I'm normally a big fan of on-line shopping. Sitting at home, comfy and warm, clicking the mouse a few times and then getting on with my life while some nice UPS driver brings my gifts to our front step.
This year has been a slightly different experience. Our December has been pretty busy so far, so there hasn't been a lot of time for any kind of shopping. And to top it off, the kids were late getting their wish lists to me. I would have started sooner, but never having had a brother, I've been stumped about what to buy for my teenage boys (I miss Legos!). I have the opposite problem with my daughter -- her list is 2 pages long and, literally, has a bibliography.
So this morning I finally got busy on-line. It took about 5 minutes for the panic to set in.
Right away I found that some of the gifts I was thinking about were out of stock, or back ordered, or unavailable in the sizes I needed. If I did manage to find an item in stock, I, of course, had to check a bunch of different stores to make sure I was getting it for the lowest price. I'd discover a low price, only to find that that particular store had high shipping rates and I could have gotten a better total price at another store. Then I'd have to go through the 20 tabs I had open in my browser to try to re-find the store with the best deal. All the while, the red printed "Hurry, only 1 remaining," would be flashing on the screen, trying to force me to make a quick decision or lose the only remaining item in the entire country to another savvier shopper.
And if I did manage to get an item in my shopping cart, the whole shipping conundrum would begin. Should I roll the dice and use the free shipping and not sleep between now and Christmas, wracked with worry that the gifts wouldn't arrive on time? Or should forgo the worry by paying an exorbitant amount for 2-day shipping. Of course then when the package arrived 1 day later, I'd wonder if I could have gotten away with the free shipping after all. Either way it's crazy making.
All day long I've been alternating between work and shopping on the computer. I think I'm finally closing in on the end, but I am a wreck! I'm stressed out, tired, second guessing my choices, and already dreading my Visa bill.
Now it's starting to feel like Christmas!!