UNITED STATES—Can you believe it? It’s already the middle of August and summer is just mere weeks from being over. With that being said, it is time to start thinking about the fall and the upcoming holidays like Halloween, Thanksgiving and the big one: Christmas. Yes, Christmas, one of the busiest, hectic and stressful holidays of the entire year is fast-approaching. The question to ask is rather you are ready for it?

Me, without a doubt, I love Christmas, it is one of my favorite holidays and I recently learned from my sister that she already started doing some Christmas shopping and it got me thinking: is it too early? The answer to be honest is NO! I mean I stumbled recently into my local Target and I was stunned, I mean stunned with a massive sale they had on all sorts of toys. At first I was going to hold off, but I had a little extra money and the thought of me getting a bit of Xmas shopping out the way, save a ton of money along the way and take quite a bit of stress of my shoulders for later.

I mean I got a ton of items and I did not have to spend a lot of money, and it dawned on me: why do so many people wait till the last minute or November and December to start Christmas shopping, when they can do it throughout the year? For me, I think it’s just the notion of being in the company of others and enjoying the joyous time of year that Xmas tends to be. The notion of giving and being open to complete strangers just brings me a level of joy that I cannot explain to the average person.

The thought of me NOT entering the mall or doing some sort of shopping during the month of December, I cannot fathom. Even though I shouldn’t want to do it, I am unable to prevent myself from doing so. However, let’s say you typical spend $1,000 on Christmas shopping between the months of November and December. What if I told you that you could slice that in half about doing some shopping during the months of July, August, September and October? You would be stupid not to take on that opportunity because there are many pros than cons. 1) you save money 2) you eliminate stress 3) you don’t have to deal with crowds 4) you spend more time with family.

The only problem with starting your Christmas shopping a bit early is you have to find somewhere to store those presents so that those snooping family members are not aware of what you have up your sleeve. It is common sense; if you have a bit of extra money and you see items that you think would be perfect gifts for family members go for it. Especially if you are able to get them at a huge discount, a discount that you did not expect to begin with.

I’m a firm believer of saving money because when you save money that means you have more money to do others things at a later date. Anytime you save money it’s a good thing, even if it happens during the holidays.