Have you blogged about a Handmade Christmas idea? Submit the link through this form here and we’ll consider sharing it as part of this series during the next 4 weeks!
Have you blogged about a Handmade Christmas idea? Submit the link through this form here and we’ll consider sharing it as part of this series during the next 4 weeks!
Published: by Crystal Paine on | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.
Disciplines of a Godly Woman — This book has been an excellent read for me, especially coming off the 21 Days to a More Disciplined Life series. It’s packed with practical encouragement, thought-provoking chapters, and motivation to live a disciplined life. Highly recommended to Christian women.
Read Aloud
These Happy Golden Years— Our whole family has been enjoying our evenings of cozying up together and reading this book. Even Jesse and I are really enjoying this series and we’re sad that it’s almost over with (anyone have any really great book series to recommend that might be in a similar vein to the Little House books?)
An iPad was something I dreamed about having–not only was it cool looking and I’d be able to use it as a reader and the Internet, but I’d be able to take it with me to work on my blog, An Oregon Cottage. However, our budget did not have a extra money in it for this extra “want.”
Luckily, my husband was on board and wanted to find a way to help me purchase an iPad (woot!). So last spring we added an “iPad” column to our budget and started putting any extra money we could come up with into it. We weren’t in a hurry and we didn’t think that we’d be able to order the iPad for probably six months or so, given our budget.
You can imagine how shocked we were when just three months after we created the budget category we were able to order the iPad! How? Here are some of the ways we raised the cash needed:
Sold some items on Craigslist (a weight bench; old stereo)
Used Amazon gift cards I bought with Swagbucks (When we learned that Amazon wouldn’t be selling the iPad 2, we bought food items and then transferred the cash from our food budget towards the iPad)
Scoured the house for anything to sell on eBay–we found mirrors, candlesticks, computer items, yarn, vintage plates, and jewelry
Used my six-month Google Adsense check since I would be using the iPad for some blogging
Honestly, neither of us could believe how fast we were able to accumulate the cash when we put our minds to it. And you know what? We found it fun and exciting to work towards a goal and watch the total go up. There were lots of high-fives and dancing when we’d see we were getting closer to our goal. We’d plan and talk and dream together.
And when we were able to order it and it came in the mail, we just looked at it for awhile–it’s such a great feeling to reach a goal and know it was ours, free and clear. Was it worth it? Oh yes, I love my iPad! I use it everyday and I’m finding more and more things I can do with it. And my husband? I occasionally let him use it, too.
Jami is a wife, mother, and preschool teacher who blogs at An Oregon Cottage. She loves everything about a cottage, but especially what she calls “the cottage mentality” that puts people above things, celebrates imperfections, embraces simplicity, and finds joy in everyday life.
Published: by Crystal Paine on | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.
Christmas would not be Christmas to me without wonderful Christmas music playing in the background. When I was growing up, we always had a special stack of Christmas records and cassettes (yes, remember those?) that we pulled out to play only at Christmas time. Pulling out the Christmas records and cassettes always signaled that Christmas time was really here.
We decorated the Christmas tree, baked cookies for the neighbors, made homemade gifts for the grandparents, drank hot cocoa, wrapped Christmas presents, and celebrated our family gatherings with Christmas music playing in the background. It set the tone for so many special memories.
Today, we’ve traded the records and cassettes for MP3s, but Christmas still wouldn’t be the same without the music. I like to buy a new album or two each year to add to our family’s collection. And then we rotate playing our Christmas music all December long.
Published: by Crystal Paine on | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.
It was a bitterly cold morning outside that morning. And our usually snug and warm home felt freezing because the heater had stopped working in the middle of the night. We had friends at our house and it was steadily getting colder.
We shivered in our coats and tried to stay active until the repairman arrived. He discovered our thermostat had gone bad and then there was a wiring issue, so it was another four hours before the furnace was fixed. It was a long and cold day and I was so relieved that we finally had heat again after shivering under layers trying to stay warm all day!
Two weeks later, we were driving downtown on another frigidly cold day. We passed the local homeless shelter where many were gathered and huddled outside the doors waiting for 5 p.m. to arrive so they could go inside for a hot meal and a bed.
It struck me anew how much we take for granted. It felt like a fairly big inconvenience to not have our furnace working for a day. But we still had shelter, an oven to cook warm food in, space heaters, electricity, and coats. We had money in the bank to pay a repairman to come fix the furnace. We had a car with a working heater we could have piled in had it gotten too cold. We had friends’ houses we could have gone to to hang out at if our furnace had been broken for longer than a day.
These people standing outside the shelter had nothing but the well-worn clothes on their backs and the possessions in their tattered grocery sacks. They had no home to go to, no car to drive, no refrigerator full of food, no closet full of coats, probably little or no money, and likely no steady source of income.
All of a sudden, the “big inconvenience” of one day without a working furnace seemed so minor and inconsequential. I’d wager that every person standing in line at the homeless shelter would have excitedly jumped at the opportunity to have a non-working furnace be their biggest problem for the day.
So today, in the midst of whatever problems and struggles you’re facing in life, remember that if you have a place to live, a working vehicle, more than three changes of clothes, running water, and food to eat, you are immensely blessed.
Published: by Crystal Paine on | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.
Today’s questions is from Liz:
I’m looking to upgrade my phone soon. Could I save enough money with the apps to make it worth paying extra to buy a smartphone? Also, any suggestions on phones you’d recommend or money-saving apps? -Liz
Do you have a question you’d like to ask Money Saving Mom® readers? Read the submission guidelines and submit it here.
OVER-SPENDING EVERY SINGLE MONTH?Grab these FREE Budgeting Sheets!
This Christmas, why not wow with a gift that looks like it came straight from Pottery Barn?
Where else would you go to create your Pottery Barn inspired gift? The Dollar Store, of course.
Load up your basket with a glass candle stick, a tall glass vase, a pillar candle, some white tissue paper, and a bag of cranberries (okay, you might have to go to the grocery store to buy the cranberries).
To create your hurricane, you’ll need some Gorilla Glue. Apply some Gorilla Glue to the top of your candle stick. Be warned: a little goes a long way. Put the candle stick on top of the vase and allow plenty of time for it to dry and adhere.
Now to give your pillar candle some Christmas cheer. The possibilities are endless, you could add a black and white picture or a poem to your candle. I decided to add some Christmas music to my candle.
Whatever you decide to add to your candle, you’ll need to print it onto your tissue paper. First, grab a piece of card stock (the color does not matter), some tissue paper, and some tape.
Tape your tissue paper onto the card stock. To prevent printer jams, make sure you tape all edges of the tissue paper onto the card stock.
Make sure to load the tissue paper into your printer in the direction that will result in the tissue paper side being printed on and not the card stock. Then print your design. You may also want to guide the card stock/tissue paper by gently pushing down on it as the printer is pulling it through.
When it comes out of the printer, it should look something like this:
Cut the edges to free your printed tissue paper. This is far easier then trying to remove the pieces of tape.
Wrap the tissue paper around your pillar candle. I secured my tissue paper into place using a few push pins.
Grab your hair dryer. Set it on high or hot and begin to apply heat to the tissue paper. You will start to see the candle wax grabbing ahold of the tissue paper.
Continue working your way around the candle, heating every part of the tissue paper to the pillar candle.The last step, putting it all together. Put some of those cranberries into the bottom of the hurricane vase.
Then add your pillar candle.
What’s better than a Pottery Barn gift? A gift made from the heart on a Dollar Store budget.
I’m Amy from While Wearing Heels. I am an avid DIYer and find it so much more satisfying to either make something myself for a fraction of the retail cost or find something for an incredible deal in an unexpected place. If you liked this money-saving idea, please feel free to stop by my blog and check out some of my other ideas.
Published: by Crystal Paine on | This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.
As a child, one of the highlights of Christmas was receiving all the Christmas cards and letters from friends near and far. We’d keep the letters in a basket, string the cards around our living room, and put the family pictures on the refrigerator.
Sometimes, the Christmas letter was our only real communication with friends from our past. But it kept us up on their lives and gave us a small sense of connection, even though our paths had drifted apart.
It was always exciting to hear of marriages, babies, grandchildren, trips, new jobs, and exciting adventures. It was fun to see how the family pictures changed over the years. And it was always somewhat of a thrill to see how many strings of cards we’d be able to hang up.
Many people opt not to send Christmas cards or letters any more. There are many valid reasons given: “We’re too busy living life to take the time to write about it.” “We can’t afford to mail cards since postage has gone up so much.” Or maybe, “We didn’t get a decent family picture.”
I definitely think that Christmas cards and letters are an optional aspect of Christmas and I totally respect people who have chosen not to send cards in order to keep Christmas simple. That said, I think that we’ve become so used to texting and Facebooking and emailing, that sometimes we forget the joy of sending and receiving real physical mail via the postal service.
Creative Christmas Letter Ideas
If the thought of writing a detailed letter is overwhelming to you, here are some creative Christmas letter ideas:
If you’ve decided that sending a Christmas letter isn’t your thing or mailing out a lot of cards or letters is outside your budget, here are some other ideas:
::Send photo cards.
We’ve skipped sending a letter for the past few years, but we have sent out photo cards. It’s a very simple way to send a Christmas greeting and share pictures of our family with dear friends and those we don’t get to see often. Plus, with deals like the one available from SeeHere (20 photo cards for $1.49 shipped!), creating photo cards can be very inexpensive!
::Send out your letter as a PDF via email.
Can’t afford to mail your letter? It’s perfectly okay to send it out as a PDF attachment via email. Be sure to include some sort of teaser in the email you send out so that people will be sure to open the attachment and read the letter! 🙂
::Post your Christmas card on Facebook.
Jenae’s family decided to post their Christmas picture/card on Facebook this year in lieu of sending out a Christmas card. This might not work for everyone–especially if most of your recipients are not on Facebook–but it’s definitely an inexpensive option!
Do you send out a Christmas card or letter or do some sort of creative alternative? I’d love to hear what works for your family!
1. Decide whether or not you are sending out a Christmas card or letter this year.
2. If you decide to send out something, get it created or written sometime in the next 48 hours.
3. Create your address list (if you’re mailing cards) or the email list (if you’re emailing out your card/letter) and save it in a file to have next year. (I did not set up an address list on the computer until this past year and it’s been a lifesaver to have all the addresses in one place and a place to file new addresses as I collect them. Believe me, the whole scraps of paper thing wasn’t working too well!)
4. Mail or email your cards out by the end of this week so that they will arrive before Christmas.
Guest post by Jami from An Oregon Cottage
