Hopefully, you don’t have any gifts left to purchase…but if you do, here are a few ideas:

• Magazine Subscriptions – you could always purchase a magazine subscription and create a cute gift card letting the recipient know to expect their subscription in several weeks.  Use coupon code HOLIDAY15 to get 15% off your subscription through DiscountMags. DiscountMags has a low price guarantee, so they’ll match competitor prices.

• Gift Cards – rather than search all over town for the “perfect” gift, think about giving the person a gift card to a store you know they enjoy.  If you send an Amazon gift card, you can choose a design and either print it or send it via e-mail or Facebook.

• MP3′s from Amazon – You can even use coupon code GIVEMP3S to save $2 off your purchase.  Your gift recipient will receive an e-mail letting them know that a gift is waiting for them.

• Netflix Subscription – you can give a gift subscription of as little as 1-month or as much as 12 months.  Plus, you can choose a “gift card” design to either print or e-mail to the recipient.

• CD’s or Savings Bonds – you could include a note that acknowledges the project that the recipient is saving for, such as a trip to Hawaii.

• Donation in the Person’s Name – choose a charity that you know the person would enjoy and make a donation in their name.

• Check your Gift Closet – do you have any gifts already purchased that might work for the recipient?

• Food Gift - Have any goodies already made?  Put together a goodie basket with baked goods or quickly purchase some items at the store with a nice plate.

• Flowers - Order some holiday flowers.  Right now you can get a $30 voucher to ProFlowers for only $15 through Mamapedia – look below for Featured Sweet Deals

The days after Christmas are a great time to stock up on the items that you need for next year.  I very rarely purchase any Christmas items (like wrapping paper, labels, cards, etc) before Christmas.  I usually stock up in the after-Christmas sales.

So, take a second and take inventory of your supplies to see if you need any items for next year.  I just checked, and I think I’m still good for next Christmas (and possibly the one after that!).

Here are some items to stock up on after the holidays:

• Christmas items -wrapping paper, gift labels, Christmas cards, Christmas decorations, etc.

• Christmas Specialty Items – Places like Yankee Candle usually have a sale after Christmas on items such as candles that are usually Christmas scents – like Christmas cookies, etc.

• Clearanced toys – The after-Christmas sales are a great time to stock up on birthday presents for all the birthday parties your kids are invited to throughout the year. You can get some great deals on toys (and their friends will never know how little you paid).

• Sales for spending your gift cards – If you received gift cards for Christmas, many of the stores have sales to entice you to go in and spend them now (they can’t claim the gift card money as income until the money has been used to purchase an item).

What do you usually buy after-Christmas?

Even though sending out Christmas cards may not be the most frugal activity, I love to receive cards from my friends and family (so I assume they like to receive them from me…and see how our boys have grown over the last year).  Plus, I have many friends that I may only communicate with through our Christmas card (although that’s changing more and more with Facebook).

Although I would love to hand write every address for my Christmas cards (and include a handwritten note), I just don’t have time to do that for the 60+ cards that I send to friends and family each year.  So several years ago, I developed a Christmas card database that I use to keep track of my Christmas card list and to print out address labels.

I thought I would share the procedure for creating your own “database” and mail merge label document.

Christmas Card Database Tutorial

• Open the Christmas Card spreadsheet.  It contains all the fields that I use for my Christmas cards.
• Click File, Download As, and choose Excel.  Now you have a copy on your computer to add all your information.
• Once you have entered all your data, save the file.
• Open a Word document
• In Word, choose Tools, Letters & Mailings, Mail Merge Wizard
• The wizard is on the right-hand column.  Choose Labels for document type and click Next
• Choose Change Document Layout and then click on Label Options.
• Choose the labels you plan to print to (the number should be on the box) and click OK
• Click Next – Select Recipients
• Click Use an Existing List and browse for your Christmas Card spreadsheet you saved from the earlier steps
• Click Next – Arrange Your Labels
• Choose More Items and add the fields that you want to print on your label such as First Name, Last Name, etc.  As you add the items, you will see them in the first label.  You can add the line breaks when you’ve added all the fields.
• Once the first label is formatted like you want, click Update all Labels and your fields will show up on all labels.
• Click Next Preview Your Labels and your recipients information should show up
• Click Next Complete the Merge.  You can choose to send the labels directly to the printer or to a new document.  I usually choose a new document since I keep it as a record of who I actually mailed to already.
• Save your document to use next year.

That’s it.  Please leave a comment if you have any questions, and I’ll reply to your comment.  You should only have to set up the database and mail merge document once and then be able to edit as needed and use each following year.  Although it creates some up-front work with entering the information, it saves lots of time in the years to follow.

Do you still send out Christmas cards?  If you do, how do you address the cards…handwritten, labels?  For more frugal ideas, please visit Life As Mom.

Photo by nkzs

One of the ways that I save money on gifts (for both Christmas and birthdays) is to shop for gifts throughout the entire year. When I find a deal on an item that I’m sure someone on my gift list is going to love, I’ll purchase it and keep it until their birthday or Christmas.

Why Shop Year-Round?

• I save money on the items that I’m purchasing, since I’ll only buy early if it’s a great sale.
• When the holiday arrives, I’m not stressed about purchasing a gift, because I already bought it long ago.

Shop Clearance Sales

For my younger nieces and nephews, I’ve found some great deals by shopping the summer toy clearance sales. Toys R Us had a clearance sale earlier this summer with an additional 20% off the clearance price. Target had many toys on clearance two weeks ago for up to 50% off. As time goes on, the price decreases (as does the selection). Kmart also had clearance toy items a couple of weeks ago, plus an additional 50% off. Kmart had a really large toy clearance sale in September last year, so they’ll likely have more sales.

Check my Blog for Deals

I post many deals that come up throughout the year. Take advantage of some of them and save the item for Christmas. I posted last week about the Bushnell Weather Forecaster at Walmart. I checked 2 Walmarts in my area and was unable to find any, but if I had, it was going to be a great Christmas gift for my in-laws.

Keep a Gift List

The goal of purchasing items throughout the year is to save money, right? You don’t want to blow it by forgetting your already bought for someone and buying more than you need.

Keep a list of the people that you’re purchasing for, some ideas, and what you have purchased for them already (with the price). Organized Christmas has a printable list that you can use.

Christmas is coming in just 5 short months . I know it seems early to be thinking about Christmas, but wouldn’t it be fun to prepare for Christmas now, and when December comes, you can just relax and enjoy the month rather than scurry around?

Have you started saving for Christmas yet? If not, wouldn’t it be nice to have a cash-only Christmas and not worry about the bills in January? If so, determine your Christmas budget, and divide it by 5 (the number of months left before Christmas). Each month, transfer the monthly amount into a special savings account set up just for Christmas. Don’t touch that account unless it’s for Christmas spending.

The Budget

Make sure you include everything in your budget, since often the “little” things can really add up fast. Some of the items that I account for in my spreadsheet include:

• Determine the number of people to purchase gifts for and multiply by the budgeted amount per person. I usually spend $15 per child (since we have 8 nieces and nephews for both birthday and Christmas presents). We will spend more on our parents and we’ve agreed as a family not to purchase for adult siblings. We also spend a higher budgeted amount for our immediate family (like hubby, myself, and my 2 boys). I usually am under budget on the boys’ gifts, since they receive so much from other family members too.

• Budget an amount for helpers gifts (like teachers, tips for hairdressers, etc) as well as for stocking stuffers. I always think that stocking stuffers are little things…but it can quickly add up to about $20 a stocking. I want to make sure that $80 is budgeted for my family of 4.

• If you send out Christmas cards, budget an amount to print out the picture card, letter and stamps to mail them out.

If the monthly total seems like too much to save, scale down your Christmas spending. You can always increase it a next year when you have the whole year to save.

For more ideas for Christmas, please visit Life as Mom, who is hosting a series on Christmas in July.

Do you usually have grand plans for making gifts for people on your Christmas list, but when Christmas arrives you find you’ve run out of time? Or you spend many late nights in December putting the gifts together? That’s me (sometimes), since procrastination is my middle name!

Well, start thinking now about what you might want to make and start putting some of the items together.

Here are a few homemade gift ideas:

• Calendar – I like to make a digital scrapbook calendar (with purchased pre-made templates…I’m all about simple). You can start planning your calendar now. You might not have all the pictures you need, but you can at least start organizing the pictures that you’ll use in the first part of the year. Here’s the calendar project that I create every year
• Desktop Calendar
• Homemade Candles in the Crockpot
• Sew a Car Organizer
• Photo Block
• Photo Magnets
• Assortment of Christmas gift ideas – includes some cute t-shirt ideas
  

It’s now the beginning of January, which means that for many people the Christmas bills will soon start to arrive. Oftentimes, it’s a stressful time – worrying about how to pay the bills, and if only the monthly minimum is paid on the credit card, you may still be paying for last Christmas at next Christmastime.

Or, you could save all year for Christmas gifts and have a cash-only Christmas (or at least pay all the credit card bills with zero stress, because you already had the money in your savings account when you made the charge).

In my family, we treat birthdays and Christmas like it’s a monthly expense. In a spreadsheet each year, I calculate how much money that we plan to spend for the entire year on birthdays and Christmas and then I divide it by 12 and have that amount moved into my savings account automatically each month. When I purchase a gift, I make a transfer back into my checking account to pay for the gift (I usually do a transfer back to checking around the 15th and 30th of each month, since I’m only allowed 2 transfers per month).

I want to make sure that I include everything in my budget, since often the “little” things can really add up fast. Some of the items that I account for in my spreadsheet include:

• Determine the number of people I will be purchasing gifts for (both Christmas and birthdays) and multiply by the budgeted amount per person. I usually spend $15 per child (since we have 8 nieces and nephews for both birthday and Christmas presents). We will spend more on our parents and we’ve agreed as a family not to purchase for adult siblings. We also spend a higher budgeted amount for our immediate family (like hubby, myself, and my 2 boys). I usually am under budget on the boys’ gifts, since they receive so much from other family members too.

• Budget an amount for Mother’s and Father’s Day both for our parents and for gifts to each other…from the kids of course .

• For Christmas, I budget an amount for helpers gifts (like teachers, tips for hairdressers, etc) as well as for stocking stuffers. I always think that stocking stuffers are little things…but it can quickly add up to about $20 a stocking. I want to make sure that $80 is budgeted.

• If you send out Christmas cards, I budget an amount to print out the picture card, letter and stamps to mail them out.

• Now that my kids are getting older, they’re beginning to be invited to friend’s birthday parties. You need to budget those gifts, too. I try to purchase those presents (and other family gifts) during clearance sales. I pick generic gifts that my kids would enjoy and save them for a birthday party invite.

What ideas work for you to pay for Christmas and birthday gifts each year? For other frugal ideas, head over to BeingFrugal.

Photo courtesy of sh0dan at stock.xchng.

Don’t think that I’m skipping over Christmas, because I’m not . But, I wanted you to start thinking about the sales after Christmas.

• Christmas items – You can usually get good discounts on wrapping paper, gift labels, Christmas cards, Christmas decorations in the after-Christmas sales. I usually buy all my materials for the next year after Christmas. I think I’m good for next year, so I probably won’t buy any more. I may purchase an ornament for the boys’ stockings next year if I see a good one.

• Christmas Specialty Items – Places like Yankee Candle usually have a sale after Christmas on items such as candles that are usually Christmas scents – like Christmas cookies, etc.

• Clearanced toys – The after-Christmas sales are a great time to stock up on birthday presents for all the birthday parties your kids are invited to throughout the year. You can get some great deals on toys (and their friends will never know how little you paid).

• Sales for spending your gift cards – If you received gift cards for Christmas, many of the stores have sales to entice you to go in and spend them now (they can’t claim the gift card money as income until the money has been used to purchase an item). Here’s an article with a list of stores with good sales after-Christmas.

Can you think of any other items that are great for stocking up on after Christmas?

Every Christmas, my mom hangs a laminated copy of the above Family Circus comic strip on her fridge to remind the family that Christmas is not about all the other things, like shopping, gifts, food, and Santa. Christmas is about Baby Jesus. Over the years, I’ve compiled a list of ideas to help my family keep our focus on Jesus, instead of all the other stuff.

Nativity Set

• Make the nativity the first decoration that you pull out to show that it is the most important part of the Christmas celebration
• Have a nativity set that your children can play with. You could cut out figures from old Christmas cards and attach magnets on back and they can tell the story on the refrigerator. We have the Little People Christmas Story Nativity Scene Playset, so my kids can play with it. I dream of one day having the Willow Tree set, but this is perfect for us now.
• Place Mary and Joseph away from the nativity, and each day move them closer to “Bethlehem”. You can talk about the long journey they took.
• Have an empty manger. Leave the manger empty and put a box of straw or yarn beside it. When someone does something that pleases Jesus (like obey or show kindness), let them place a piece of straw in the manger. This will soften the bed before Jesus is placed in it on Christmas morning. Please note: as one person pointed out in the comments, luckily for us, our salvation is not dependent on “works”. But, Jesus is still pleased when we obey Him through our actions.
• One evening, place a different figure from the nativity set in front of each member’s plate. They can think about it during the meal and then share what their figure had to do with the Christmas story.

Countdown to Christmas

Take seven days to tell the Christmas story, adding a new piece to the nativity each day.

• Mary – read Luke 1:28-38
• Joseph – read Matthew 1:19-25
• Donkey – read Luke 2:1-5
• Baby Jesus – read Luke 2:6-7
• Shepherds – read Luke 2:8-12
• Angel – read Luke 2:13-14
• Wise men – read Matthew 2:1-12

Christmas Video

Two years ago, I bought a great Christmas video called, The Very First Noel. It is a computer animated story (narrated by Andy Griffith) from the perspective on one of the wise men. The story is great, and the music is also wonderful. I wish they had a soundtrack available. It’s only $6.99 at Amazon, and eligible for free shipping (with orders over $25)

What God Wants for Christmas

Last year I purchased a great item from Family Christian called What God Wants For Christmas. It contains seven gift boxes that the children open up, and the last gift has a mirror in it. What God wants for Christmas is you.

Christmas Books

We have lots of Christmas books that we read to our kids to try to keep the focus on Jesus. Some of them include:

• What Is Christmas?
• The Pine Tree Parable: Special Edition
• God Gave Us Christmas (God Gave Us…)
• The Legend of the Three Trees: The Classic Story of Following Your Dreams

Christmas Crafts and Activities

• Here’s a great site with all kinds of links to Christmas crafts and activities to do with your kids.
• For the last two years, my son’s preschool class has done a Star Walk. Basically, they were the wise men searching for Jesus. They painted crowns, and followed a star held by the teacher. They walked throughout the school looking for Jesus. At then end of their long walk, they found Jesus. I thought it was a fun way to reenact the Christmas store for younger kids, so they can identify with the story.

After all my shopping yesterday and my Black Friday post, I started feeling guilty about the money that I’m spending…after all…isn’t this a frugal living blog? Each Christmas, I have a hard time switching gears from frugal living to lots of spending for Christmas and I start feeling guilty for spending. However….I shouldn’t, and this is why:

1. Each year, we budget how much money we plan on spending on gifts for the entire year for everything…birthdays, Mother’s and Father’s Day, Christmas, gifts for charity/teachers, stocking stuffers, even down to the nitty gritty like Christmas cards and stamps to mail them out.
2. Then, I split the total amount into 12 equal monthly payments and set that money aside in our savings account. I keep all my savings in our general savings account and keep a spreadsheet of how the money is allocated, but I’ve heard of others who keep a separate savings account just for gifts. So, when I spend the money, it has already been saved for throughout the year, and I won’t be surprised when the credit card bill arrives (yes, we use our credit cards to get UPromise savings).
3. I don’t feel like our budget per person is very extravagant. Since, we have so many nieces and nephews, we only budget $15 per person for the kids, and I try to shop smart to get the most for my money.
4. We do budget $100 per person for our immediate family (husband, myself and boys), but we try to use that money for practical things (pajamas, slippers, clothes, a few toys), so it’s money we don’t have to spend throughout the year. My husband is even getting a pair of work dress shoes this year for Christmas .
5. I also purchase all the gifts that my parents (and some that my in-laws) give to my family, so it feels like I’m spending more, but it’s money that was given to me.
6. I don’t feel like I have to spend all the money that I’ve budgeted. For example, I plan to be way under budget for my boys, so I’ll probably contribute the rest of the money for them to their college fund. I’m sure that they’ll appreciate that more than some toys that they won’t be playing with next year.

I do find that at the end of the Christmas shopping season, I have to remind myself to stop spending, though . So, how do you budget for your gifts? Do you have problems reining in the spending when Christmas is over?

For those of you who enjoyed this post on how I make my Christmas cards, here is a free Christmas card template by one of the designers that I like. You just need to scroll down to the bottom of the post and click on the cards. She included the 4×6, 5×7, and 4×8 sizes, so you have flexibility to create your card.

I created my card in 4×6 this year (using this Shabby Princess kit) and paid 9 cents a print with free shipping at Snapfish (they offered free shipping last Tuesday only). However, if you’re a new Snapfish customer, you can get 20 free prints when you sign up for an account.

Have you ever started wrapping your Christmas gifts and found out that you had way too many gifts for one person because you forgot about several gifts you purchased for them throughout the year? I haven’t had that happen to me (yet), but one year my mom purchased some perfume as a gift for Christmas, and forgot to even wrap it, because she had hidden it so well.

One of my strategies for frugal gift giving is to purchase gifts for friends and family throughout the year to take advantage of great deals and clearances that I find. However, it’s very easy to lose track of how much you’ve purchased for someone and go over budget or buy more than you were planning for that person.

I use a Christmas gift list to keep track of the presents that I have already purchased (with the item, the price, and who it’s for), so I can plan what I still need to buy. I keep all the receipts for gifts in an envelope, so I can easily make any returns. I also create another list to keep track of the presents that I intend to make, so that I can get them finished before the last minute. There’s nothing like creating scrapbooks for family members at the last minute (believe me…I’ve done it before!). Each year, my goal is to have the majority of my Christmas shopping and handmade gifts done by Thanksgiving so that I can relax and enjoy the Christmas season.

Here are some resources to help you with your Christmas gift list:

• Organized Christmas has a huge Christmas planner that you can print off and make. Here’s the master gift list printable and the Gifts to Make list.

How do you keep track of what you’ve purchased each year? For more ideas, please visit Rocks in My Dryer.

Are you looking for a great toy for your little boy that will be used over and over? Geotrax is what has worked for me!

When my son was about 3, we bought him a train table for Christmas. It was fun to play with, but he couldn’t really do much with the tracks. It was really meant to remain stationary while you drove your trains around the track so he quickly lost interest.

We had been at several other boys’ houses that had Geotrax, and my son loved to put the tracks together and drive the train around. So, last year for Christmas we bought him a Geotrax set (when he was 4).

He has really loved playing with it. He started out asking us to help him build the train tracks just like the pictures that came with the set. Now, he is getting creative and building it himself in different formations. The track is pretty easy for little hands to put together and take apart. Since then, he has received some more track and trains for his birthday. Even his little 2 year old brother had to have his own train!

Geotrax is the toy that has held a 5 year old’s interest for almost a whole year and counting… It’s not going to be sold in a garage sale any time soon.

For more great toy ideas, visit Rocks in my Dryer.

What do we like to eat the most during the Christmas season? Christmas cookies! OK, maybe there are some other food items that are synonomous with Christmas, but cookies play a large part.

It can get expensive to make many different types of cookies, not to mention time consuming to whip up several types of batter. One frugal alternative is to have a cookie exchange with a group of friends.

Once you have determine who’s going to be a part of your exchange, you need to find out what types of cookies that each person plans on making, to avoid duplicates (what’s the point of a cookie exchange if you come home with 12 dozen chocolate chip cookies?). We prefer special holiday cookies rather than chocolate chip anyway . Each person comes to the exchange with a dozen cookies for each person present, as well as a copy of the recipe.

We actually do our exchange as part of an evening Christmas party, so it has the double bonus of some fellowship time with other women. Plus, we come home from the exchange with many different types of Christmas cookies for our families or to pass out as gifts to others.

What do you do for Christmas? Do you bake many different types or cookies? Do you do some other type of exchange?

For more frugal ideas, visit Biblical Womanhood.

Last year was my older son’s first year of preschool. I really struggled at Christmas with what to get each of his teachers. He was in 2 different classes, so he had 4 teachers, including the aides. I got together with one parent to purchase a gift certificate for one set of teachers, and I purchased cute mugs at Kohl’s and put together some Snowman’s soup. I purchased several packets of high quality cocoa, sewed some small satchels with Christmas material for marshmallows, and added some small candy canes. I thought that it was a really cute idea…until someone at school mentioned that teacher’s have a gazillion mugs from their students.

This year, I’m on a quest to give my son’s teachers a frugal gift that has practical use for all and doesn’t clutter up their house when Christmas is done. I know that I could purchase gift cards for them again, but those are really quite expensive times the 3 teachers that he has this year. I have decided that I’m going to create Jar Mixes with a fancy Christmas material covering and bow over the top of the lid. Over the years, I have saved jars when I have received mixes as gifts, so I don’t even have to buy the jars.

I haven’t quite decided what recipe I’m going to use, but here are some recipes for several different things.

• Brownie Mix
• Chocolate Chip Cookies Mix
• Peppermint Hot Chocolate in a Jar Mix
• Potato Soup Mix

There are many more recipes out there that can be found by doing a web search, if you’re looking for something specific.

What kinds of homemade gifts have you made for others? Do you have any jar mix recipes that you’ve used before that are great?

Since my boys were born, I’ve sent out a picture with my Christmas cards to long-distance friends and family. The first couple of years, I sent out “normal” Christmas cards and included a picture inside the card.

Then, I got the idea to combine the Christmas card and the picture into one item. However, I did not like the “standard” Christmas cards that you could order at Walmart, etc.

So, I decided to make my own card in Photoshop Elements. The first year, I purchased a Christmas digital scrapbooking kit and designed the card myself in Photoshop Elements. Last year, I couldn’t pass up some premade digital Christmas cards. With the premade cards (like the calendars in a previous post), all you need to supply is the picture. You just add it to another layer in Photoshop Elements (or other photo editing program that has layers).

The first year, I kept my card as a 4×6 print, so I could simply upload it to the place that had the least expensive cards. Last year, I fell in love with a 4×8 design that allowed for several pictures of the boys. That was harder to print, since I had to find a store that would allow me to upload the entire card (basically a blank template) rather than just a picture to add to their template. I could do that on Winkflash, and better yet, they had a sale on the 4×8 prints if you ordered before Thanksgiving. But, you can do a basic 4×6 to keep costs less expensive (that’s what I’m doing this year).

If you wish to design the card on your own, here are some of my favorite designers:

• Shabby Princess – here and here
• Design by Dani
• Sweet Shoppe Designs

Or, if you want to use a premade template, Shabby Princess has some great cards here and here. I’m including a copy of the cards that I used the last 2 years (I blurred out my last name, so that’s why it looks weird there). Also, here is a post that I wrote linking to a set of free Christmas card templates to keep the costs down (and they’re cute!)

What do you do to make Christmas cards? Have you found a great place to print them out, if you use photo cards?

I have lived in several different places throughout my life, so I have many friends that I don’t get to talk to on a regular basis. I love to send and receive Christmas cards. Many times, it is the only time that I am able to catch up on what is going on in my friends’ lives, and they are able to catch up with my family. On average, I send out about 60 cards a year. So, that would be a LOT of work to address all the cards.

About 5 years ago, I decided to create a simple database in Microsoft Works Database (a free program that came on my computer) to create address labels that I could print out each year. I try to make the labels as personalized as possible by adding a cute digital picture to plain labels. Basically, the fields in my database are split into the following:

• First Name
• Last Name
• Address 1
• Address 2
• City
• State
• Zip
• Country
• Comment – like “Need new address”, if I know they’ve moved, but I don’t have the new address
• Date updated – so I know when I’ve updated a new address for the next year
• Then 1 column for each year and a Y if they’ve sent me a card that year

When I’m ready to send my cards, I’ll do a mail merge in Microsoft Word to create address labels and stick them to each of the envelopes when I’m compiling my Christmas cards. It’s much easier than writing everyone’s name and address each year.

I also use the database to keep track of who sends me cards each year. Since the card, the letter, envelope, label and stamp all cost money I try to condense my list each year. If someone does not send me a card year after year, I might delete them from my list. There are, of course, exceptions to every rule. I might not ever get a card from someone, but they are special to me (like an aunt) or I know I may never get a card from a single guy, so I won’t cut them. Each Christmas card that I receive, I will keep the envelope and update the year column as well as check the return address against what I have in the database to update any mistakes that I’ve made or any new addresses.

My database works for me in making my Christmas season more sane, so I can keep the focus on Christ, while still sending out Christmas cards. How do you make it easier on yourself to send Christmas cards?

For more ideas that work for others, visit Rocks in My Dryer.

With many people to buy Christmas presents for in my extended family, I have to keep my gift budget fairly low per person. One way that I try to extend the money that I spend is by making some of my gifts.

• I purchase a digital scrapbook calendar kit (see below for some ideas), although many of the photo printing sites have some cute calendar templates.
• I choose which pictures I want to display in the calendar. This can often be one of the most time consuming parts, so I start this early. I also ask others in my family for pictures of their kids to include in the calendar.
• I add my pictures in a photo editing program (I use Photoshop Elements).
• I print it out and bind it. In the past, I have had Office Depot print it and bind it for me, and I’ve printed it out myself at home using cardstock photo paper. I’ve had them printed at Costco for only $9.99 plus $4.95 for shipping, and I’ve used Shutterfly.

• The Shabby Shoppe – I buy from her every year, because her calendars are so cute.
• The Daily Digi has a GREAT list of the calendar products available

What kind of homemade gifts do you make for Christmas? Do you have any questions about the calendars? Let me know!

One of the best ways to control your spending during the Christmas season (and to spend meaningful time with your family) is to plan Christmas ahead of time. You can get much better deals on presents, baking goods, wrapping paper, etc, if you plan ahead….in addition to saving your sanity.

Here are some of my tips on Christmas planning:

• Purchase Christmas gifts ahead of time when items are on clearance. See my post here about buying toys.
• Keep a running list throughout the year of what you’ve purchased for whom, and how much you’ve spent. That way to don’t buy too much for one person inadvertantly. Also, keep all your receipts in one spot, like an envelope.
• Purchase Christmas accessories (gift wrap, gift tags, Christmas letter stationery, envelopes) during the after-Christmas sale for the following year.
• Get your Christmas cards done early. I was able to get a big discount on printing my Christmas cards last year by having them done before Thanksgiving. Plus, you’re not rushed for time in trying to get them mailed before Christmas.
• Plan any homemade gifts that you plan on making and get them completed early, so you don’t have to stress about them, and possibly end up running out to get an expensive gift at the last minute.
• Plan all your holiday baking and stock up on supplies during sales. Also try to bake in bulk and cover several events at once.

There are several good sources out there for planning Christmas. I know that the Flylady does a plan each year that I’ve loosely followed (although she doesn’t seem to have it on her website yet), and there is Organized Christmas.

What are some things that you do plan for Christmas? How do you cut down on the spending and the stress so you can spend more meaningful time with family?

For more frugal tips, visit Biblical Womanhood.

My older son is only 5, so he hasn’t been invited to too many birthday parties so far…but I know it’s coming. For the birthday parties that he was invited to last year, I struggled with what to buy for the birthday boy. I didn’t really know them very well, and I didn’t really know what they had or didn’t have (and neither did my son). I really hated to spend more on a birthday present for a relative stranger than I budgeted for my own nieces and nephews. For some of the birthdays, the birthday happened to coincide with a toy sale, but not always.

My solution this year was to start shopping for toys during the periods of time when toys are on clearance. I bought some toys for nieces and nephews during the after Christmas sales for birthdays this year. And this summer and fall I’ve been stocking up on the clearanced toys that retailers are trying to get rid of in order to stock their toy department for Christmas.

My son has a July birthday, so I was in Toys R Us for his birthday gift and noticed that the whole store had tons of clearance, plus you got an additional percentage off the clearance price (20%?). Then, I shopped Target during August when they had a huge clearance sale. Now, KMart has lots of toys (including board games, like Pictionary) on clearance with an additional 20% off. I’ve bought Christmas presents for most of my younger nieces and nephews, as well as random birthday presents for the future at huge bargains!

Next week, I plan on talking about how I save on cards by making them myself. What works for you when saving money on birthday and Christmas presents?