Saving and Spending

Ok. I'm back after a long hiatus from blogging. Just didn't have the time to stop and think about what to write mainly. Also Facebook has made it faster to get the little snippets of life out.

So here I am to write about how I've been trying to save on all that Christmas spending. I started doing my main shopping around the first of November. I just started seeing some toys for the kids that I thought they'd like and when I liked the price I bought it. We don't usually get too much for them at Christmas. I am cheap, but I also don't think you have to go overboard either.

I thought I was doing so well to start early and I had found some great deals on what I wanted. First there was a toy I spotted in a fancy toy catalog. Then I by chance found the exact same toy at Fred's discount store for $10 less. So I bought it as quick as I could thinking that the few on the shelf would be gone soon. Well weeks later I happened in Fred's again and low and behold my great buy was now $5 less! Man I hate when I find a better deal after I've bought something.

This weekend I really went crazy with saving. We have a charity through our church that helps get Christmas gifts for needy kids. Each year money is collected and volunteers go shopping one night at Walmart for a certain kid. I chose two toddlers and got all my toy coupons gathered up. Each kid is budgeted $125 and we get them as much as we can for that amount including clothes and other necessities besides just toys. When I was finished with all my coupons I had saved $60 between the two kids! If you haven't checked already there were some great toy coupons on coupons.com.

After all this spending and saving. Let's not forget the true spirit behind Christmas. In another post I'll try to mention more about The Advent Conspiracy. That's another part of this Christmas with our saving and spending. You can go ahead and read about the concept by clicking the link.