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Frugal Fridays - Christmas on a Shoestring
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Mama B I can't believe I forgot it was Friday yesterday! One little thing out of the ordinary, and I set myself back three days!!! The weather here today is wet and cold. These rainy days are my favorites. I am snug and cozy in my home and for some reason, they put me in a festive thinking mood. My mind turned to Christmas and as I reflected back over the many Christmases that have come and gone, I wonder how we ever survived the holidays with our sanity intact, let alone our budget. I'd like to share with you two of the things we did/ do to keep that sanity and budget from getting away from us. One of the things that I have done in the past to help out was to do baking for other people. I know that sounds expensive, but it's not if you have them supply all the ingredients and, in exchange for your baking skills, instead of money trading hands, you keep one third of the final product. I did this a time or two. It helped immensely with our budget. Our house smelled amazing, I got to bake and try new recipes, and we had Christmas treats that actually didn't come out of our pocket. When our kids were little, gift giving could/can be a nightmare! We have eight children and we spent many a Christmas Eve day running all over town to find the best deals. One of our kids best memories of gifts received, (other than the horse we got them one year - and that's another story for another time!) were the aprons I sewed for each of them. They wore those aprons out! Along with the aprons came time to be spent in the kitchen baking with mom. How do we handle gift giving now that they are all grown up, have families of their own, and half of them are spread across two countries? As tough and sad as it sounds, we don't exchange gifts with those who are not close by. With the cost of the gift and the high cost of mailing it, we all decided that it was in the best interest of everyone if we don't exchange gifts. For those who live within driving distance (four of our kids and their families live in the same town as we do) we do a Secret Santa. At Thanksgiving, I put everyone's name in a hat and we draw names. We set a budget of $40. It works well for us. We have four grandchildren who live in town and My Man and I give them gifts, but they don't get gifts from all. We leave that entirely up to the adults. By the time we gather for our family dinner, the kidlets are overwhelmed by their day and as long as Poppa and Grandma come with gifts and they are included in the festivity of gift opening they are more than happy. I have other ideas to share about Christmas on a budget (or a non-existent budget), so stay tuned to Frugal Friday for more ideas. |
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