the year, and you have plenty of other more pressing matters on your mind.

As soon as I learn about a promotion week, I immediately jot that information on my calendar and highlight it in a color that stands out. When I go to the store that week and earn a reward that must be redeemed during a future week of the year, I very quickly jot that information into my calendar to ensure I remember to return to the store and redeem my reward.

On this last shopping trip alone, we received rewards that must be redeemed later from 4 different stores! Again, it will work out great for us, because there's no chance I'll forget to redeem those rewards.

Whether you use a paper calendar or an electronic version, this is a great way to ensure you receive maximum benefits at the stores you patronize.