Goals For This Week

Princess

This week is going to be a busy week!  I have picked up an extra day at my day job, so I will be working four days this week.  Then Wednesday I am going over to my mom's to spend the night  so she can get some much needed rest.

 My dad gets up and needs help getting to the bathroom about every two hours and she has been  getting up with him which breaks up her sleep.  We have all offered to stay a night to help her out but she has declined our help until recently.  I am off Thursday so I can come home and take a nap before my evening job at the college.

 Here are my goals for this week:

•  Evaluate my budget for the month ( I think I am doing pretty good so far)

• Continue to pack both my husband's and my lunch each day for this week

• Walk at work during lunch.  ( I need to do something:)

• Work on my $500 Christmas Challenge   which definitely needs some attention!

Hope your week goes well!


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$500 HOLIDAY CHALLENGE 2012 week 4

We are already into March  and its time to update my progress on my $500 Holiday Challenge.Truthfully, my progress is sporadic at best. Last week I did go to JC Penny to check out their new way of pricing markdowns.  I have to say I do miss the 60% or 70% pink  markdown stickers.  Now the lowest price stickers are "blue".  Yea, its a whole new way of saving money.

 set of three fluffy socks, originally $14.00, marked down to $1.00!  I picked up 4 sets of these for granddaughters.

 This is one of the purses I found.  It was originally $29.99 and it was marked down to $3.00.  This will be for one of the granddaughters too.

 Still getting use to the "new" blue sale stickers............

 Monkey socks!  Too cute if you ask me!  Originally $14.99 each, marked down to $1.00 each.   These are for son's girlfriend and her daughter.

 Animal print purse with leather and chain strap.  Originally 29.99 marked down to $3.00.  Son;s Girlfriend is getting this.

 More pics of the socks!  Great deals!

 Last but not least, here are all the gloves I picked up too.  Originally $12.00 each, marked down to $1.00 too!  I picked up about 6 pairs for the girls in the family.

 

All this for only $11.00 dollars!!!   I love markdowns!!!

How are you coming along on your  Holiday Challenge?   Feel free to share!!

• Holiday Challenge 2012 Week #1
• Holiday Challenge 2012 Week #2
• Holiday Challenge 2012 Week #3 

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Monday Odds and Ends

 Did you all survive/enjoy your Christmas?  I hope so!  Our family was able to get together for Christmas Eve at my parent's house and we did have a great time.  There was great food, the opening of presents and just the fact that family was able to be together was a blessing in itself.  Mom did decide to not come home from rehab for the celebration.  She thought it would be too hard on my dad to see her have to leave again to go back to rehab.   I have to agree with her that she was probably right.   The kids and their families made it part of their plans to pass by the rehab to visit mom.  They staggered their visits so not to overwhelm mom.  

the high school sweethearts..... and now the old married couple

Today is my 33rd wedding anniversary.  Dang....33 years is a long time!  I married my high school sweetheart right out of high school, and have been blessed with a loyal and loving husband.  Granted, back then we both thought we knew it ALL, and that this whole marriage thing would be a piece of cake......little did we know!  I think any marriage is a work in progress, and that growth in the relationship is constantly taking place.  If not, the bond between both individuals would grow lax and eventually shrivel up and blow away.   


There is not going to be an "Day After Christmas" shopping today.  There is really nothing I need to get, so I am going to stay out of the stores.  In order to get ready for next year's Christmas, I will be starting my $500 Holiday Challenge again.  By trying to stick to this $500 budget for Christmas and track my purchases all year long, I was able to accomplish most of my shopping before December arrived.  The list of purchases also help me to keep track of what I did buy and what I still needed.  I used Swagbucks to acquire Amazon Gift Cards for Christmas, but what I did NOT know is that you cannot purchase gift cards (which was part of my gift giving for Christmas) with a gift card!  I will have to plan better next year.  
Time to get busy and get ready for another great day. 




Cents To Save is a part of  Yakezie Carnival hosted by My Personal Finance Journey 
 and the Canadian Finance Carnival at Canadian Finance Blog

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$500 HOLIDAY CHALLENGE UPDATE

Only 36 more days til Christmas.  Thirty six days  seems like a lot of time, but you know it is going to go by QUICK!   I am striving to be mostly done by Thanksgiving.  Mostly.  But, if I don't quite make it, I at least know I will be about 90% ready.

This week, I did manage to get about 9 gifts wrapped.  These are items I had purchased earlier this year.  Mostly small items, jewelry and such.  I have a few more things on hand to wrap, but I need to pick up some shirt boxes today.  Luckily I have enough gift wrap on hand to get the job done, but what I can't find is the "name tags" for the gifts.  What usually happens, is I will find them AFTER I have already made name tags out of the gift wrap. 

What I have been procrastinating on is putting the photo calenders together for several family  members.  I am determined to get that done THIS weekend!  I only have one done, and I have about 4, maybe 5 more to do.  It is hard to select just the right photograph.... there are so many to chose from!

Earlier this morning, I went online to MyCokeRewards and redeemed some of my points for magazine subscriptions as gifts for family members.  My daughter is a fitness nut so she will be getting "Fitness" magazine, and my son in law likes to cook, so he will be getting "Everyday Food" from the Food Network. I have a few more points to redeem, it is just trying to decide which magazine to get for my mom. 

I still have about $150.00 in Amazon gift cards to redeem.  I have been accumulating them all year with SwagBucks..  I would have had more, but I used some to purchase a vascular ultrasound study guide which was about $80.00.    I have yet to decide how to spend the Amazon gift cards.  Will have to figure that out this weekend too.

Here is where I stand so far: 


Husband ~ He wants a  huge compressor  ........

Mom DONE

Dad  almost
Daughter  DONE

Son
Son
Son In Law  DONE

Daughter In Law
Son's Girlfriend
Grandson #1 DONE
Grandson#2 DONE
Grandson#3
Grandson#4
Granddaughter#1 DONE

Granddaughter#2 DONE

Granddaughter #3 DONE

Granddaughter #4
Best Friend #1DONE
Best Friend Daughter  DONE

 TOTAL SPENT $144.00

Let's see If I can finish it up this weekend!   How are you doing with your shopping?

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linking to The Saved Quarter

$500 HOLIDAY CHALLENGE UPDATE

I hope everyone had a great Labor Day with family and friends.  My holiday weekend was relaxing.  My husband and I did run a few errands yesterday.  He had to go to Tractor Supply and look for a plug for his welder so he can install it here at the new house.  While we were there, I came across these Camouflaged hunting knives and flashlight sets on sale for 50% off.  The final price was $4.99 each!   These are going to be great presents for my two 16 year old grandsons.  They like to hunt and camp and they love anything camouflaged!

That brings my total spent (so far)to $144.00!!   I was double checking my list, and I have finished shopping for three granddaughters, my best friend, my best friend's daughter, and my son's girlfriend.  I have partially finished my daughter's shopping, as well as three of four grandson's and one daughter in law.  My mom and dad are half way done too.  I might start wrapping them next month.  I said I might.  It is a good thought anyway.  My husband is going to be tough to buy for this  this year, he wants a super duper compressor for the garage.  Big Bucks.....

My swagbucks will help keep my costs down, as will using My Coke Rewards. I have been redeeming my SwagBucks for Amazon Gift Cards, and I HAD a total of about $150.00.  But about one month ago, I redeemed $80.00 of them for a book I needed.  Oh well, I can build it back up. Yesterday, I finished a family calendar for my daughter for Christmas.  And the best part was it is FREE.  All I have to pay is shipping!

In case you needed to know, there is 109 days left until Christmas~

$500 HOLIDAY CHALLENGE UPDATE ~119 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS~

In less than four months Christmas will be here.  Are you ready?  Are you planning financially for the big spend?

Here are how some of my readers are getting ready.....

 Sharon writes: 
 Lisa,
I just cashed in another $10.00 to Amazon from swagbucks. I've started collecting stocking stuffers and made out some lists. It's time for me to get a bit more serious with swagbucks and other sites that earn gift cards to reach my $500.00 goal. I plan on using my snowflakes to add to my Christmas funds too. Gift creativity will help too! Let's hope!


ltjacobs704 writes:

I collect the My Coke Reward Points --- I usually do it to keep the Princess in her Seventeen magazine subscription. This year, I hard core saved them, and used them for our admission tickets to the World of Coca Cola when we to Atlanta for Princess Penelope's birthday concert. I had collected enough to cover the cost of admission for me, the Princess and one of her friends --- that was a $48 savings!

Carla:
This year I cut back to $1300, but I think next year I'm going to have to go to $1K, as it's just not in our budget to save that over the course of the year,

Louise:
I cut my Christmas budget back to $200 a few years ago and it's still quiet do-able, it would be more if our kids were young though. It's amazing how much less we need to spend once we start spending more consciously which is what these sort of challenges do, make us aware of what we spend. Good luck with the challenge!

Frugal Student:
I have a budget of $200 for all expenses to do with Christmas, tree, extra food, presents etc. but I hope to get it down a bit. I make a yearly budget so I just add Christmas expenses in the budget and it is there when I need it but I would like to have kids and have to move my budget around.

 Jane:
My goal is to save $1500 which seems pretty extravagant compared to your numbers, however that is also for birthday gifts/wedding gifts throughout the year. I know I have 3 weddings this summer already so I'm still going to try to save that much as last year I saved $800 just for Christmas and that wasn't quite enough! The kicker is that I take my DD on a weekend trip before Christmas so that is included in the total.

Jpkittie:
I'm planning on $600 for Christmas :)

Jan:
I have a cash gift envelope for all gifts throughout the year, but never have enough, and I don't give extravagant gifts. I'm going to start a separate Christmas cash envelope this year.

Laura: 
I would love to do this. I've set a budget of £420/$664 for Christmas, but I'd love to reduce this.
Good luck. I'm really interested to see how you all do on this challenge :)

Aspiring Millionaire: 
I decided to do this too after seeing it on The Saved Quarter and here.

My sister has decided to join in too, but we are aiming to do $100 for the whole lot, presents, food, everything. Fortunately we don't host, our mum does, we just take something nice.

I was so excited the other day as I got my dad's birthday, Christmas and Fathers Day presents for 41ea. They are the hardest to buy for and the bookstore near us is closing down. I managed to pick up 4 books he likes for $1ea! Their normal price is $33.95 (books are overpriced in Australia).

So I totally think I can do this challenge. Looking forward to your updates.

 Nikki:

You Christmas shopping is going really well. We have a goal of $1200, but I think we might lower it to $1000. 

Are you ready?  Have you started your shopping, or are you already done?  Maybe you are one of those that loves to wait until the last minute and get all the bargains?  

Feel free to share or update us!  I would love to read about your progress!

• $500 Holiday Challenge

•  $500 Holiday Challenge

• $500 Holiday Challenge 

• $500 Holiday Challenge

• $500 Holiday Challenge

• $500 Holiday Challenge

My Coke Rewards and $500 Holiday Challenge

As of today, there is 129 days (18 weeks and 4 days) until Christmas.  No pressure.  Just a gentle reminder that the next 18 weeks will fly by, and well, you know, Christmas will be here.  Will you be ready?  I am going to do my best to more prepared this year than I was last year.
 One way I am going to help my Holiday/Christmas budget is to use the My Coke Rewards Program.  It is an easy way to earn reward points towards  gift cards,

 Coca-Cola paraphernalia (for the hardcore Coke fanatic)

and magazines.

There are a ton of things to chose from.  Just in case you are one of those people who may already have their holiday shopping done, you can also collect Reward Points and donate them to your favorite school.  These days, our schools can use all the help they can get.  

These points add up over time.  Family members save the codes for me, so I can grow my numbers.

There are several members of my family that will be receiving subscriptions to their favorite magazines for Christmas.  This is the gift that keeps giving all year long.   Since we do drink Coke (even though we have tried to cut back) I will continue to collect My Coke Rewards and use them for my $500 Holiday Challenge.

How about you?  Do you collect My Coke Rewards?

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What Did I Do??

I was just checking out my blog and noticed on the Page Tabs that my $500 Holiday Challenge is was not showing up.  I thought maybe I just turned it off so to speak.  And even then I don't know why I may have hid it in the first place.  Come to find out I DELETED it!!!!  It is not there, it is gone! 
I can rewrite the page, and I will.  But what really Sucks is that my List of purchases and the price I paid were also on that page..... I am hoping I can go through my challenge related posts will help me put my list back together.  And why is it not on my hard drive?? Good Question.... good question.

$500 HOLIDAY CHALLENGE UPDATE

Getting back to the daily business of maintaining a reasonable budget, I have to revisit my $500 Holiday Challenge.  We are half way through this year and you all know that Christmas is coming and it will be here before you know it!  In past years, I always thought I was prepared, but I would ALWAYS go over budget.  This year, I want to be in control of Holiday Shopping.  I want to be prepared and not have that "I am not in control" feeling again.

What I have found very helpful with participating in the $500 Holiday Challenge is that I have a list of what I have already purchased and for whom I intended it for.  There is no repeating gift buying, no forgotten gifts, and I am reminded of what I have to work on such as photo calender for my mom.

Today, being  July 26, we are less than 6 months away from Christmas.   You still have time to get your shopping lists together, your budgets figured out and most importantly you will have control and peace of mind.

I currently have 145.00 in Amazon Gift Cards, earned from Swagbucks. 
 I am not really sure what I will spend these or for who, but they will definitely help me to stretch my Holiday Gift spending.

Before the move and the job changes, I also had automatic transfers to ING that went to several sub accounts,one of which was a "Christmas Savings" account.  Currently, we do not have any transfers taking place, when I start my new job and I figure out my pay periods, I will have the automatic withdrawals begin.

Currently I have $405.00 in my Christmas account.I have not yet transferred any money from that account to repay for what I have already purchased.  I will do that when I am done with my shopping.

 Have you  started your Holiday Shopping?  Do you have a Budget in place for your shopping?
For more ideas visit Penny at The Saved Quarter!

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$500 HOLIDAY CHALLENGE UPDATE

This past weekend, I continued on my quest to find great deals and bargains for my $500 Holiday Challenge.  While at JC Penny's this weekend, ( JC Penny's always has great deals) I found Sterling Silver Earrings marked down 75% from $40.00 to $10.00.  I went ahead and picked up 4 different pairs.  These purchases completed my shopping for four individuals on my list. My grown granddaughters and my best friend's daughter.

My son-in-law is particularly hard to buy for, as I think all men are.  But I did find him a novelty T-shirt that he can relate to for $6.00 marked down from $10.00. I may have to use this for his upcoming Birthday gift, but at least I will have something for him. I also picked up some Pocket T-shirts for Mr. CTS, and they were a great price at about $4.00 each.  Shirts for him can be kinda expensive as I have to get shirts that are for tall men, and they always charge extra for that.  The shirts were regularly $25.00 each. A great bargain!!

Also last week, I found an interesting gift for my mom.  She had mentioned that she would like a "lava lamp" and at Ross they had them marked down to $9.99.  I could not pass that up!  It is similar to the one in the picture.  Black Lava in Orange water.

Currently I have spent $120.00 and have completed shopping for at least 4 individuals on my list.  

$500 Christmas Challenge Update

I tend to spend a lot of time at Target on my lunch hours... and I scour the Clearance shelves and racks looking for the best deals I can find.  This week, I found these boxes of Yankee Candle Votives.There are 18 per box, and there were marked down from $19.95 to $4.98.  I am going to use some of the for my personal use, but I was thinking I can add a couple of these in to Birthday gift bags.. ( the Vanilla Icing ones) and the Apple Berry Spice I can use around the Holidays for friends and family.   What do you think?


Here is my updated $500 Christmas Challenge Update Chart.  I have to say, by documenting what I am buying for Christmas I know exactly what I have on hand.  Before I would buy an item early on in the year and then completely forget about it and end up overspending (again) at Christmas.

My Biggest challenge is going to be shopping for my teen age grandsons. Seriously... I do not know what to get them. Any Suggestions?

My Amazon Gift Card total earned from Swag Bucks is 120.00.  That is pretty cool, and easy to earn.

Here is my chart....

GIFT ITEM PURCHASED	RECIPIENT	SPENT	HOW I GOT IT FOR LESS THAN FULL PRICE
Knitted scarf	Granddaughter # 1	6.98 3.48	Marked down at Target 75%
Rimmel Lip Gloss	Granddaughter # 1	0.75	Marked down 75% at CVS
Rimmel Lip Gloss	Granddaughter # 2	0.75	Marked down 75% at CVS
Pair of Monkey of Socks	Granddaughter  # 2	1.75	Marked Down 75% at /Target
Two pairs of Paul Frank Monkey Socks	Granddaughter #3	6.00	Marked down at Target 45%
Rimmel Lip Gloss	Granddaughter # 3	0.75	Marked down 75% at CVS
Red Converse Sneakers	Grandson # 4	5.00	Marked down 75% at Target
Physicians Formula Eye Shadow Kit	Daughter	3.50	Marked Down 75% at CVS
Rimmel Lip Gloss	Daughter	0.75	Marked down 75% at CVS
Marilyn Monroe Blanket	Daughter	23.00	Spencer’s Full Price
Physicians Formula Eye Shadow Kit	Son’s Girlfriend	3.50	Marked Down 75% at CVS
Rimmel Lip Gloss	Sons’ Girlfriend	0.75	Marked down 75% at CVS
Rimmel Lip Gloss	Daughter In Law	0.75	Marked down 75% at CVS
Blanket	Dad	5.00	Ross Marked down 60%
Rimmel Lip Gloss	Friend’s Daughter	0.75	Marked Down 75% CVS
Knitted Scarf Target	Friend’s Daughter	3.48	Marked down 75% t
Rimmel Lip Gloss	Friend	0.75	Marked Down 75% CVS
2 boxes of “Yankee Candle” Votive candles (18) per box	To use in gift bags for Birthdays and Christmas	4.98 each 10.00 total	Marked Down 75% Target
	TOTAL SPENT SO FAR	71.00

120.00 in Amazon Gift Cards to spend 

Have you started shopping for Christmas yet?  I know, it April.... but if you start now you will not be so stressed doing last minute shopping that will cost you an arm and a leg!

If you have started, Share your great deal here!

Swag Bucks To Date: 2100
How I am using my Swag Bucks

$500 HOLIDAY CHALLENGE UPDATE

I am joining Sharon at  My Year of Spending Less and Living More  as well as Penny at "The Saved Quarter" in  the $500 Christmas Challenge.  Now, if you checked out the links you will see that Penny did a remarkable job at only spending $100 dollars for Christmas.  I am more comfortable with using Sharon's benchmark of $500 for my challenge limit.


I will be incorporating money saving techniques that Penny has used such as Swagbucks, Groupon, Living Social and My Coupon.  For the month of January, using my earned Swagbucks, I  have already earned $25 in Amazon Gift Cards.   I hope to do that every month,so by the end of the year I will have  $325 dollars in Amazon Gift Cards.


Penny at The Saved Quarter has managed to put together an impressive gift giving list that is definitely worth more than $100 dollars.  She has managed to strategically use her gift cards, mystery shopping and thrifty ways to acquire great gifts for her friends and family.
 
My latest additions to my $500 Holiday Challenge were found last week at Ross.  ( I love Ross!!)  I have been struggling with what to get my dad for Christmas.  Not this year, but every year is it a struggle.  At a certain point, your parents have everything that they want, so trying to figure out what to get them can be just plain difficult.
My dad stays in most of the day.  He has difficulty getting around and uses a walker to get from point A to point B.  When he is in his chair/lazyboy he likes to keep a blanket on him at all times.  At Ross, I found a lovely, masculine blanket.  It has golfing scenes on it and I am pretty sure he will enjoy it.  Cost: $5.95!

Have you started thinking about Christmas yet?

$500 Holiday Challenge Update

I am joining Sharon at  My Year of Spending Less and Living More  as well as Penny at "The Saved Quarter" in  the $500 Christmas Challenge.  Now, if you checked out the links you will see that Penny did a remarkable job at only spending $100 dollars for Christmas.  I am more comfortable with using Sharon's benchmark of $500 for my challenge limit.


I will be incorporating money saving techniques that Penny has used such as Swagbucks, Groupon, Living Social and My Coupon.  For the month of January, using my earned Swagbucks, I  have already earned $25 in Amazon Gift Cards.   I hope to do that every month,so by the end of the year I will have  $325 dollars in Amazon Gift Cards.


Penny at The Saved Quarter has managed to put together an impressive gift giving list that is definitely worth more than $100 dollars.  She has managed to strategically use her gift cards, mystery shopping and thrifty ways to acquire great gifts for her friends and family.


By tomorrow, I will have cashed in enough Swag Bucks to reach  my monthly limit of Amazon Gift Cards.  Yep, another $25 dollars of Amazon Gift Cards towards my  $500 Holiday Challenge.  My Swag Buck Balance today is 1555.  I have got to get busy to acquire enough for next month's Amazon Gift Cards. This month I successfully completed a survey for 100 Swag bucks, so I will try that at least once a week.

I have another way to make Christmas gift giving easier too.  My Coke Rewards lets you accumulate points to use for different prizes.  You can find the codes on coke products and submit them  at the My Coke Rewards website.   I will be using the points for Magazine subscriptions to use as Christmas Gifts.  My daughter likes work out magazines and she will be getting  a"Fitness" subscription which is only 133 points.  The twelve packs of coke products "codes" are worth 10 points each, so with the help of other family members I will have this in no time.  I am also going to get a "cooking" magazine subscription for my mom.  Coke has a great selection of magazines, so check it out.  This will definitely help you  in your Christmas Shopping! 

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$500 Holiday Challenge

I am joining Sharon at  My Year of Spending Less and Living More  as well as Penny at "The Saved Quarter" in  the $500 Christmas Challenge.  Now, if you checked out the links you will see that Penny did a remarkable job at only spending $100 dollars for Christmas.  I am more comfortable with using Sharon's benchmark of $500 for my challenge limit.

I will be incorporating money saving techniques that Penny has used such as Swagbucks, Groupon, Living Social and My Coupon.  For the month of January, using my earned Swagbucks, I  have already earned $25 in Amazon Gift Cards.   I hope to do that every month,so by the end of the year I will have  $325 dollars in Amazon Gift Cards.

Penny at The Saved Quarter has managed to put together an impressive gift giving list that is definitely worth more than $100 dollars.  She has managed to strategically use her gift cards, mystery shopping and thrifty ways to acquire great gifts for her friends and family.

To date, I have not yet bought anything for Christmas.  But check back on the Tabs up above. I will keep that page updated with my upcoming purchases.  I  so excited to get started with this challenge!!

You all can join along too!  What do ya say??