A Decade that Changed Us Forever

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     This has been an interesting and demanding decade.  From national and natural disasters to financial failures and home foreclosures, this period of our history has affected us all in someway or another.  Not that the first part of the 21st century was unkind to all of us, but for some of us, our lives will be forever changed.  On a personal note, I am mourning to loss of my beautiful grandmother who passed away on Dec. 30th.  My goal this year is to make her proud of me.  I will work hard to do all I can do to provide you with information that will help you or someone you love.  May we all work harder to help our fellow man, and may the coming decade be filled with compassion and hope and new beginnings for us all.

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The After Christmas Sale

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If you have not already begun, it is now the time to stock up for next Christmas. Discounts can be found everywhere from department to drug stores and from grocery to thrift stores. You can find bargains now with deep discounts that you can use for upcoming occasions and holidays other than just Christmas. Get red and white tissue paper now for your Valentine gifts and the chocolates are deeply discounts, especially those in Christmas packaging. Just discard the packaging and put in a pretty heart shaped container. Use your imagination and the possibilities are endless. Gift sets can be purchased now for birthday and anniversary gifts later. Returned opened up and taped back merchandise can be bought cheaply, so think big. It is a good time to get a better tree. The longer you wait the better the deal. To get more ideas on how you can save go to http://www.frugalliving.about.com/ and http://www.thriftyfun.com/. Where are the best deals? You can find an extensive list at http://www.geekettebits.com/. Just look under the Popular Post section at the Day After Christmas Deals & Sales. Here you will find a list of 45 different retailers with deals set to expire within the next couple of weeks. Don't forget about adding to your ornament collection at this time. Here is another tip on the fireplace pleasers. Start saving empty toilet and paper towel rolls and dryer lint. Get some twine if you don't have any and use it to make a wick that goes through the inside of the rolls and then pack with the dryer lint. Color some paraffin with red and green or blue and white candle coloring and dip these packed rolls into them. You can even dip one side in one color and the other side in another color. You can even add fragrance oil into the heated wax for scent. Lay these out on wax paper to dry and seal in airtight containers for next Christmas. You will be ahead of the game with these ideas and you could literally save yourself hundred of dollars buying now.

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Fireplace Pleasers without the Price

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With Christmas quickly approaching, give a gift from the heart. This is one present that you will spend time on making wonderful. Fire starters are very useful and much desired gifts. If you can commit to an afternoon of gathering twigs and lots of pine cones, your guaranteed a low-cost and eye-catching present for the one you love. Gather up kindling of any kind that you can find outside. Try to find twigs or branches big enough that you can cut into uniform pieces. Take them and place in a bucket of water to clean off debris and bugs. Remove the pieces and put 2/3rd's of the pine cones aside. Put remaining pieces on a baking pan and place in the oven at 200 degrees for at least 30 minutes or until dry. When pine cones open their petals, then remove them from the heat and set aside. You can take a third of the pine cones and place in a 1/2 gallon of water and add 1 cup of borax or Allum. Take the other third and place in 1/2 gallon of water and add 1 cup of boric acid and let these soak for 8 hours, remove, and allow them to dry in a warm place until Christmas. When these are dry place them in a cellophane bag and tie with raffia. They will burn red and green when placed in a fire for a beautiful effect. If you don't have fragrance oils, then go to your local florist and ask for any lavender and rosemary stems. You can add bayleaves, lemongrass and mint. Bundle this together in two to three arrangement and add some cinnamon sticks to each and tie with raffia and set aside. Buy some paraffin wax, candle coloring, and candle fragrance and melt in an old tin can big enough to dip cones. Place tin cans in a double broiler to heat. Use Christmas colors of red and green or your color theme can be blue and white. Submerge pine cones with tongs and set on wax paper to dry. Place in a cellophane bag and tie with raffia. Assemble twigs and branches in separate bundles and tie together with raffia. Arrange bags and bundles in a basket or empty cardboard box decorated with wrapping paper. I like to give this with a Christmas popcorn tin so they can use the tin to put cool ashes in during the holidays. Don't forget to include a box of kitchen matches and your set to provide the lucky recipient with some wonderful nights in front of the hearth.

More Inexpensive Christmas Ideas

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I wanted to buy each of my colleagues at work a Christmas present this year. This is one thing that always creates a dilemma. I want to get them something that they will like while making sure my family members presents are covered. After brainstorming for several days I came up with a very inexpensive solution. Recently I had purchase a cute little locker organizer at you guessed it , Wally World . My coworkers had commented on how much they liked it. I purchased 9 of them for about $20.00. I know that they will love it, and I didn't break my budget. I got them something that they will use every time they go to work. I found them in the clearance section at Walmart. They also have locker lites in the shape of stars and heart that come on when you open the door. They are only 50 cents apiece. This makes a great little gift for a niece or nephew. So go pick up a few while supplies last.

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Beautiful Gifts without Sticker Shock

I love Christmas. I love to see the children excited and filled with anticipation. To me it is the one time of the year when everyone comes together filled with good will. I love to have my tree exploding with gifts. I want the recipient of my gift to like it, and I try to get everyone in my family something. Sometimes this seems like an impossible feat. I pull it off every year and I do not go in debt or break myself to do it. I start early, sometimes as early as June, but at the latest, in August. First, I buy my nieces and nephew presents. Then, I buy for my Mom and my brothers. After that, I get their wives and my close cousins and a few gifts for the people I work with. Closer to Christmas, I buy for my immediate family. I shop the clearance section first, and then the discount stores. I rarely ever pay full price. I don't usually do black Friday either, not that it is not a good deal, I just don't like shopping in a crowd of people. This is how I start. The included picture is an example of 11 presents that I got for about $26.oo. That is about $2.37 per gift. I got these at Rugged Warehouse and their stores are located in the southeast. This is also where I buy most of my clothes at a 70% off discount on name brands. If you don't have a store near you then you can go to the distributors website. The first one is http://www.toogoodgourmet.com/. Go to their site and register, then click wholesale orders and choose the specials. You have to purchase at least 2 cases, but the prices are spectacular for the quality of gifts. The other site is http://www.pelicanbayltd.com/ and it has beautifully packaged items for as low as $3.95 with no minimum purchase requirements. Check out the teachers gift for $4.95. It is a good deal. Let me know of any other places with good deal like this so I can share with others.

An Affordable Christmas-The Wrapping Paper

You can have beautifully wrapped Christmas present every year the same way that you acquired the ornaments. You accumulate a little at a time. Always save back a little money to hit the after Christmas sales, even if it is only $10.00. Check back at the stores every few days because the percent off will continue to go up as time passes. I collect Christmas tins, cookie tins, and baskets that I may come across at work after the food has been eaten. I also try to purchase some tins on sale after Christmas every year. I use brown paper bags and decorate them with rubber stamps or stickers and I save all of my Christmas bags and reuse every year along with my tissue paper and my bows. I am not beyond asking my close family members for them back especially when I know that they are just going to make their way to the trash. I purchase cheap paper at the dollar store, but I also get nice paper too, and I use every bit of it. After the presents are open you can take the paper to the shredder and make nice filler for your clear container presents the following year. My favorite wrapping containers are the one pictured here that I make and reuse every year. I purchase these in the kraft section at Walmart and the paints and stickers and take them home and make them, Everyone loves them and they saved me lots of money over the years. Just get some acrylic paint tubes and some cheap brushes, stickers and ribbons and you can make these last for years to come.

How to Afford a Memorable Christmas-The Ornaments

I hate that Christmas has become so commercialized over the years. That is never what Christmas was suppose to be about. It is suppose to be about family, about being thankful, and for those of you who believe, most importantly about our Lord. No matter how you stack it, Christmas cost money. For some of us, it turns in to our most expensive headaches, one that usually cost us our much needed income tax refund in January. This post will give you some ideas on how to build on your Christmas decorating each and every year. Here are some of the ornaments that are on my tree. When I was young and first starting out, I had a collection of cheap and sometimes scratched up ornaments that I put on my tree, that with lots of tinsel to fill it in, and of course some strung popcorn. I would see some of the most beautiful trees and think that I could never afford that, then I came up with a plan. Each year when the retailers start putting out the Christmas decorations I began expanding on my ornament collection. Yes at first I continued to use those old ornaments, but I would incorporate that in with the new ones I would get. I admit that I am a Walmart junky, so I start there. I get paid every 2 weeks, so when I get paid and do my grocery shopping I will stop by and pick up 1 or 2 very nice ornaments. I always try to get something that will go with any theme and I get something that will go with whatever color I am building on. I try to get big ornaments so that they will fill in a good size area and when I first started this I put those on the side of the tree facing the room. After Christmas, I would go to the sales and I bought my first ornament holder box. It took a few years to fill it up, but I do this every year. Also, grab a few of those big glitter ornaments. They are very inexpensive, but mixed in with the pricier ones they look fabulous. Just pick up 1 or 2 each Christmas and over the years you will have built up a substantial collection.