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Dec 6, 2008    |       23 comments

Revising Our Christmas Budget

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We set a budget of $150 for our Christmas shopping this year. Um…yeah. Good intentions, but not going to happen. What happened?

First of all, the gift I am making for my siblings ended up costing a little more than I thought. It’s still not a lot on a per gift basis, but I have a few siblings so it adds up. That added about $20 to the cost.

Next up was the gift for my son’s teacher. We usually get an ornament but I decided to not do that. I started looking at “adopting” a zoo animal in the class’ name. My son thought that was a cool idea so I think we will do that. The minimum to do that is $25. So that’s $20 more than we were planning on spending. BUT, we haven’t chosen a charity yet to give money to at the end of the year, so that gift could count towards that and not technically be a Christmas gift. Hmm…

I always seem to forget too that Santa has to get mom and dad something. Argh. To make matters worse, I was working on a snow fort with my son and my legs were freezing and I said I should ask Santa for snow pants. Kids do not forget. He keeps reminding me to ask Santa for snow pants. So that adds another $50 or so to the total if mom and dad get snow pants. I’ve looked for used so far with no luck. This “could” be considered clothing, though, since my husband and I could really use them since we deal with a lot of snow.

That brings us up to $95 already. What was I thinking? Oh well. I can say one thing, if we didn’t set a budget at all we probably would have spent way more than that already. At least trying to get our spending under that has really made us focus on the gifts and not just buy random things. Our son is only getting a few gifts, but they were well thought out. One thing we know he wants, one thing we know he’ll love, and one thing he will probably like after a while but it will be one of those “toss and keep opening presents” types of gifts at first.

I also didn’t consider stocking stuffers when doing the original budget. I have a habit of forgetting about those. They can add up quickly as I found out one year.

We’ll hopefully finish our shopping this week, so I’ll have to post how we did.

Dec 2, 2008    |       8 comments

Two Books I Absolutely Love

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Almost a year ago, I was browsing a used bookstore and came across two books on frugality. I was so excited to see them – I snatched them up. I have been meaning to write a review, but sometimes reviews are difficult to write. It’s not because the books are bad, it’s because they are so good! If I could, I would type the whole books to share on here. Of course, I can’t do that.

The two books are The Tightwad Gazette I & II by Amy Dacyczyn. I was a little confused by something at first, so I am going to start with an explanation.

There are three Tightwad Gazettes – I, II and III. There is also a Complete Tightwad Gazette which is basically the three volumes all in one book. I only have I & II right now, but I have my eye out for III so I can get that one too. Or I’ll get the Complete version if I find a good used deal on it (actually, it is running less than $16 at Amazon.com right now).

Amy Dacyczyn’s Gazette books are actually a compilation of her Tightwad Gazette newsletters that she used to write. She has taken articles she has written and intertwined them with frugal suggestions from her newsletter readers. The result is what I will refer to as a frugal treasure. Some ideas are so extreme. I love them because they appeal to my inner MacGyver.

Here’s just a few extreme tidbits:

6 pack rings from cans: Collect a bunch of them, sew them up with fishing line and make a hammock.

The plastic piece that comes with bacon: Clean it well and then use it to make stencils.

Of course, the book has more than just the extreme ideas. There are also practical ones about how you can reuse a pair of jeans or how you can make small inexpensive changes to your house to make a big cosmetic difference. To get an idea of the books and to read a few tips, you can take a peek inside the Complete Tightwad Gazette at Amazon.com (go to Look Inside and Surprise Me to read a few pages). You can always visit your local library too for the book, although you may want a copy handy to read and re-read. There are so many tips in these books. I read through them once, incorporated some ideas as I progressed with my reading. Then I read through them again and incorporated some more ideas.

They are great reference books, and with things a little shaky with the economy, we are trying to cut costs even more. That means the books are out again for a third read-through to see what else we can implement. I’m sure it will not be the last read-through, either.

In conclusion, I would like to share a paragraph from Tightwad Gazette II that I think sums up the books well:

If you do not have difficulty making ends meet, you’ll find that some of the material in the book does not apply to you. But you will find fresh ideas for saving money. Even if you do have trouble making ends meet, some of my ideas may seem too radical to you. It was never my intention to write about ideas that were 100 percent acceptable to mainstream America. This book explores its boundaries, and my intent is to present options, not to suggest that every idea is appropriate for everyone.

It also sums up why I love her books so much. There is so much information that I think anyone could find tips they could incorporate into their life to save money. She did an awesome job compiling everything and she is a great writer. I wish I was her neighbor.

If I can manage to get my hands on some 6 pack rings, we are so going to make a hammock this summer 😛

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