There are only 90 days until Black Friday. That’s just under 13 Weeks—and isn’t that a lucky number? Lucky for you, since I’m here to remind you it’s never too early to start preparing for Christmas. As Dave Ramsey always says, “Christmas is not an emergency.” December 25th arrives on the same day, every year!

So, why do we find ourselves scrambling for cash, rushing out on Christmas Eve for last minute shopping or paying extra to overnight gifts & Christmas Cards? The 119 days until Christmas might sound pretty far away, but it creeps up very quickly if you aren’t planning ahead.

I wasn’t kidding on Viva la Value, when I mentioned that I start shopping for the holidays, right after the holiday. So far, I have stocking stuffers in my gift closet, a picture of the girls selected for our Photo Cards and a spreadsheet that lists our holiday budget, the people we’ll buy for and ideas for gifts as I think of them. But the bane of my existence? Those Holiday Cards!

I always come up with these awesome ideas, but they either don’t get executed, I’m stressing at the last minute or I give up on the timing altogether & call it a New Year’s card. The only reason I ever managed to get Baby Announcements out all 3 times is that I prefilled as much as I could & had dedicated alone time in the hospital to finish them!

This year, I’m determined to get that last aspect of Christmas prep under control—thanks to our friends at Cards Direct! They’re giving away a $50 coupon code to get you started. Plus, we’ve got a few things to do now to keep your holiday season under control:

1. If you haven’t already assigned a number to your holiday budget, discuss it now.
2. Make a list of everyone you intend to include on your holiday gift list.
3. Start considering small gifts—teachers, hosts, white elephant exhanges—when you find freebies, cash back deals & gift certificate offers. (Free samples make great gift basket stuffers!)
4. Decide if you want a formal or casual family portrait.
5. Start adding non-perishable baking supplies to your grocery list each week—a little each week will have you fully stocked before the first cookie exchange!
6. Win a $50 coupon code from Cards Direct to buy your Christmas Photo Cards early!

Simply leave a comment here, and tell us how you keep the holidays from sneaking up on you! You can earn additional entries by:

• Subscribing to our site by email or RSS
• Following Inexpensively on Twitter
• Writing about this giveaway (blog, forum, public Facebook note)
• Tweeting about this giveaway: Win a a free set of Cards Direct greeting cards from @Inexpensively! http://bit.ly/bV1nU1

For your extra entries to be counted, be sure to leave an additional comment directing us to your entry. Only one additional entry per method (i.e. While multiple tweets are appreciated it, only one will count as a drawing entry.) The contest runs until 9/2/10 at 11:59pm est. One winner will be notified by email on 9/3/10 and receive a coupon code for 25 greeting cards (up to $50 value). Winner will have 48 hours to complete the claim form or a new winner will be chosen.

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I received, through my participation in the Global Influence Network, a set of cards for myself as compensation for this post, but all opinions are 100% mine.