The past few days I’ve been perusing my LiveJournal archives. I came across many of my entries on frugal living. Particularly the accounts of spending less than $100 for Christmas the past two years. If we are able to bring out Howard’s book on schedule, then this year’s christmas budget will have a little bit more wiggle room than that. However if anything happens to delay the next book, then this Chrismas will be tighter than ever before. I’m starting to feel a little antsy that I don’t have more stuff squirrelled away against this second possibility.
Last year I went to garage sales pretty much every weekend all summer long to slowly accumulate a stash of stuff for Christmas. This year I simply haven’t made the time to go. I’ve been so busy with the book release and relatives in town, it just didn’t seem that important. Now it is time for me to get to it. Of course I need to be careful as I select what to purchase. I don’t want to fill my house with junk, so I need some guiding principles as I’m purchasing. A friend gave me a very useful guide for christmas shopping. I will acquire for each child:
Something they want
Something they need
Something to wear
Something to read.
With this in mind I planned a trip to the thrift store. I decided to combine my thrift store trip with an outing for the kids. That wasn’t too smart. It’s hard to squirrel things away for christmas with the recipients standing right there. Also it’s hard to carefully sift through the thrift store when I’m always trying to count heads. Long ago when I was expecting my first child someone sent me a funny “how to prepare for parenthood” email. It said that to prepare for taking kids to the store you should take a live goat shopping. Pay for anything the goat eats or damages. If you intend to have more than one child, take more than one goat. Funny how such things just rise to the surface of my brain as I’m galloping to collect 4 children from the far corners of a store.
So today was not so good for acquiring Christmas stuff. Oh well. I’ll try again next week and arrange to not bring so many kids.
I say thee again…
Amazon, dear lady…
Show us a wish list, and let us fire away…
I say thee again…
Amazon, dear lady…
Show us a wish list, and let us fire away…
Re: I say thee again…
That’s like swatting flies with a plasma cannon. It feels like cheating.
Re: I say thee again…
That’s like swatting flies with a plasma cannon. It feels like cheating.
Re: I say thee again…
Rule #31 from the beloved The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates: Only cheaters prosper.
While I don’t hold to that rule 100% of the time, in cases like this, it is good to listen to your husband (I’ll not often suggest that, btw…).
Re: I say thee again…
Rule #31 from the beloved The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates: Only cheaters prosper.
While I don’t hold to that rule 100% of the time, in cases like this, it is good to listen to your husband (I’ll not often suggest that, btw…).
Re: I say thee again…
And don’t forget Rules #34 and 37:
“If you’re leaving scorch marks, you need a bigger gun.”
and
“There is no ‘overkill.’ There is only ‘open fire’ and ‘I need to reload.'”
From the mouths of two or three witnesses and all… 😀
Re: I say thee again…
And don’t forget Rules #34 and 37:
“If you’re leaving scorch marks, you need a bigger gun.”
and
“There is no ‘overkill.’ There is only ‘open fire’ and ‘I need to reload.'”
From the mouths of two or three witnesses and all… 😀
We tend to add Something to play on the computer to that list, Can get old games from Marshalls/TJ Maxx/Ross/Library Sales 3 for $5.. And something that they have to cooperate on to do (like board games.)
We tend to add Something to play on the computer to that list, Can get old games from Marshalls/TJ Maxx/Ross/Library Sales 3 for $5.. And something that they have to cooperate on to do (like board games.)
Something they want,Something they need,
Something to wear, Something to read.
We’ve gone really crazy present-wise for the last two or three years (or more…)and I’ve been trying to figure out how to tone it down and try to help us all remember the “reason for the season”.
A lady I met said that in her family each child gets 3 gifts, one from each of the 3 wisemen. I thought that was a nice tradition and it can mesh with the saying above as well.
Thanks Sandra that’s really good!
[activates Christmas planning section of brain]
Something they want,Something they need,
Something to wear, Something to read.
We’ve gone really crazy present-wise for the last two or three years (or more…)and I’ve been trying to figure out how to tone it down and try to help us all remember the “reason for the season”.
A lady I met said that in her family each child gets 3 gifts, one from each of the 3 wisemen. I thought that was a nice tradition and it can mesh with the saying above as well.
Thanks Sandra that’s really good!
[activates Christmas planning section of brain]