Christmas Budget

Last Year I spent a total of $881.64 on Christmas related expenses.  I blog about my Holiday financials and call it my Christmas Spending Autopsy.

That included everything--gifts, Christmas cards, shipping costs, stamps for the cards, Christmas dinner fixings, Christmas Eve dinner out for the family, my family Secret Santa person's gift, and even the extra electricity used for Holiday lighting(estimated of course).
The only things it didn't include is what Hubs spent...which would be my gift(s), his Secret Santa person's gift and a gift for an exchange at his work.

I am hoping to stay right around that neighborhood again this year.
I've got what's left of the extra 3rd paycheck in December after deducting those unexpected expenses I talked about HERE to spend on Christmas.  Since I've got plenty of savings if I go over I can just yank money from that pile.  But I WILL keep track of what I am spending as I really don't want to yank savings money out if I can help it.

Of course, I only have 10 people on my gift list which helps me not go bankrupt.  My blogging buddy SonyaAnn has a list of people she gifts that is a mile and 3/4 long.  She has to be more frugal than I at the Holidays and she does a bang up job!  HERE is her most recent list of what she's gotten, what it's worth, what she's spent out of pocket and what she's saved.

I'm a just a little behind this year getting to my shopping for gifts. Usually by now I have finished up.  This year I have 4 of the 10 people done...one of those just has to be mailed out.
Another one I have to bake and mail out.
Yet another one I know what I am getting them, I just have to go down the road and get it(a gift cert. for a service).

That leaves my 3 kids and Hubs.
While I'm mostly done with the kids(after I throw money in their stockings), I am left with Hubs.
And this year all my usual standbys he has made it clear he doesn't want.
No special beer.
No special bags of coffee.
Except the book store gift cards.....if he EVER turns one of those down I know to call 911 as he has expired. ;-)
So I am scratching my head still trying to figure out what to get Hubs.

I won't go into the specifics of my gift list except to say that I have used a combination of discount deals online, items bought throughout the year for cheap and redeeming credit card points for gift cards to lower the out of pocket cash I spent so far.

At the moment I am OOP $127.46 for $396.88 worth of gifts.  And $19 of that $127.46 spent is for shipping.
My total OOP will be going higher later this week when I dig out a box of items from my closet I've been squirreling away throughout the year of little gifties and stocking stuff for the family.

After Christmas I'll be doing my Spending Autopsy like last year to see what went right, what went wrong and what needs to be fixed for Christmas 2012.

Did I just say Christmas 2012??
ACK

I'm gonna pretend that didn't happen.....lol


Sluggy

2011 Review Extravaganza....April through June

I'm taking part in this 2011 Review Extravaganza from over at Mimi's Place, Living in France.
Here is the link to The Rules.
If you want to take part go read the rules and then link up each Friday in December.
And to read the folks participating, go click on the Extravaganza Button on my side bar.


Onward to my 2nd installment of the  Review of 2011...the April to June months.

APRIL

I talked about saving money on groceries by thinking outside the grocery store HERE.

With 1 teen in college and a second one on the way in this past Fall, I talked about the "joys" of doing the COLLEGE FUNDING DANCE.

I ranted about my spendthrift Hubs HERE.



MAY

May was a super busy month.  Lots of school stuff....activities, concerts and a soon-to-be graduating high school Senior. 

I shared an Epic School Photo FAIL.

I really ramped up the de-cluttering and shared lot of pics of Decluttering P*rn this month.

I shared another of my FRUGAL HACKS.

My May Totals at Rite-Aid were pretty good.  No money out of pocket and lots of FREE STUFF. 


In the midst of all the craziness of May, Daughter and I were in a CAR WRECK.   Knocked around pretty good and 1 totaled car later and it was on to....



JUNE

We got another one through high school and GRADUATED.  Then we shipped all three off to summer camp to work and/or attend.

The Great 2011 PURGING and Decluttering continued into June.

Evil forces were at work in our Washing Machine.  Almost $100 later and we discovered The CULPRIT.

I found a rendition of that horrible show JERSEY SHORE that actually made it fun to watch.  They took the transcripts of "THAT SHOW" and performed it as an OSCAR WILDE Production.

Check back next Friday for Part 3 in the Series, where we dissect July to September.

Sluggy

Closing Out the Holiday Birthday Week With a Song

Daughter made it home yesterday from school. 8-)
She wasn't in the door 5 minutes and she asked to borrow the car, wanted dinner and informed me that "I" was buying her new clothes.


That reminds me....I need to mark on the calendar when she is leaving again.....lol

So let's close out this Birthday Celebration with one of my Daughter's favorite songs.
I see they have done an official Holiday Version of it.

That's a good thing.....because nobody needs to see Carrot Top in flag briefs and a cape.  Thankfully they left that shot out of the original version when they added the holiday content.
Like I told someone earlier this week*cough SonyaAnn*.....some things can't be UNSEEN. ;-)

Turn up your speakers and Enjoy!



Sluggy

Alex P Keaton Rides Again.....

After the last post, I went and found the episode of Family Ties on YouTube I referenced.
Ok, so he didn't buy cups of coffee for ALL the family but I remember it fairly well.lol
I would love if someone had my laundry cleaned and pressed for me!

It's just the last 1/3 of the episode.  Go to Youtube to see Parts 1 & 2.



And this is why I can't hardly remember what happened yesterday.  My mind is filled with tidbits and trivia from the past.  Maybe I need a Memory Dump or to defrag my brain and compress my old files? ;-)

Sluggy

Christmas Shopping a la Alex P. Keaton

If you even KNOW who Alex P. Keaton is, you are of a certain like me. ;-)

I am referring to Michael J. Fox's character from the old sitcom Family Ties.
They did an episode one Christmas that was a retelling of the classic Dickens "A Christmas Carol", with Alex as Scrooge.  Alex is all about the money and he doesn't believe in spending it on gifts, even at Christmas.
After he has his epiphany on Christmas morn, he goes and buys his family Christmas presents but the only place open on Christmas morning is a 7-11 convenience store.  He ends up buying cups of coffee for his loved ones.

In the spirit of Alex P. Keaton a la Scrooge, I also buy Christmas gifts at the non-traditional outlets.  The closest 7-11 is over an hour's drive so I just hop down the road to, where else?....Rite-Aid! ;-)

I bought 2 Axe Shower Gels(for someone's stocking).  They are on sale $4.49 this week and give a $1 +Up Reward.
I also bought 4 bags of Ricola cough drops(some of these are for someone else's stocking).  They are on sale 2/$3.00 this week and give a $1 WYB 2 Bags +Up Reward.

I had a FREE Item Q for the Axe from Facebook, as well as a $2/1 ManuQ from this past Sunday's Q inserts.
I also had 2 BOGO Free Qs for Ricola drops from a previous Sunday's Q inserts.  The specifics are buy a Dual Action Ricola and get ANY Ricola free.  The Dual Action were on sale along with the other varities of Ricola drops.

I also used $4 in +Up Rewards and ended up with .03¢ OOP on this transaction.
I received $4 in +Up Rewards back, so all this ended up costing me .03¢ on my free Rite-Aid gift card.

My subtotal after Qs should have been $5.49, so after using the $4 in +Up Reward, this should have cost me $1.49 instead of .03¢.
But the cashier put the Free Ricolas through for $2.23 instead of $1.50.  Looking at the receipt now this  is what the reg. price for the non-dual action ones is for me with my 20% wellness discount.  So I got $1.46 bonus off on the 2 bags that were free.

$23.54 worth of stuff for .03¢ off my gift card.
And 4 more stocking stuffers checked off the list.

Sluggy