I
finished my final gift on Saturday. Then
on Sunday I got the last of the gifts wrapped and put under the tree. Hooray.
Remember
my budget? I had $100 cash, a $25 gift
card to Bath & Body Works and a $25 gift card to JoAnn Fabrics. I used the entire gift card at Bath &
Body Works without any trouble. I still
have $4 left on the JoAnn Fabrics gift card after purchasing craft supplies
throughout the year.
And
the cash…
Not
surprising, but I pretty much used it all up as well. I have exactly 17¢ left.
The
bulk of that money I spent on gifts and stocking stuffers for my girls. I took advantage of sales and coupons to
stretch it out as far as I could purchasing only a couple gifts and making the
rest for them. For friends and other
family I put together handmade gifts and used a lot of creativity, in
particular, to put together one gift basket for a certain gentleman in our
life. I'm hopeful he'll like it. We put a lot of work into it and it was
definitely a family project.
I
made all of our Christmas cards using supplies I already had on hand. Our annual Christmas letter included pictures
of us and I printed it out on plain copy paper to fold and tuck inside. I mailed them out on Monday.
We
have plenty of baking supplies in our pantry to make cookies, fudge and any
other treats we like this season by shopping throughout the year and
incorporating those items into our regular grocery budget. I've already made a batch of peanut butter
blossoms which I needed chocolate stars for.
I bought them from the bulk bin at Fred Meyer with the last of our
Christmas cash.
Do
I feel like I had to make too many sacrifices?
Nope
not one little bit. Truth is I had a
ball making all of those gifts and creatively shopping to get all the things on
my list that I couldn't make. It was
challenging and really made me think outside the box. But you know me. I'm always up for a good challenge.
So
will I do the same thing next year?
Probably
so. I am planning to increase the
budget, however, as I don't think we'll have to refurnish an entire house like
we did these last few months. At least I
certainly hope not. But I don't think it
will be a huge increase.
Did
you set a budget for your Christmas expenses this year? If so, how are you doing? How are some ways you are saving money this
season?
U did awesome! We had a budget but I lost track. I think we maybe are only slightly over it and we are done shopping. But everything is paid for, no credit card bills to worry about after the holidays. My biggest down fall is over shopping for my girls.
ReplyDeleteMine too. It is so hard to stop and not go get them one more thing. Good job on paying cash and no credit cards!
DeleteGreat job staying within your budget! You had a fabulous year- you have done so many creative and inspiring things to fashionize (is that a word?) your home besides the everyday things. I am so impressed with all that you get done each month and always stay within budget. There are some months when I tend to go a little bit off the track but I just make up for it the following month so it evens out.
ReplyDeleteThis year for Christmas we did set a budget and we stuck to it. You have no idea how many times I was tempted to get something else here or there for the kiddos, but I didn't. We did the best we could with what we had and we are ok with that and we are sure the kids will be ok with that too. I actually did take a few bucks today and I went to the dollar store and bought some baskets. I will bake cookies, banana bread and some other goodies and fill up the baskets to give to neighbors and friends. Then I am officially done! :)
Thank you for saying that. I'm really pleased with how much I've accomplished so far. It has been a challenge but I find challenges fun so I don't mind a bit. I sometimes find it hard to believe I've managed to furnish our entire house for a song and it is really nice stuff too. Especially my new bed. Oh how I love that bed. Zzzzzzzz....
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