One of the Money Secrets of the Amish is to "Use it up, Wear it out, Make do, or Do without." If that's not a frugal principle then I don't know what is. Lorilee Cracker the author of the book points out that one of the aspects to this principle is "shopping your own home." I decided to do this while brainstorming Christmas crafts. I went upstairs (sort of a giant storage area for us right now) and brought down a ton of boxes full of things to get started with. I knew that I had a lot of fabric and different colored threads to work with but all the other treasures I found are still astonishing me.
My Christmas gifting ambitions are going through the roof now. I may need those of you who are praying folks to say a few for me. Out of the six nieces and nephews on my side I've decided what I want to make for four of them. I think I've come up with some pretty neat ideas BUT I'm not very good at following through with my lofty plans. As it stands right now I should only need to purchase one very small item for one of the four gifts. I have everything on hand otherwise. And ideally I will be able to get the one missing item from Jo-Ann with the remaining balance I have on a gift card from my birthday. Woohoo!
I think I also might need to purchase a Christmas presents and Christmas cards scheduling planner to keep on the ball... I'm totally joking about that BUT some serious organization, planning, and time management skills need to kick in here. EIGHTY NINE days till Christmas!
Spending rundown today: Milk, eggs, coffee filters, apples, and bagels: $10.10
My budget for the month is $450.79 which leaves $26.90
Average daily spending for 2015: $17.75
You are owning this challenge. Great creativity-great mind!
ReplyDeleteThank-you SAM :)
DeleteOk....I know you probably want to keep it a secret, but I am DYING to know what you decided to make for everyone!!!! Guess I'll have to wait until Christmas too :)
ReplyDeleteUpdates to come. My sister in law reads the blog but none of the kids will know what I'm up to. So I will update. My biggest problem is actually finishing things... I'm kind of a perfectionist and I scrap a lot of my projects. SO, I'm trying my hardest to get to a certain point before saying too much.
Delete89 days? So no time to waste. Get on with it. Plan what you can do with Abner, what you can do when Abner is around, and what needs peace and quiet. My cards are made - that is not me showing off but I had a couple of days when I was feeling sorry-for-me and that was a way of thinking about others. Evenings I am knitting and also doing some fairly intricate cutting out which can be done when I am seated with my feet up. Planning materials is one thing, you need also to plan your time.
ReplyDeleteI feel excited that someone else is really getting down to Christmas preparations - can you tell!!!!!!! Keep us updated.
No time to waste at all. I have started on the gifts only a little bit. I have NOT started Christmas cards. I'm not sure how I want to do my cards this year. I think it's AWESOME that you have yours done! Great job!!! I did actually work on one of the gifts for a long time yesterday. I just thought to make it and I'm pretty excited about it. Now to focus!
DeleteI found Christmas planning worksheets, card mailing worksheets, etc all online and printed them out. I am going to find a binder or folder or something to let my boys decorate in christmas art and put together a book my self for organization.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds awesome! Sounds like you are right not track too!
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