Swallowed

I did post before this but my posts seemed to have been swallowed. Ah well!

Merry Christmas everyone! It's been a wonderful day and, even though there have been rough spots, it's been a really fantastic year.

This year I built my career, I fell in love, I got myself to a better place mentally. It's been wonderful and I am very very lucky to have everything that I have.

And today, for the first time on December 25th since the 1820's, it's snowing in Atlanta.

Today is a good day.

5 Tips for Surviving Next Christmas

The holidays are finally just about over. But before Twelfth Night hits, it's a good idea to look around and take one finally step in your holiday celebrations. By spending about an hour planning for next year, you will be able to reduce at least some of the stress that will hit you in December when you realize you weren't as prepared as you thought you were!

1. Put all of your wrapping supplies, leftover cards and small decorations in a labeled box and put them away.

2. Decide how much money you will be spending on Christmas next year and set up a savings account with a monthly automatic transfer to help you reach that goal. I recommend ING Direct.

3. Save any new holiday recipes you discovered and put them away with the decorations. Also put away things like cookies cutters.

4. Instead of jumbling holiday lights up into a big mess, wrap them in a coil that you fixin place with cable ties so that getting them out will be easier next year.

5. Think of everything you wanted for Christmas that you didn't get this year. Make a list somewhere of these items, or put them in an Amazon wish list so when people ask you later in the year what you want for Christmas, you'll have an answer.

Having a Late Christmas to Save Money

This is a guest post from Michael Caldwell at Use The Dollar.

If you would like to write a guest post for Distilled Rose Personal Finance, simply contact me!

Michael Caldwell is a lifelong entrepreneur who has become active in the Financial world. As he experiments and finds working methods to building wealth, he shares them with others.

For those who celebrate, Christmas is supposed to be a time of family togetherness, outward love and giving.

What it actually becomes for many of us, though, is an impoverishing end to the year.
How can we fix this?

The Problem

Any time that retailers can predict hundreds of millions of people rushing to the stores in unison- I can promise you- That is not the time to go shopping!

Even though everyone knows that it is the very worst season to shop- millions do.

But how can you avoid that? Christmas falls on the same day for everyone. It does it each and every year. But does it have to?

The Solution

Change the Day your family celebrates Christmas!

What if your family celebrated Christmas on the 28th instead of the 25th?
What if you could take advantage of the post-Christmas sales that nearly every retailer offers?!

The day is close enough to the standard Christmas day that you'll be able to take advantage of everyone elses' Christmas parties, keep the sense of the season, etc.

Aren't you losing the meaning of the Season?

For those of you who are concerned about changing the day because you want to preserve the integrity of Christ's birth, you should be celebrating much earlier.
Israeli meteorologists best guess places the real date of Christ's birth on September 29th, 5 B.C.

The Catholic writer Mario Righetti candidly admit that, "to facilitate the acceptance of the faith by the pagan masses, the Church of Rome found it convenient to institute the 25th of December as the feast of the birth of Christ to divert them from the pagan feast, celebrated on the same day in honor of the 'Invincible Sun' Mithras, the conqueror of darkness" (Manual of Liturgical History, 1955, Vol. 2, P. 67).

So if Christ wasn't born on "Christmas Day", and there's no other real motivating factor to keeping your family's Christmas on the 25th, then there are only two reasons you would celebrate on the 25th:

1. You're a huge fan of keeping to Pagan-Fooling, Roman Tradition


2. You enjoy spending far more money than you need to spend.

If either of those qualifications fit you- Feel free- Go ahead and continue celebrating on December 25th.

If not though- Make the smart decision and move it back a few days. Purchase your gifts during the sales- Save hundreds, if not thousands- and have a Merry Christmas!!!!

6 Frugal Items You Should Get for Christmas

Are people asking you what you want for Christmas at the last minute this year? Or do you want to find something to buy for someone who you know lives a frugal lifestyle? 

Here are my six top picks for anyone faced with this question!

PUR DS-1800Z 2 Stage Water Dispenser

I adore this water filter tank. When combined with a good solid water bottle, you never really need to buy bottled water again. It can also be a great way to get out of the soda habit!

Reusable Grocery Tote Bag 6 Pack ComboI keep these in my car and use them not just for groceries, but for taking our recycling or taking things to work. These are great for the environment and buying a large pack of them is cheaper than buying them as you go shopping.

Honeywell FocusPRO 6000 Programmable ThermostatA programmable thermostat can save you a fortune in energy costs! Just have it set to stay off at night and switch on right before you get up, that way you aren't wasting energy while you are unconscious

CamelBak BPA-Free Better Water Bottle with Bite ValveHere is a fantastic water bottle to go with that Pur Water tank!

365 Ways to Live Cheap: Your Everyday Guide to Saving MoneyTrent Hamm is a well respected personal finance blogger who has just come out with his first book! 

The Complete Tightwad GazetteThis book is one of the most highly recommended frugality books out there! 

Hopefully this list will help you with your shopping list, be it for you or for someone else!

Christmas Is Coming: A Plan for Painless Shopping

Image by Sister72

I confess, I'm not a fan of Christmas. I love the idea that you get together with your family and have a day of gifts and happiness, but most of my family lives 4,000 miles away from me and I usually can't get home more than once a year. 

The one thing about Christmas that wears me down is how expensive it can get. If you play your cards right and get ahead of the game, though, it can make everything easier and less stressful. 

Make a Shopping Plan

Now is the time to figure out what you want to get everyone. Make a list of what you would like to get for everyone. Include a dollar amount that you will be spending. Total that dollar amount up and add ten per cent to cover tax and the fact that you are likely to have forgotten something. There are 9 weeks until Christmas, but you want everything to be in your hot little hands a week before to minimize stress and allow yourself some wiggle room. Divide what the amount you need by 8 and that shows you how much money a week you'll be spending on Christmas up until Christmas. 

Now every week take your money and see what on your list you could buy with it. If you have items you can pick up, go and grab a few of them in your lunch hour or on your way to run another errand. If you don't have enough that week for an item, roll it over to the next week and keep going until you do. If you have a week where you aren't picking an item up, take the time you would spend doing that wrapping presents that you have previously bought.

If you follow this, you have the week before Christmas to do any additional preparation like cleaning the house up or cooking in advance, or picking up things you might have forgotten. 

Make Presents if You Can

I'm a huge fan of handmade presents. I knit a lot of gifts at Christmas time and I hope that they are well received. Knitted items are great, but another good inexpensive idea is to make up things like bread or cake mix, or pancake mix and gift that to people that you tend to give smaller gifts to. Pancake mix is a really good one because home made mix is cost effective and simple, and most people have the pans and added ingredients in their homes to make the mix up without having to buy anything new (like a bread pan). Some nice cellophane bags and ribbons along with hand written instructions on a small card can make this simple gift look sweet and special. 

If you aren't into making presents but still love the handmade feel, check out Etsy for handmade items. They have just about everything you can think of.

If you send Christmas cards, now is also a good time to start preparing them. You can purchase them and write up a few a week, then send them all in the first week of December. 

What other ways to you prepare for Christmas?

 

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