Toys r us, toys r us, toys r us

I finished my Christmas Shopping this evening. 1st of Dec and I'm all done! I think this is the earliest I've ever completed my Christmas shopping and it feels good :) I went to Toys R Us this evening and blitzed the place! It was a pretty traumatic event by the end of the evening. I set out with a good feeling optimistic that I would be able to buy all the presents for my 6 nieces and nephews in one go without having to traipse around loads of shops. Well I did manage to do that but only only 2 and a half hours £80 later!! It was harder work than I thought to choose between so many toys and games. It then got to the final two presents and I started to become a bit of a trembling wreck. My sister said to me before I went that if I began sitting in the corner rocking I was to leave - I should probably have listened to her advice! The problem I had was that I'd found something for my two nieces but it was the same thing and that particular brand were doing an offer of buy 2 get 1 free. This would normally be great but I had the problem of then having a third thing and no one to give it to (I had already chosen things for the other 4 kids and didn't want to change those) and I didn't want to just get two and not get something free!! This is where this challenge comes into it. In order to decide what I was going to do I had to speak to my sister and my mum to find out what they had got the children and ask what my sister thought would be the best thing to get her boy. You see how I'm linking this?! To speak with all of my family members each month! One of my brothers had phoned me earlier on to speak to me about football tickets for a match we're going to later this month and I had rung my other brother to ask him what one of his children is in to at the moment. So while in Toys R Us I actually managed to speak to every single person in my family - maybe I should go more often!!!

I have been doing well with keeping in contact with my family since starting this challenge. I get on with my family anyway but I can go for months on occassions without talking to them, especially my brothers. This is mainly just down to all of us being busy and living in completely different places across the country. It's not a huge problem but I thought that as I was doing this challenge and trying to fit something for each areas of my life it would be good to do something to strengthen my family relationships. It has definitely made an impact on my relationship with one of my brothers. We have met up a couple of times since I've started the 30 things which is more than I would've done in the past. His wife is having their first baby next year so I am excited about that (yeah my 6 nieces and nephews are all by my other brother and my sister as they have three each. Next Christmas I'll be having to buy for 7!).

Well November has ended and I completed all my monthly tasks which is good. I also didn't spend anything on my credit cards so that has increased that total to 2. Unfortunately I'm not going to make that 3 months in December as I paid for Toys R Us (ok so maybe it wasn't the entire shop even if it felt it!) by credit card this evening. That's not too much of a shock though as Christmas is an expensive time and I knew that I would have to cover some things by card. I will be donating to charity a bit later in the month this time round. I'm going to be getting my benefits just before Christmas so I will give then as I have a couple of Christmas outings I need to pay for before then! I have already decided who I'm going to give to this month but I will post about that when I do it!