Christmas Traditions

I always wonder how others celebrate the holiday season, and I thought other people might wonder too… So here’s a little peek into our holiday traditions…

The season starts with me doing my annual Christmas budget. We decide how much we are going to spend (cash only, no credit) and then divide the budget amongst the different gift and card recipients. Each year this tight budget seems to get more challenging, but this year we decided to conquer it by only buying gifts for the two nephews that live local and for our immediate family of me, my husband, and our son. We talked to our adult relatives and we all agreed gifts would just be purchased for the children in the family.

As one friend so aptly put it, do we really need or want all those knick-knackity tchotchkes anyways?  I’d rather have a heartfelt card. Or if you insist, cash and/or alcohol are always lovely.

Next we make wish lists for each other, and the shopping commences. I aim to have my shopping completely done no later than the first of December because I LOATH shopping during the Christmas rush. Traffic, crowded stores, and ridiculously overpriced crap. Not for me.

Sometime in mid December we pick out a live tree from the nursery across the road. They get their pines from a tree farm, which appeases my eco-friendly conscience, knowing they will be replanted so I can kill another one next year without losing sleep over it.

The tree is then put into place, but not always without mishap. This year we put the tree up and spent a lovely afternoon decorating it with gold and silver. I was sitting in the adjourning room and was startled by the loud crash and jingle of the 8′ tree falling flat on it’s bejeweled face. I yelled for backup and hubby came to the rescue. We moved the tree to a dry area of the living room so we could mop up the immense amount of water pooling on top of the green carpet pile. Did you know that the seemingly small basin of water in a tree stand actually holds the equivalent of a large bathtub? It’s true.

Carpet dried, ornaments salvaged, we were moving it back into place when my dear husband inadvertently dropped the tree on my hand, leaving a large swollen blue and purple bruise that made my hand ache for days.

BUT, the tree is now soundly anchored to the wall with a piece of brown twine and a hook, so we’re all good.

We wind lights around the porch railing and decorate the hair salon with garlands and more lights.

Christmas Eve is reserved for just the three of us. Well, four if you count Fancy Pants, our infamous budgie bird. We make gingerbread and decorate it, we watch Tom Hanks’ Polar Express, we eat hot popcorn and snuggle together on the couch until we’re too sleepy to keep our eyes open.

Christmas morning we open gifts together. Only our son has a stocking (he’ll be filling ours when he’s old enough to hold down a job).

Then the cooking begins. It’s not your usual Christmas dinner though. No turkey or mashed potatoes at our house. No gravy. No stuffing. No candied yams. Instead we have opted for a non-traditional ethnic meal. Last year was Thai curries and noodles. This year is Japanese sushi and teriyaki rice bowls. It’s potluck and all attendees are assigned a dish or two. We’re all about keeping it low key and simple.

Dinner is at 4 PM. This year my mother-in-law chose Thanksgiving, so we’re having my father-in-law for Christmas. My parents will be here too. I’m looking forward to a quiet Christmas at home this year.

Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

Frugal Living to Get Out of Debt

About a month and a half ago we decided to get rid of our business start up debt, put away the credit cards, and go cash only. If we don’t have the cash to buy it, we don’t buy it. It has been a bit of an adjustment, but it also coincided with our new health regime, so a few things changed immediately anyway when we cut out sugar, caffeine, and dairy, in particular.

All my friends and family know I’m the budget queen, so here are some tips for a more frugal household budget.

• No eating out or outings unless it’s a really special occasion. So far we’ve gone out on one date, and once for dh’s birthday in the last 3.5 months. We enjoy cooking at home, and the library has a huge inventory of movies – for free!
• Cut out luxury item extras, like organic body wash for instance. I use regular bar soap (Pears) instead now, and to be honest, my skin feels just as a moisturized and soft. I haven’t had a manicure or pedicure in ages, but I keep my nails trimmed and neat, and who knows, maybe I’ll get one for my birthday (hint, hint, nudge, nudge, wink, wink).
• Cut back on packaged foods and buy whole foods in bulk. I bought brown rice and kamut grain in bulk. It’s fresher, and the money we spent goes a lot farther. We also bought a bread machine so we could make our own healthy whole grain bread, and we can buy the ingredients in bulk. A loaf of decent healthy bread is hard to find for under $5.00. Even the organic loaves have sugar, so we have really come to love having fresh homemade bread.
• Buy in-season foods locally. We bought our produce from a local organic farm for as long as they had food remaining for the season instead of buying organic produce that has been shipped from far reaching warmer climates at a premium price. Now that they are closed for the winter, we will be shopping for as much local oganic in-season foods we can find available.
• Pre-plan larger expenses or purchases and save up for them. Our car needs a full brake job, so we have a plan for going car-free until we’re able to save up enough to cover this expense.
• Make a list and pre-plan your purchase budget before shopping. Today we’re going to “town” and we need a new rain suit for our son. We did some research online and found they run about $35 new. We checked in-store flyers for any specials, and have a budget set for our purchase.
• Don’t go grocery shopping without a list. Before I shop I go through my freezer, fridge and cupboards and figure out my menu plan for the week based on ingredients we already have. Say I have some spaghetti noodles, some green peppers, and a jar of diced tomatoes, I just get the missing ingredients to make a spaghetti dinner. Sometimes I don’t get around to making all the meals on my menu, or leftovers last a bit longer than I expected, so it goes on my menu for the following week or the ingredients are split to become different meals.
• Shop less frequently. We plan a big shopping day bi-monthly for our business supplies and any items not available locally, so we keep a magnetic shopping list on our fridge with a running “order” of what we need. It saves gas, time, and money to buy everything at once instead of running to the store multiple times a week. It also prevents the impulse buys that inevitably happen.
• Avoid big chain stores and support smaller local businesses. We did an experiment recently. We noticed the prices for our small local grocery store were more than the bigger chain grocery stores, so we decided to do our weekly grocery shopping at the chain store and see how much we saved. We actually spent more in the big chain store because we were buying foods we don’t normally have available to us locally, and because of the added variety, we bought more. Add to that the cost of the ferry, gas in the car for the added distance, and time taken away from working at home, we actually spent $60 more than we usually do.
• Service trades are a great way to fit luxuries in. We have an agreement with a local masseuse. We do a trade for 2 full body 1 hour hot stone massages in exchange for a full colour, cut and style in the hair salon.

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