After teetering at the top of the ladder and handing down the 17th box of Christmas potpourri to my Jewish husband (what a good sport), I decided that it is much smarter to take a “less is more” approach to the holidays. Every year, I seem to collect more, mostly because I can’t resist the after-holiday sales. So if you’re like me and have too much, pass some on to Goodwill for others to use and if you don’t have money for decorating this year, we have tips to help you decorate for less or no money.
Here are some of our ideas to help you rub those holiday nickels:
Table Decorations – For Hanukkah OR Christmas, you can mix all types and colors of candles and place them on mirrors or trays to increase their reflection. If you have a particular color scheme, scatter glass floral beads on the tray or put them in cylindrical glass vases with a plain taper candles to add visual interest to tabletops.
Mantels – If you have leftover holiday cards that you’ve received or sent, you can hole punch them and string them onto curling ribbon to make a pretty and colorful mantel decoration. Add some greenery to the mantle (clipped from your yard) and you’ll have a gorgeous fireplace.
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With the Holidays right around the corner, you’ve probably already implemented your plan of attack for gift buying, and if you’re like me, you were already out fighting the crowds on Black Friday or Cyber Monday. Now that you’re in the shopping groove, don’t forget that Craig’s List is a great place to find items at huge discounts and also, to get things that you might not be able to afford this year if you had to pay retail.
We surfed our local Craig’s List and found a variety of discounted items. These are just examples of what you can find, but we hope that it gives you some ideas for how to save money this Holiday season.
For Kids: Our local list (Bay Area Penninsula) had American Girl Dolls, Brio Train Sets (gently used), Lego sets (brand new) and bicycles, just to name a few popular items.
For Teens: Our local list had drums, guitars, ipods, video games and gaming systems, surfboards and skateboards and all kinds of sports equipment.
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Ms. Nickel would like to remind you that there are still three more weeks to enter this the Wish List Anniversary sweepstakes. We hope you’ll try your luck this holiday weekend!
There are still five weeks of fabulous prizes to be given away in the Wish List 10th Anniversary Sweepstakes, including trips, diamonds, and an extra-special finale in week 10.
Still up for grabs:
Week 8 (Nov. 23-29): High-Def Heaven Wish List — A 55-inch HDTV, a Blu-ray home theater, and a Wii
Week 9 (Nov. 30-Dec. 6): Glamorous Life Wish List — A stunning set of 1½-carat diamond stud earrings
Week 10 (Dec. 7-12): This one is under wraps until Dec. 7!
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My husband thinks he’s Jerry Seinfeld. I asked him if he had any ideas about how to save money this Thanksgiving, and he said “How about we steal a turkey from our neighbors?”. That wasn’t exactly what I had in mind but it definitely made me laugh. In the past, I’ve always hosted Thanksgiving and each year it’s gotten more over the top. This year, I’m going to trim it back a little and see if we still have fun. Here are some of my ideas for saving money while pulling off a proper Thanksgiving Dinner.
Decorations and Décor – Rather than running to the store for flower arrangements, place cards and that extra place setting of china, see if you can “make do” with things you have around the house. I’ve seen combined china settings in all of the magazines this year so don’t worry about being matchy-matchy. If you have kids, have them make the place cards with construction paper or stationery. Their young handwriting will look charming on the table. For the centerpiece, use a large vase with some fall-colored branches or group some candles, gourds and mini pumpkins along a pretty runner.
Drinks – If you’re serving a bunch of wine guzzlers (my family’s ideas of a wine pour is absolutely to the top of the glass – oh well, we’re Irish), you’ll need to economize on what you choose to pour. This month’s Woman’s Day magazine suggested an Austrailian Chardonnay called Black Opal (2008) and the Columbia Crest Sauvignon Blanc (2008) for around $8.00 a bottle. For reds, they recommend the Red Diamond Shiraz and the Jargon Pinot Noir (2007) as very drinkable reds at about $10. If you want to serve something clean and crisp at the dinner table, I like Gloria Ferrer Blanc de Blanc (2004) which you can pick up at Bevmo for around $15 and pour with confidence.
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We know that the term homemade holiday gifts brings to mind the crocheted Kleenex box covers that your Aunt Irma used to make, but this year, we have some money-saving gift ideas that you can make and give with confidence. In a year when everyone seems to be cutting back, many of these gifts can be used by the recipient as they enjoy their family time and will add some yumminess to their parties. There are so many resources on the internet to coax you along with these projects, and we’ve included a few that you can visit and use. For many of these gifts, you may have the ingredients and supplies on-hand, which makes them perfect as a Rubbingnickels.com gift.
Here are our ideas:
Potpourri and Bath Salts – Potpourri is really a snap to make, it just takes time to dry out the items you are putting in the mix. www.pioneerthinking.com/potpourri.html has great tips on the potpourri technique and then marvelous recipes like “purple haze” and “citrus delight” that will freshen up any room. To help make your own bath salts, Martha, of course, has great recipe for naturally scented salts on her website. Visit www.marthastewart.com/good-things/homemade-bath-salts.
Homemade Granola – Our granola recommendation comes with a cute story about the origin of the recipe. Visit www.slashfood.com/2007/08/31/a-granola-recipe-from-my-moms-hippie-youth for a fabulous and healthy concoction. This is great to have on-hand when you have company.
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Is it me or have movie ticket prices gone off the deep end lately? I swear that I took my kids to “Up,” a rib-tickling, entertaining adventure for all ages, and spent 65 bucks for three of us. Those prices make it more and more difficult to make a Family Movie Night happen at the theater, so we’re here with some show suggestions that can save your budget and still provide family fun and togetherness. For years we have been watching reruns of our beloved old classics: Brady Bunch, The Jetson’s, Gilligan’s Island, I Dream of Jeannie, all on TVLand, but what else is there to offer that’s good, “clean” fun for the family on TV?
Let’s start with American Idol. This is a family event in our homes and leads to arguments and interactions, i.e. “I like David A., he’s SO cute”, followed by “no, Mom, are you lame? David C. is the bomb”. In the interim season where we have no Idol, we have found some other “must-see TV”. So, pop some popcorn (for 25 cents a serving), grab a blanket, a friend or your family, and check out these shows:
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Amazing Race, Sunday 8/7c CBS – Everyone in our families, male or female, ages 8-40+, race to the couch for this one. Twelve couples compete against each other in an around the world scavenger hunt. In addition to learning about different cultures, the show is a wonderful study in interpersonal relationships (i.e. friends, siblings, couples, parent/child), sportsmanship and how truly nasty people can be to each other when competing for a big prize. Watching together has sparked many discussions among our family members.
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As I sit down to write this blog, I realize that I am the poster child for how NOT to work from home. My first mistake was to put my PC in the kitchen/family room, where the TV is blaring and and I’m distracted by the fact that I really need to wipe down the front of my refrigerator to get rid of the fingerprints. My second mistake is that I haven’t made my computer “off limits” to my children, thereby making it fair game for them to say “just a minute Mom, I’m chatting on Facebook “ just when I really need to sit down and get some work done. Last but not least, my small IKEA desk is only big enough to hold my computer, printer and coffee mug (a must!), leaving me NO space for my filing, notebooks and other vital office items. So what should I do?
If you truly want to work from home, there are a few steadfast rules that you should stick to. Now that I’ve written this, I think I’m going to have to try to take my own advice and turn my work/home experience into one that is more streamlined and organized.
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Find a space that is out of the way. I always thought it was weird that my Mother-in-Law had her computer in her walk-in closet, but at this point, it’s starting to make sense.
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If you’re anything like me, Morgan Spurlock of Super-Size Me made you think twice about drive-thru hamburgers with his bulging belly and listless lifestyle. And my favorite nutritional watchdogs, The Center for Science in the Public Interest, have “outed” all our restaurant favorites like Fettucine Alfredo and Sweet and Sour Chicken with their stinging press releases, which have exposed to us how heart-stoppingly fat-laden our favorite restaurant entrees can be. For these reasons, not to mention frugal living, many of us have retreated into the kitchen. So what tools can you use to make sure that what you’re cooking is tasty AND nutritious?
What’s In The Foods You Eat Search Tool, 3.0 – The US Department of Agriculture has a tool that you can use, though it’s not the most user friendly software (surprise, it’s the government). With this tool, you can find nutrient profiles for 13,000 foods commonly eaten in the U.S. To help you put the right info into the tool, familiar portion sizes are included for each food and you simply need to check the box and let the computer know the amount that you’re serving.
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Who wants to spend money this year on plastic or rented Halloween costumes? Not me! I DO still want to dress up, though, because being silly is the best part of Halloween. My husband and I have Star Trek costumes, disco outfits, and tons of wigs and hats (Samurai and Superfly) that we’ve been known to wear when it’s NOT Halloween. If you don’t have a costume box like we do, there are lots of great costume ideas that you can make. Check out these sites …
parents.com – This website has ideas for kids that you can whip-up with supplies from around the house. They include a scuba diver (swim mask and fins), crayon (colored paper party hat and one-color outfit), weatherman (raincoat, umbrella and fake microphone), and a piece of sushi (all white outfit with an orange pillow pinned to your back).
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It could be a cultural thing, but I live in an area where hardly anyone cleans their own home. I hadn’t cleaned my house since my oldest was born, and my husband gave me the housekeeping as a gift. What a great idea for a Mom with a new baby! I was hooked and I’ve been paying someone else to clean my house for the last 11 years. Last month I realized that the family budget wasn’t going to sustain the extra $400 a month I’ve been paying for cleaning. And so I had to let them go.
I’ve already had a number of those “I Love Lucy” moments as I’ve taken on this project. I’ve broken a vase and a picture frame in my hurry to get the living room dusted. I accidentally emptied the entire contents of my Hoover Windtunnel on the kitchen floor when I hit the trap door prematurely. I also learned that a dog will actually drink from a toilet that is filled with Chlorox Bowl Cleaner. There’s definitely a learning curve, but I’m going to keep trying!
For those of you who clean your own house or are considering taking on the housecleaning, I’ve compiled a Letterman-style list of the top 5 reasons that you should clean your own house.
Top Five Reasons You Should Clean Your Own House
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It burns 400 calories per hour, depending on your intensity, which I increase by listening to disco music while I vacuum.
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On our website, we’re constantly making suggestions of how you can do things for yourself to save money, rather than paying people to do them for you. Take gardening, for example. Debbie’s articles are great if you can carve out some time to spend in the garden. But who has the time, these days?
We all have MUCH more time than we think. Sometimes it takes an assessment of HOW we spend our “free time” to discover where we’re wasting time. Most of us know where the time is going and I call these activities “timesuckers”. The biggest “timesucker” that I experience is email. I know that for some, Facebook is becoming another, though I’m a new Facebook user so I still have my Facebook time under control. Here are some strategies for limiting the time you spend online in these activities.
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Scheduling time for emails/Facebook – If you set a schedule and set a timer when you sit down to email or Facebook, you can more easily get into control of the time you’re spending. In my opinion, 20 minutes per day, 3 times a day is the MOST you should be spending on email, unless you have a job that needs you online all the time.
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a friend
