1. We simply didn't have the money to NOT work with a budget.
2. We were by no means putting Christmas gifts on our credit card.
3. We thought it would be fun.
4. We figured homemade gifts would be WAY cooler.
So now, (spoiler alert!) here's a little slice of our (gift portion) of Christmas, which we did early, since we knew we were going to be busy with our Christmas Eve service on Saturday evening (I'll even intersperse it with photos!).
So
our "budget" was to spend as little as possible (we wanted to spend no
more than $100...I know less than that IS possible...but I'm sure you
all understand that $100 is a SMALL Christmas budget for most people!),
and mostly just make or buy things that were practical, meaningful, or
long overdue.
So we
got a free tree. And instead of buying new Christmas tree balls (the
brown ones in the photos, because the blue and green that they used to
be didn't match anything, apparently =P), we bought $6 worth of spray
paint and painted them. They look great! Between that and the free
garlands we borrowed from someone, our decorating budget topped out at
$6.
For
Maelle, we got around 150-200 duplo blocks from a free ad on castanet.
We also bought her a new book (I know, I know, not used...) for $10, a
wooden (looks handmade) rocking chair from castanet for $20, and a
Little People farm set with 5 animals and a barn for $15. There were
also two toy balls (free), a pair of slippers (free), a doggie
flashlight ($3) and her bed, which I made her, hardware & all, for
$12. However, we sold a few things to offset our costs, and therefore
lower the budget. We sold a baker's rack for $20, and some Aquarium
stuff for $15 (therefore cancelling out the cost of the rocking chair
AND farmyard set). So our total budget for Maelle topped out at $25.
For
Milena, I am in the midst of building some end tables for her living
room, and some shelves to hang on the wall in our bedroom. I also am
working on copying all of her recipes (there's about 60 that need
copying onto the cards I bought, on sale, @Michaels) that are on loose
sheets of paper onto recipe cards, and was able to give her about 20
completed ones last night ($5). We also bought the new Coldplay CD for
her ($14). Milena sold some Epicure stuff to a friend for $10 to offset some of this, so our budget for her topped out at $9.
For
myself, Milena is making me a pair of pajama pants out of an old fleece
blanket that we had in the house. She also already owns the thread and
whatnot, so that's free. She also got me a leather carrying case for my
camera and accessories, which she got with leftover change for grocery
money at a craft fair a while back. We also bought me the new Hedley CD,
for $16, which is where our budget for me tops out.
As far as food and snacks go, we managed to sneak it all into our normal grocery budget by just planning around what we had in the house already. So we were still able to enjoy fancy appies, a shrimp ring, punch, egg nog, cookies, etc.
This means, all things considered, that we managed to pull it all off for $56. Considering we were shooting for under $100, I think we made it in under budget.
And you know what? It was WAY fun, and WAY cool... and WAY WAY WAY less stressful this way.
Totally shooting for under $50 next year.
-Sam
