How early should I start planning my Christmas gift shopping because honestly I am already stressed and its not even that late yet. Sorry if this is a stupid question but I literally have no idea how people handle this without losing their minds or going broke. Last year I waited until like December 15th and it was a total disaster because everything was sold out or the shipping costs were more than the actual gifts which is just ridiculous. I live in a really rural part of Maine and stuff takes forever to get here so I feel like I'm already behind and everything is just gonna be late again.

I have about five family members to buy for and my total budget is only like $500 which isnt much when you think about it especially with how expensive everything is now. Should I be starting in September or something? Is that too early? I see people on TikTok talking about how they are already done in August and that sounds totally insane to me but maybe they are onto something. I dont even know where to start or how to organize it like do I make a list or a spreadsheet or what. I just dont want to be broke and crying in a Walmart on Christmas Eve again. Is there like a normal timeline for this? Like when do the good sales actually happen vs when is it just marketing junk... I'm just so lost with all this.