Holiday Shopping - My Thoughts

Ramblings of a Mad Woman
I've been asked about my holiday budget ideas. Here's my thoughts on budgeting and my thoughts follow what I later heard from Dave Ramsey:

Christmas is not an emergency. You have ample warning 365 days ahead of time for you to get ready for the holiday. It doesn't sneak up on you. Start saving on January first for the next Christmas. It's never too early to start saving! Even if it's a little bit here and there-- it adds up and saves your sanity once the reality of Christmas is right around the corner!

I think I'm a rarity, just because I have only one child. Nothing against those who have a larger family, but I knew our limit ... one. He doesn't get whatever he wants during the year. He's not showered with gifts and huge wardrobes and electronics just because he asks. In fact, the poor kid celebrates his birthday right before Christmas, so any showering of gifts happens in December. I'm a frugal shopper during the year. I watch my budget during the year. I keep up with my bills and making sure their aren't any errors made. Because I watch all of that so closely, I feel I am able to save for a decent Christmas. This leads me to my next thought:

I am in debt. It's something I did. I made the mistakes. I used a credit card repeatedly for things that I can't even tell you. My son didn't sign his name to any of those purchases. In fact, I don't even think he guilted me into any of the purchases. I can't blame anyone else for my debt except myself. It's not his fault, so why would I take the holiday away from him?

Of course, I can say this because I have added Christmas/Gifts to my monthly budget. The idea of a budget is to give every dollar a name and a purpose. When you make a budget you find where your priorities are and plan for them. To some people, the priority is a vacation. To others, blow money for expensive hobbies. I had listed Gift Giving a priority on my budget and I have saved for it all year. It's important to me. So I'm ready for the upcoming holiday.

My other methods of getting through holiday shopping?

1. Don't pay full price for anything! (except a gift card -- but sometimes there are even perks to buying a gift card)
2. Make a per person budget and stick to it!
3. Find things on sale during the course of the year.
4. Know your prices! After Thanksgiving doesn't always mean the best deals are available then. I've found that some of those "sales" they offer are actually higher than the same item in say, June!
5. There's no shame in coupons, deals and clearance racks!
6. All else fails -- get artistic! Make something. Last year was our first Christmas on the Dave Ramsey plan. My dh and I budgeted $40 a piece for shopping for each other. Of course, I am more frugal savvy than my hubby is - but his favorite gift was little coupons for things that he would like during the year: his choice of a homemade meal, a back rub, breakfast in bed etc. They didn't cost me anything, and he was able to enjoy them all year -- in fact he wants more THIS Christmas because he ran out!
7. It IS the thought that counts - not how much money you spend.

Above all, Christmas is about love and family. We've had our share of lean Christmases and we've had our share of grossly exaggerated Christmases and to tell you the truth I can't tell you that I favored the one that I spent a lot of money on over ones that we were pretty well broke. Over all, when I look through the pictures of Christmas - I'm seeing smiles. I'm seeing happiness. I'm seeing family and I'm seeing love. ... and a Christmas tree that's always somehow a little lopsided. My son can't recall the difference between the two either. He's looked forward to Christmas no matter how many or how much the presents were that were under the tree. Your kids won't either ... in the grand scheme of things wheh they grow up they will remember the traditions and the love.

Gearing up for the Holidays (already) and Updates

October Updates:
I'm sorry I didn't post my October budget snapshot for everyone. It's much of the same from last month actually. We're still plugging away at the bills - just not as intensely as we were. I guess our gazelles needed a break.

Money Savings:
The stockpile is growing leaps and bounds by the deals I have been getting at Walgreens and Meijer lately. The industrial size shelving unit I bought to put in the basement is nearly full! My freezer is getting full, and my pantry is overloaded! I feel like a squirrel gathering nuts for the winter.

Possible Surgery:
Overtime does take it's toll.... eventually. The dh went to the doctor last week and they are discussing surgery on both of his knees. Thank goodness for disability insurance and an emergency fund! Even if he's out for a bit (which Mr.Stubborn probably won't be) we'll be covered.

Christmas Shopping:
The task has started. My teenage DS's wish list includes an IPOD and not the Shuffle or the Nano. This kid is no slouch! We're talking the iTouch! Thank Goodness for ChaCha! I've got that one covered. As the years go by, I have less gifts to buy -- they just cost more!

November:
I remember last year, November killed my budget. Of course, I forgot to write down what about it killed the budget so I can't remember what needed the extra funding. I have dog-eared the thought so I can set some extra blow money aside for whatever it is that November holds ... especially if November is when dh is out for surgery!

BTW: I finally updated my debt totals to the right and the pie chart is now correct.

Where's Wendy?

It's been awhile since I've posted. Where the heck have I been?

Work is finally settling into it's fall pattern which is nice. I've been working on ChaCha almost nightly now and really having a good time doing that. I'm a late night beast anyway - and there's good money to be made at night.

Budget is still working fine. We've done a little cheating this month - using envelope money for things it wasn't quite intended, however it's still CASH and the we haven't gone over in the budget so all is good!

I have to say the economy is really scaring me lately. Not that I didn't have fair warning about it. Trying to be a forever optimist is the name of the game in my eyes. Yes, the dh is still putting in mad amount of overtime, but with the new car payment and the oral surgery bill - mad amounts of debt aren't dropping as a result of the overtime. Nobody's fault but my own - I'm the one who bought the car. I know.

Time to tighten the bootstraps even more and hope we come out of this okay. I don't recommend anyone who would like to stay optimistic to listen to Glenn Beck. What a depressing human to listen to!

September Updates:

September Budget
Sha-pow! Look at the debt total grow! Adding on the new car payment and DS's wisdom teeth bill to this total, plus new tires for the DH's car.

We had to dump some more money into the vet bill fund for the winter. We're still struggling with health issues of our older cat - and we are coming up to allergy season for our younger cat. If you haven't been reading for long, we had to bring our younger cat to the Vet ER for what turned out to be an asthma attack! It was scary stuff!!


Grocery Store Victory
My stockpile is growing by leaps, bounds and mountains! I've been very fortunate to be able to save the kind of money I've been saving. Coupons, sales, rebates have been a true blessing getting groceries and stockpiles for next to nothing.

If you haven't checked out HOT COUPON WORLD, I strongly suggest that you do. The scenarios they come up with are beyond amazing!!!

Appreciation Speaks Volumes
What motivates you? Are you a self motivator? What does it mean when someone tells you that they really appreciate what you do?

I'm a self starter at work. I know what I need to do and that's what I do. Every week, I make a list of what I want to/have to accomplish and I cross things off as I go. Sometimes I think the boss has no idea what I do because I just get things done.

This weekend, the managers were brought into the office one and a time the boss talked to us. Don't get me wrong, my boss OFTEN says "Thank you." and "Great Job." but you never know if he from the heart means it or not. This talk you knew without a shadow of a doubt that he meant it. I felt like a kid showing his prized art piece to his mother and the elatedness when she said it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen! It was an amazing feeling to know that even the little extra things I do - he notices and APPRECIATES.

Christmas Shopping
This is the best time to start grocery shopping. I don't care what kind of sales they have after Thanksgiving - if you compared them to the everyday prices now - you won't find much of a difference. What you will find are less people, less traffic and less aggravation. So the answer is "YES". I have started my Christmas shopping. 2 gifts down and several more to go! I'm keeping my eyes peeled for deals and my earned gift cards from places like MyPoints.com, ChaCha and our phone rebate to help pay for it all! Let the fun begin!

Updates of sorts ... aka ramblings.

We're plugging away. The husband's overtime while a hinderance to our play time, has been very important in our quest to pay down things and keep afloat.

Winter is only a few months away
I just read the latest from the Farmers Almanac and have hit up the Craigslist looking for a snowblower on the cheap. They are predicting over average snowfall for the Great Lakes/Midwest and if it's going to be MORE than last year - we are going to need the help of a machine!

On the Workfront
My busy season at work should be ending by mid-September. We have one more training class starting in a couple weeks so that gives me a little boost in the overtime department. I don't know what it is but my paychecks have been lower than they have been in years. Worse yet, that's even with me not allocating any part of my paycheck to my 401k. CRAZY!

Budgets
The good news is that budget is working for us! We have stayed on course with that for 13 months. We did wind up putting DS's wisdom tooth surgery on the Care Credit and that's the first and only "card" usage we've had in that time too. Not that I'm proud of it - but that price tag hit me for more than I had in the "Medical Fund" envelope.

Working for ChaCha is Working for Me!
They've made some changes over the past month but things are working smoothly! The money I've been making by doing ChaCha will go to help pay for gift shopping this Christmas and through out the year. If you are remotely curious about what ChaCha is you can revisit a previous post about ChaCha ---> HERE <--- If you are interested in joining ChaCha I would LOVE if you would use my email address as a referral. So far I have three gals on my team and there is room for many more!!