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I told my family and friends long ago we'd be cutting back this year. Last year we spent a fortune and it took us six months to clear it all off. I said never again and I'm sticking to it. It's not worth having a couple of days where you feel good then months when you don't every time you look at your bank balance. This year the adults on my list all get between $5-$10 max and the two kids get one big thing and two small. I hate to sound like a Scrooge but I want 2009 to be less stressful than 2008 was.
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There's many organizations that help needy families give their kids a Christmas. Any family can contact local churches or charities and tell them their situation. Groups do want to help and have the means to do it but if you don't let them know, they can't. The biggest stumbling block isn't always not having access to help but pride. You can give them a call if you don't feel up to doing it face to face.
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I've made cookies and will giving them away in fancy Christmas tins. The family asks me to make them every year. It's a tradition now. Luckily it's mainly adults on my list and not many kids to buy for. It takes me all day to do one batch after another over and over but it saves me from aching feet running round the mall. I stock up on dry ingredients when I can get a good deal months ahead on bulk buys which helps make it cheaper. After that I box them up and I'm organized with only two kids left to get something for, and I can do that in an hour easy.
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I love homemade gifts, cookiefan! Give me something you've spent time creating with me in mind and you're on my Christmas card list forever. It's the thoughtfulness that means a lot to me, not what you spend. My favorite thing I ever got was a snowman made of woolen pompoms from my niece.
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There's many organizations that help needy families give their kids a Christmas. Any family can contact local churches or charities and tell them their situation. Groups do want to help and have the means to do it but if you don't let them know, they can't. The biggest stumbling block isn't always not having access to help but pride. You can give them a call if you don't feel up to doing it face to face.
Thanks for the reminder, Savannah. An old friend of mine told me a story once about how she'd struggled with accepting "charity" as she called it then. She was young and alone with a child with nowhere to turn. She said she could hardly speak the words. One of the church ladies saw how upset it made her to ask for help and took her aside. She said "Never forget the gift isn't for you alone. You're giving us a gift by gladdening our hearts when you accept it." It made all the difference to her. I never forgot that story and it still makes me tear up to think about it.
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That was a beautiful story, Kay! It bugs me how much the spirit of the season's lacking nowadays and it's so commercial. We set ourselves a budget of two hundred dollars maximum in April for Christmas gifts and started saving towards that every week. That's not much money to some but having to come up with a lump sum like that at all once would hurt us. It hurts me enough to hand over gifts to relatives I don't even like. ;)
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I've discovered a new way to save at the holidays. Give the whole family the flu! Then no one wants to eat, which lets you keep all your special food for another day and also cuts your utility bill because of reduced cooking time. I'm a genius! From now on it's a family tradition LOL. :D
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LOL Cheapncheerful! I'm glad I didn't send you my cookies or you would have laid the blame at my door. I managed to stick within my budget and even fit in a couple of extras thanks to an unexpected money gift. I'm proud of myself! :)
Welcome greenmachine! :) I don't think it makes you sound like a Scrooge at all. They might decide to do the same thing! You're being sensible and looking ahead.
We're doing the same here. There won't be any big expensive things here being handed out just for the sake of handing them out. We already got everyone in the family to agree to do that and more than one told me they were glad we suggested it.
The best way for a person to have happy thoughts is to count his blessings and not his cash. ~Author Unknown