Christmas is less than a month away, which means buying presents is about to become an urgent, important activity. It doesn’t have to be difficult though.

If you’d like to avoid some of the hassles crazy Christmas shopping brings, here’s some tips for making Christmas shopping easy this year.

Christmas is the perfect time to go totally insane, and it’s now less than a month away.

Want to make this Christmas the craziest ever? Here’s how to do it:

It’s been an unintentionally numeric week here (Top 10 Australian fashion blogs, 5 people you need to talk to about money, 4 rules for enjoying trends responsibly) so I’m going to finish on the same note — with someone else’s great numeric-themed post.

Over at the Buffalo State Fashion blog, Julie has posted 5 rules of shopping. Her rules:

1. Look beyond what you always buy.
2. Always try it on.
3. It’s gotta be comfortable and flattering.
4. Ask yourself: can you afford it? do you…

An update to the ‘Top 10 Australian fashion and shopping blogs’ list I posted a couple of days ago, because I accidentally left someone out! Oops!

Here’s the updated list:

1. Coolchiq (fashion)
   Style is everything, comfort is nothing.
   Technorati rank: 41,891 (186 links from 76 blogs)
2. The Bargain Queen (shopping)
   The “babe on a budget” blog. (Me! Yay!)
   Technorati rank: 59,192 (112 links from 54 blogs) (new URL); 49,673 (189 links from 64 blogs) (old URL)
3. Karina XOXO (fashion)
   Style, beauty, retail therapy & more… All brought to you by…

Do you feel as conflicted about following fashion trends as I do? On the one hand, new trends mean pretty new things, and I love pretty new things. On the other hand, changing trends make perfectly functional items completely undesirable, which is bad for both the wallet and the planet.

It is possible to enjoy the latest trends, save money and look after the environment, but it takes a little effort. After years of working to find…

Money is possibly the most taboo topic of conversation in our society, but you can’t avoid discussing it altogether. Even if you’d rather discuss sex or politics at the dinner table, there are some situations where the consequences can be worse if you don’t talk about money.

For example, Mr Bargain Queen was shocked when I spoke very frankly about my finances with a new doctor recently. Neither of us make a habit of talking about…

We’re in this week’s Festival of Frugality, over at Experiments in Finance. For some great money-saving tips, go and take a look.

My personal favourites this week are:

• A guide to book swapping services online. I never knew these existed but they’re a brilliant idea — I’ll have to give it a go!
• 5 ways to save money on haircuts. For the boys of course. The Bargain Queen never skimps on haircuts!
  
• Don’t make this shopping mistake at the…

I’ve been deliberately ignoring the impending Christmas season for as long as possible because I hate the way it takes over retail in September and doesn’t leave ’til January… but I had to pass this on for all the males out there who don’t want to think about gifts for the woman in their life until at least December 23rd. (You know who you are!)

If you’re looking for a wonderful, extravagant Christmas gift for your…

I’m booked every Wednesday night until whenever because I’ve just found something I’ve sought for months: a new $5 steak place!

I love pub grub, but since the food at The Lansdowne went, well, downhill (I know, bad pun) I’ve been searching for a new place to go for the occasional good cheap steak.

I just found a new $5 steak place, and I’m actually tempted to keep it to myself so it doesn’t get any more crowded…

Our local paper, the Inner-West Weekly, has a story about The Bargain Queen in this week’s issue called Sara just loves a bargain (definitely an accurate headline!).

If you’re in Sydney’s inner west you can see it in the print edition, or click the link above to read it online.