Happy Thanksgiving

 

Our family wishes your family a very blessed day!

Christmas Cards Are Almost Ready To Go

 

Early this year I went through and gathered up all my Christmas cards and bundled up what was left over from previous years.  I had twenty.  I put a rubber band around them and tucked them into my stationery box that I was putting together in anticipation of our great move. 

Last month I went through my address book and updated all my addresses.  Then I went into my label template I had saved from last year and updated all of those addresses and I even added a few new people to the list.  At this time I also updated my return address labels and then I put actual labels in my printer and printed them. 

On a quiet afternoon in October I sat at my kitchen table and filled out my Christmas cards and put labels on all the envelopes so they were ready to go.  Once I was done I stacked up all my cards and put a fat rubber band around them.  I also put the pen I was using in under the band so I can use it later to add a more personal message to a card if I decide to do so.  That way the ink will match. 

Afterward I began to draft our 2013 annual Christmas letter.  For me this is a huge part of preparing to send out Christmas cards and it felt really good to have this done.  Next I will print out pictures that I want to send to certain people.  Then I will finish the letter and get it printed out as well. 

Christmas stamps are now available at the post office so I plan to pick up a book of those next time I'm there.  I always like to use Christmas stamps to mail out my cards.  I also like to put a holiday sticker of some sort on the back of the envelope.  I think it makes it more festive and special. 

I can't afford to give gifts to everyone I would like to give to.  But I do budget for Christmas cards and postage.  I think it is important to let people know they are important and mean something to us.  I also know how much I love to receive a card in the mail. 

A letter, whether it is an annual form letter or a personally penned one is nice to receive as well.  I think it is fun to hear about everyone's accomplishments and perceptions of how their year went.  Adding a snapshot or school picture is also a good idea.  I've even incorporated a photo collage printed on a separate sheet of paper into our Christmas letter. 

In a digital age filled with emails and texting I think it is really nice to get a letter or a card in the mail from time to time.  At the holidays I think it is especially nice.  No matter how broke we've been I've always managed to mail out Christmas cards and there have been a lot of homemade ones that have been sent.  My grandmother told me years ago she always liked those ones the best. 

Do you send out Christmas cards?

New Day Planner Pages for 2014

I love my day planner.  It is, quite literally, my brain in print, or more accurately, my memory.  If I had to carry around all the things in my brain that need to be remembered I think my head would explode.  For me visual aids are extremely useful.

Like everything else, I keep my day planner rather plain and simple.  Every year, just before Thanksgiving I create and print out a new calendar for 2014.  The plain and simple "understated" one that has the nice big blocks for each day on it.  I used it to plan my life and remember important dates and appointments.  The size of the blocks on this calendar are the perfect sized to write this thing down in.  I decided long ago that if the blocks ever got too small it just meant I was doing too much. J 

I love to dress it up to suit my mood or the season of each page I am working on.  So I dig out my colored pens and pencils.  Although I am no artist, I leave that to my talented daughters, I find it fun and relaxing to sit down and prepare my planner for the coming year.  It also gets me excited to embrace the New Year and all the possibilities I have ahead. 

The first thing I do is sit down and put in all the holidays.  I use the laptop to go online and verify dates if I need to.  Then I fill in everyone's birthday.  I decorate with little pictures, stickers or whatever and then when I have finished I insert the new pages into my planner. 

I keep a mechanical pencil and clic-eraser handy to use throughout the year to put in notes and reminders.  I prefer pencil for the obvious reason that it's erasable.  Life happens and things are often changed so rather than have a bunch of scribbles and Wite-out all over I just erase it and try again. 

I know that there are a lot of calendar templates available online at various sites.  If anyone needs a copy of my simple calendar just email me and I will be happy to send a PDF copy of it to you. 

You may also enjoy revisiting this older post Day Planners.

Last Week’s Thrifty Moves

 

We had two birthdays to celebrate last week.  My darling girls turned 13 and 10.  I bought each one of them a Nintendo DS XL.  They have been sharing my son's old Nintendo Dsi Lite for several years and they've been really good about it too.  I felt like they have been such troopers in our tiny home venture and I wanted to get them something really special this year.  Needless to say they were both shocked and thrilled. 

The girls gave me their old Nintendo so I can play Virus Busters and Brain Age.  Once again the old game is being recycled. 

Because I had spent so much on the Nintendos I used a Walmart gift card to buy the extra items I needed for their birthday dinners and desserts.  I also bought a half a boneless ham with it. 

I used colored copy paper to wrap their gifts and ribbon I already had on hand. 

I had a really good week with my eBay sales.  I listed some more items to sell. 

I replaced my worn out blue jeans with a new pair on sale and purchased four new tops from a clearance rack.  The tops were each $7 or less.  I also bought a new pair of shoes on sale and a three pack of dress socks on clearance.  I will keep my worn out jeans to wear for grub work. 

 

I picked up another space heater at Walmart for $18.  Now that the weather is getting chillier we need extra heat in my bedroom and it is nice to use it in the bathroom when taking a bath or shower.  The oil filled radiator style heater is doing a great job and keeping the main portion of our living space warm and the bathroom well above freezing.  I just like a little extra heat in there when I step out of the shower because I'm a wimp. 

I clipped a lot of coupons from the Sunday paper and online this week. 

I watched a movie on Hulu.  We also watched TV on Hulu.  All for free. 

We stuck to our menu plan but I only had to make a few of the meals because of leftovers. 

We gave our kitchen scraps to the neighbors chickens.  We haven't had any to give them for awhile. 

I dropped off our shoebox filled with gifts at the credit union for Operation Christmas Child. 

I created and printed out new day planner pages for 2014 from my computer using Publisher. 

What thrifty accomplishment did you make last week?

My Grandma’s No-Crust Pumpkin Pie - Reposted

In the spirit of Thanksgiving I thought I'd repost this pie recipe.  I posted it  back in 2011.  Still a favorite and one I plan to make next week. 

I love this pie.  I especially love that it is lower in calories, although I don’t know how much lower, than traditional pumpkin pie.  If you are watching your waistline or looking for something a little less heavy for dessert after the big meal give this one a try. 

No-Crust Pumpkin Pie 

¾ c sugar

½ c biscuit or pancake mix

1½ tsp. pumpkin pie spice

2 c pumpkin puree

1 13oz. can evaporated milk

2 Tbs. butter, melted

2 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs 

Combine all ingredients and blend well at low speed with your mixer.  Beat on high one minute.  Pour into a lightly greased 9” pie plate.  Bake at 350° for 50 to 55 minutes until center is set. 

I love pumpkin so much that I make this pie year round.  And don’t forget the cool whip.

Watching TV

 

If I had to admit to a guilty pleasure it would have to be watching television.  I thoroughly enjoy taking a break from reality and losing myself in a good TV program, just like I do when I read a book.  Lately, I've noticed my list of guilty pleasures seems to be growing an along with that a little guilt about it.  I guess that's what they mean by the saying "guilty pleasure." 

For years we went with basic free television.  In fact, practically my entire life time.  Ten years ago I started subscribing to basic satellite service and for this diehard Thrifty Mom it was one of the toughest decisions I'd ever made.  The reality is that if you add up all the expense for one year, even for basic service, it's a lot of money! 

Now that we have scaled back and we are living tiny so has our television viewing.  For one thing, we no longer own a TV.  That has made for some good change in our home.  We visit more, play our games more often, read a lot more books and I spend far more time writing.  We also save a lot of $$! 

We still have our favorite shows and we all admit to being more than a little concerned about going cold turkey and giving them all up.  Fortunately the internet has managed to provide us with enough free options to keep us well supplied with tons of television viewing.  Free too!

Last year, before we moved, I signed up with Amazon Prime for the free two-day shipping and the free streaming videos.  It was $79 for the entire year!  Less than two month's worth of satellite bills.  So easily, justifiable, except that at the time I still had the satellite subscription too.  Because I do order a lot of things from Amazon and use it quite a bit for my business and now my writing so I do plan to renew it when it comes due next year. 

 

So what are we watching?  Well, a little bit of everything.  New shows that air on ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC air a day later on Hulu.com for free.  Plus Hulu has a ton of older series, some movies, and a lot of children's programs to select from as well.  Amazon streaming has a boatload of TV programs and movies to choose from as well.  And then Youtube has music videos, TV shows and even movies plus quite a bit of BBC.  For those Downton Abbey fans PBS.org airs that show plus many others online as well.  So we have plenty to choose from. 

So what do we watch our shows on?  Most often we watch on my laptop but for a good movie or if we feel the need to seriously relax we all grab our pillows and fuzzy blankets and get comfy on my bed and watch the big screen on my old desk top.  We watch all our DVDs on there as well. 

So there you go.  Free TV and like most people we still watch too much of it.  But we're happy!

Next Week's Meal Plan

 

This is probably going to be my last post for a weekly menu.  I am happy to report I am going back to monthly meal planning beginning on the first of December.  Whoo hooo!  I much prefer it to weekly planning.  It just seems to work better for me. 

Sunday – Steak, Baked Potato, Spinach Salad

Monday – Asparagus Soup, Biscuits, Garden Salad

Tuesday – Ham Sandwich, Pasta Salad

Wednesday – Zucchini Bites, Fruit

Thursday – Thanksgiving Day

Friday – Turkey leftovers!

Saturday – Leftover Buffet, Pizza or Dine Out 

School Lunches: 

Monday: - No school

Tuesday - No school

Wednesday - No school

Thursday - No school

Friday - No school 

I based this plan off of items I already had on hand and items on sale at the local grocery store.  No school this week so I get a welcomed reprieve. 

What delicious items made it on your menu this week?