Someday A Goat

2009 Christmas budget: making it jolly

Working on my wreath last year. I spent about $11.08 on all these materials and made a simple wreath.

Decorations, cards, postage, gifts for each other: $80

This includes anything for the house, holiday cards and postage, and what's left over gets divvyed up between the two of us for presents. I've already spent $56.61, so I'll probably hold off on any other decorations until the sales after the holidays. That leaves us only $23.29 for presents for each other. Looks like we'll end up over budget, but not by much.

Holiday cards

I was planning on using any holiday card I have around, but I found a good compromise using a VistaPrint deal for free postcards. I paid shipping and adding color to the back side of the card. The service was pretty easy to use, although the quality isn't the greatest. They were super cheap, though, and I'd hate to kill more trees by sending them back to be reprinted. I'll send longer letters to a couple of family members. I probably wouldn't have done cards last year, but I got a holiday bonus, so I had a little extra money. It was mid-December, so we sent cards with a happy new year message, which we're doing again this year, which has the added benefit of giving me more time to address the cards.

• $26.60 stamps (book of 20 regular rate, 3 books of 20 postcard rate, $1 shipping)
• $14.10 holiday postcards (100)

Decorations

I've bought a few ornaments, but I really don't need much. Last year I spent $11.08 to make a nice wreath for the front door. We'll reuse that, and probably get real garland for the top of the entertainment center again. The cats destroyed the inexpensive tree skirt I bought last year, so I'm not sure what to do about that, I'll probably make something. I also like to fill various vases and hurricane lamps with inexpensive ornaments and LED tea light. We keep it pretty simple.

• $5.12 ornaments and small present at Pottery Barn -- used a $50 gift card, and all items were free shipping. I linked through Upromise, so I'll earn a bit of extra money. We like to have a wide variety of ornaments that don't all match, so I get a few nice ones each year.

Random

I recently used a couple of credits to order prints from Kodak Gallery to send to friends and various holiday projects. I got about $45 worth of pictures for just over @$10.

• $4.86 Kodak Gallery shipping to use $20 bonus credit for photos for family members
• $6.03 Kodak Gallery shipping, used $15 credit to order prints and a photo ornament. I used Ebates, but stupid me, clicked though on the rebate, not the reduced shipping plus rebate. Could have spent even less!

We don't have a lot of holiday expenses for hostess gifts or children's parties. Usually, if we're invited to a party where I feel obligated to bring a hostess gift, we pick up an inexpensive bottle of wine and this comes out of the regular food/beverage budget. We do the same with any meals we make for guests around the holidays. When we hosted a big holiday dinner for our parents last year, my mom bought the prime rib, so everything else was very doable in terms of budget. A potluck holiday dinner could save even more.

TIPS

• Pare down the holiday card -- don't do photo cards, or if you do, look for good deals on prints. Unless you get fancy with the cards, postage will most likely be your biggest expense, so start early when looking at your mailing list so you are prepared. Order stamps from USPS -- pay only $1 over the face value of stamps to save a trip to the post office and make sure that you get the fun holiday stamps you want (many post offices will run out). Spending a dollar to save a last-minute trip to the post office during the holidays is a deal indeed.

• Start with a special and basic ornament collection, add a few each year. You can always say you're going for simple elegance.

• Don't buy a big tree, or get a real one. It's easier to decorate (and store) a smaller tree, and artificial trees have improved drastically in the past few years and can be reused.

• Start stockpiling pantry items like cream soups, sugar, flour -- any non-perishable food and baking supplies that you tend to use every year. If you're keeping a grocery book (link), make a list of items you know you'll need and the prices you want to pay, and keep that in your wallet so you can instantly spot check a good deal.

2009 Christmas Budget Series

Introduction

Presents

2009 Christmas budget: presents

Presents: $165

• 5 siblings (3 on each side, including in-laws): $15 each

Having a smaller budget forces creativity. Our families are generous at the holidays, so I try to put a lot of thought into our small-budget presents. This year, I'm thinking social calling cards for a recently moved sibling, a cute photo album and photo-printing credit to the sibling that just got back from abroad, possibly a small craft project including ticket stubs from the very early 90s for a music-loving sibling. The two that are living somewhere in the Indian Ocean, they're the hard ones.
$90 total

• Parents (only 3 living): $10 each

They might say they don't need anything, but it's easy to be thoughtful with parental presents. Usually, if you involve photos already printed, you're golden.
$30 total

• My gift exchange at work: $25

I work for a small, close-knit company, and we draw names for holiday presents. There's no rule on amount, and some spend more than others, but $20 to $25 is the general guideline. Last year, I spent $20 and felt cheap. Granted, money was tight, and I sewed an adorable little pouch to enclose the gift card, but I can do $25 this year.Even if it is the single largest line-item present in our budget.

• Prized nephew: $20

I made him an awesome toy last year, spent $16.37, and I'm not sure what to do this year, especially since it's our second in a row  at home, which is not where he lives. Regardless, he gets the most money allocated of any family.

Inexpensive present ideas

• Homemade ornaments, look to CraftyPod for ideas.
• A letter saying why you love that particular person and favorite memories of them.
• Scan in old photos and send prints to everyone in pictures.
• Wine stopper
• A Do-It-Yourself Christmas, from Get Rich Slowly in 2008

Ghost of Christmas Past

Last year, I budgeted $210 and spent $278.61.

• $80 for 4 adults and 1 child on my side, spent $99.68
• $110 for 7 adults, spent $114.49
• Didn't budget for each other, spent $36.87
• Didn't budget for wrapping presents, spent $7.57
• $20 secret santa at my work

Totals do not include significant gift card usage from cards I had saved throughout the year, but I have included shipping costs.

Update 11/19/09: Lifehacker has an awesome spreadsheet gift planner. Check it out!

2009 Holiday Budget main post

2009 Holiday Budget: making it jolly

2009 Christmas budget

 

Our holiday budget is $245, everything included: presents, holiday cards and postage, and decorations. That's all I could wrangle out of our budget. Isn't bad, considering the first contribution toward $245 came out of a 10/30/09 paycheck. Eventually these weddings have to slow down, and we'll be able to start saving for the holidays earlier in the year. If I get a holiday bonus, a little may go to bolster the budget, but most will go to debt, with 20% to the emergency fund. Resisting the urge to buy a new camera. Resisting, resisting, resisting.....

Quick & Dirty

• Presents: $165
• Everything Else: $80

Last year was the first we came close to realistic about how much money we could spend on the holidays. I worked my rear off to get somewhat nice presents on a very small budget, and decorate my house to host a holiday family celebration for the first time. At least I remember working my rear off. I realized when I recently started looking for my notes about last year that I had notes scattered and a bit incoherent. I had to pull a Quicken report to figure out exactly how much I spent.

Our planned holiday budget was actually a little higher last year: $255. I said above that we came close to realistic, which is laughable, since we ended up spending $382.32, which is $127.32 over budget. However, compared to what we spent in previous years, it's progress. We spent $62.25 on decorations, $41.46 on holiday cards, and $278.61 on presents. I'll break this down in future posts to look at each category, and see where the weaknesses were.

Tips for setting a holiday budget

• Once Halloween starts showing up in stores, start thinking about a budget and presents. Ideally, this would happen throughout the year, but who's perfect? Get started around Halloween and you should be fine.

• Sit down early with a schedule of paychecks and bills through the end of the year and find where you can make some room for holiday expenditures. It's not a bad idea to extend the schedule through the first or second paycheck of January. We're lucky that my husband gets paid biweekly, and I budget for just two paychecks for him per month. October is usually a 3-paycheck month, so the money gets divvyed up between the holidays and debt paydown.

• When you're making progress on paying down debt, it's hard to not feel guilty about spending money on the holidays, but we're human and winter celebrations are important. You don't have to spend a lot of money, you could still have a joyful holiday on $40 or $50. It may take a lot of creativity and time, but it's worth it. Even just writing a letter to your loved ones, telling them what you've appreciated about them in the past year, is a simple and inexpensive way to show you care.

• Use store coupon's from retailers like Michael's to slowly purchase decorations over a couple of weeks and keep it simple.

• Use programs like Ebates or Upromise to get cash back for your expenditures from online retailers. Research shipping codes to or plan purchases to get free shipping.

• Plan, plan, plan. If you know what you're up against, it's not nearly as stressful.

Simple Mom has a great series about breaking up holiday tasks to manageable chunks. She started in early October with the "12 Weeks to a Peaceful Christmas" series, and each post is full of great ideas. She starts with setting a budget, so make sure to check it out.

2009 Christmas Budget Series

Presents

Making it Jolly

Making fresh flowers last as long as resolutions

We hosted our first formal holiday dinner over Christmas, and it turned out just lovely. We really enjoy entertaining, and I have a tendency to make too grand of plans, so we've scaled back in quantity to account for my insanity.

Entertaining has a definite learning curve, and you only get better with experience. I think back to some of the first showers that I hosted, shake my head and smile. In the past year, we hosted quite a bit less, which allowed me to not make myself crazy on a regular basis. And really let the cleaning of the house go. Which meant that the week leading up to the holiday was a frenzy of cleaning and we were still preparing the table and food when the guests started arriving.

The evening was wonderful, though. I made a last minute splurge on four bunches of fresh flowers the day of dinner (I had stupidly forgot to buy any white wine--we had plenty of red, but no white, which is what I drink when feeling fancy). I love having fresh flowers when guests are planned, and arranging flowers really soothes me. It hasn't been in the budget for a long time, though. I'm glad I splurged, the flowers have lasted quite a while. Right after the new year, I re-arranged the vases, and they're about due for another rearrangement. They may actually last longer than most people's New Year's resolutions (I'll be posting my resolutions later today--only 6 days late!).

Entertaining tips
Be prepared -- any good girl scout should be, but know at least two days in advance what food will be served, and who will be drinking what. For a big dinner like this, my husband and I detail exactly what we need to cook, and go to the grocery store as early as possible. We also figure out a rough schedule of what gets cooked when so that everything is hot and ready at the same time.
Start early -- china, crystal, linens and silver should all be ready to go the day before. Trust me. Even if you're insane and have two cats, follow this advice. Otherwise your in-laws will arrive with the table half-set.

Arranging flowers

• A wonderful Southern woman once told me that a butterfly should be able to flit through the flowers of an arrangement--it should not be too crowded. Depending on the type of arrangement, I always remember this. I do have limited vases, so like any rule I ignore it from time to time.

• Use different types of flowers, but find balance. I used three colors for the Christmas arrangement, but two of them were mums of different sizes, so it didn't look all over the place.

• Unexpected surprises, like green mums on long stems, can catch the eye.

• Don't get stuck when re-arranging. Just because you started with one arrangement doesn't mean that you have to stick to it. Once the water gets a little cloudy, rinse and trim all stem ends, fill vases with fresh water and flower food (sometimes I add a little sugar if I don't have flower food), rearrange, and voila -- fresh flowers for at least a week more! My original arrangements each used all three colors (red, green and white) because it was Christmas. When I redid the vases, I kept one multicolored (below), a small square vase with just green and white for the kitchen table (above), and a set of three bud vases with just red. Another bud vase has a few green and white blooms. My next rearrangement will be more limited by the quality and size of blooms left.

• Enjoy the splurge!

Freshly rearranged flowers from New Year's Day, along with some Canadian maple syrup -- a holiday present from my husband's family up north.

A housewarming gift made from scratch

Our typical housewarming present is pretty standard. On the way to the housewarming or to see a friend's house for the first time, we stop at the grocery and pick out a decent bottle of wine on the way. Not exactly full of social grace. If it's a very good friend, we have in the past splurged on a nice bottle of bourbon or whatever liquor may be appreciated.

These days, even affording a bottle of wine has been a stretch, and I won't go as far as buying a bottle of Two-Buck Chuck. We had several birthdays and a housewarming in August, and with the car insurance payment situation in September, I was at a loss for what to do about a present for two very good friends that moved into their first house over Labor Day. We had plans to stop by on Sunday of Labor Day weekend and I was quickly running out of time the week prior.

Since I was already planning on making chicken stock on Saturday, I decided that I would take a large portion of it since this couple loves to cook and chicken stock can be a quick way to add some protein and tastiness to most meals. But the prospect of heading over there with a jar of stock and that's it seemed, well, weird. So I decided to scrounge around and see what else I could do. Here's what I ended up putting together:

----

homemade chicken stock

shredded chicken from making the stock, vacuum-sealed

homemade hummus (I make a few adjustments to the linked recipe)

a habanero and jalepeno pepper from our garden (large, ripe and quite tasty-looking)

several packages of herbs cut from our garden: Thai basil, oregano and parsley

slow-roasted cherry tomatoes (think sun-dried tomatoes)

----

I packaged it all up with tissue paper and instructions for storing anything they didn't use right away, put it all in a basket, and felt much better than if I just grabbed a bottle of wine on the go. They loved it, they smiled. I smiled. Husband smiled. Problem solved. Never mind that the only basket that fit nicely was my favorite basket and I hated to let it go. Sigh.

We ended up staying for hours, drank wine and partook in their awesome first-run on a the crockpot--beef stew. Being frugal ended up (I think) making them feel much more special than a run-of-the-mill present, and I had fun brainstorming with my husband about what to include that they would truly like.

I recently saw a link to Apartment Therapy's housewarming bucket, so I'm guessing many of you have similar creative housewarming presents. What are some of your best ideas?