More Meaningful Gift Giving

Most of the family members we give birthday or Christmas gifts to are adults. Most of them don't need anything. And every year I tell myself that we are not going to spend a lot of money. Last year I didn't listen! So this year, we are doing something different. You can use any of these ideas for any gift-giving occasion.

 Birthdays: 

• For adults: We are giving the gift of service. Not just any service. A meaningful service that correlates with the personality, likes, and hobbies that birthday guy or gal enjoys. Of course, you can give a variety of service to your family member that lives close. All of my family lives far away, so we are following the lead of the Gates Family (although they do this for Christmas) and giving service in honor of that far-away person. Then we will send them a nice letter detailing the story of our service-gift to them.  

       -On a side note, last year for my 30th birthday I rang it in by doing 30 acts of service in 30 days. It was a wonderful and amazing way to celebrate my birthday. I asked everyone on Facebook to do an act of service, also, for my birthday in hopes of having another 30 acts of service. It was a blessing to hear how those I love were serving others in my name. I got this idea from Thomas S. Monson, our beloved prophet, who a few years ago said that when people asked him what he wanted for his birthday, he wanted others to serve, plus a blog post by someone else (sorry I don't have the link) who said they spent their birthday doing random acts of kindness. Love it!

Drinking my free birthday Slurpee; I picked up trash at 7-11 as one of my acts of service.
Disclaimer: My birthday is 7-11 and anyone can get a free Slurpee that day. This was not payment for service.

• For kids: Instead of spending tons of money on a birthday party and presents, plus having everyone else bring more toys that your child probably does not need, there are several options that involve charity.                                 

         -ECHOage allows the child register for one big present as well as a charity of their choice. Guests get an invite to donate online, money goes to both the present and the charity. Win-win!
         -Have your child ask for a specific item to be donated to a specific charity. I read a story many years ago about a little girl who asked for shoes for her birthday to donate to children in Africa. I think she got over 300 pairs. Several other children have requested shoes for their birthday for a variety of local organizations. Other ideas: ask for toys, blankets, books or clothes for shelters or Children's hospitals, stuffed animals for the local police department for children involved in trauma, or school supplies for a school in a poor area.

         -Request Christmas boxes in lieu of gifts (even if your child's birthday is not near Christmas).  My ward (church) made over 75 Christmas boxes for 2013. While you can send boxes to foreign countries through Samaritan's Purse, we donated ours to local elementary schools. The boxes were sent home with children enrolled in the Backpack program (children who won't have food over the weekend get a backpack full of food to take home.)

         -This mommy has a list of great ideas for each age to have a "less presents" birthday celebration

Christmas: Christmas has become so commercialized! Even with making homemade gifts, it is easy to get carried away with all the STUFF. Instead of spending money on more stuff people don't need, we are going to donate to charity in their name. Here are some great charitable gift ideas we might use:

• animals for families in places like Africa through World Vision-you can buy anything from chickens to goats to pigs or cows. The animals will not only provide food for these families but they can sell milk, eggs and cheese to provide for their families in the future
• insecticide treated mosquito nets for families in Africa to prevent malaria through the United Nations Nothing but nets program
• a well for clean water in Africa through the Water Project.

                  These are just a few ideas. Again, you can still make this personal. If someone loves animals, buy animals (above) or donate to the National Zoo. If they love camping, donate mosquito nets. There are a plethera of local, national, and world-wide charities that could use donations more than your sister can use a new Ipod.

What is your favorite non-stuff gift to give?

Craftnanigans & Snazzysauce

Spending $$$: Stop! Halt! Do not enter!

One of the biggest financial changes one can make is to stop spending money on frivolous things.

"Hey, big spender!" circa 2008. Back in my rapper days...don't ask!

I can honestly say that we don't have extra spending money in our budget. But at the same time, I know I am spending money on things I don't need. I am guilty of going to Walmart or Kroger for groceries and coming home with junk food or a DVD or some other random household item that I didn't really need to buy (what? they were on sale!) This is money that could be used on real food or put into a much needed savings. We don't really have much wiggle room in any other area of our budget except for gas. Everything else is a set payment each month and my paychecks get budgeted down to $0. So how am I going to stop spending my grocery money on non-necessary items?

A few years ago I came across a blog entry  about a family that decided not to buy any non-necessary items for 1 year. I tried to find it via a Google search and it seems that "a year without spending" is a popular thing now. Many other people have blogged about not spending for a year and there are different reasons why every one is doing this...

This blog mentions something called The Compact-a now national and world-wide trend where people make a commitment to not buy new items (used is okay) in order to protest consumerism and waste:
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2007/11/28/ultimate-recycling-buying-nothing-new-for-one-year/

This blog mentions a quest for gratitude for what they already have:
http://dfwstyledaily.com/2013/06/05/no-shopping-for-one-year-my-real-life-story/

This is an article highlighting the family I originally read about (I can't seem to find their actual blog.) This family wanted to enjoy what they had more, including and especially family:
http://www.redbookmag.com/money-career/tips-advice/year-without-spending

Here are the rules which this family created:

"RULE 1: Jon and I wouldn't purchase anything for one year. No clothing, shoes, adorable pocketbooks, or gadgets. Nada.

RULE 2: The girls would be allowed to get clothing only at the beginning of the school year or if they outgrew something they needed. New toys and games were off-limits.

RULE 3: All gifts would be in the form of books, gift cards, or homemade items. 

RULE 4: Broken items would not be replaced. 

RULE 5: Purchasing makeup was allowed. (A girl can only sacrifice so much!)

RULE 6: Any form of family entertainment was allowed — and encouraged."

My goal is to stop spending so we can save money and pay off debt. Since I want us to make a realistic and achievable goal, I cannot guarantee 1 year without spending. But I think 3 months is a good place to start and then if we are successful we can start again for another 3 months.

Some additional thoughts about our rules:

• Although we shouldn't need any new clothes, it is still nice to have a change. I will be posting later ideas for upcycling and revamping clothes already in the closet.
• If we feel like something sweet, we can make dessert at home. There are several copycat candy bar recipes floating around the web which we will try later.
• The library has a large collection of DVDs and books. I can even check out ebooks for my Kindle. We do have Netflix but we will be either doing just streaming or suspending our account (if I can get hubby on board) to cut our expenditures. 
• Most people we give gifts to already have pretty much everything they need. We very much spent more than we wanted at Christmas because we failed to budget and plan, and we just plain bought too many presents (okay, it was me not the hubby). Check back tomorrow for more info on our gift giving plan for the year.
• If we really feel like we need something we don't have, we can try to find it on Freecycle or borrow it from someone we know.  
• Because we have busy lives, we do need to have convenience foods that are fast and easy. I buy burritos, Taquitos, egg rolls, poptarts and stuff like that (only 1 or 2 different things at a time) so we can have a quick meal. We still have the convenience of fast food without the huge cost.

Tomorrow I will be posting some new money saving ideas.  Any money we save by doing this spending fast will go towards paying off my car, as we only have a few months left. Then that monthly payment will be snowballed to pay for our new vacation ownership loan.

My biggest spending challenge is going to be my grocery spending. I need to stop buying non-food items just because they are on sale. But if I meal plan and make a grocery list that I stick to, it will be a piece of cake (homemade, of course, since we won't be buying desserts!) And if I plan ahead, I won't be rushing to work without bringing lunch from home, another time I spend unnecessary money.

What is your hardest thing to not spend money on?


Craftnanigans & Snazzysauce

Free printable 2014 Mini Calendar

I searched through several websites until I found this free printable version of a 2014 bookmark size calendar. There are also wallet size calendars and full size calendars on the regular website. I am going to use this to keep track of my daily scripture study, but you can use it for any daily goal you have for the year. Good luck!

http://www.printable2014calendars.com/preview/2014_Calendar_Bookmark Craftnanigans & Snazzysauce

Kiss Me At Midnight! (Goals For January)

"Kiss me at midnight, dance into the morning light, party into the new year..." I love that 'N Sync sings a song about New Year! It is fun and catchy. And yes, I still listen to my 'N Sync CDs!

Anyways...Happy New Year!

If you read yesterday's post, you know that I have the same bazillion New Year's resolutions each year that I pretty much never accomplish. But this year is going to be different because I am making SMART goals and only biting off a small chunk of my list each month.

JANUARY

Old Goal: study scriptures every day
Why I did not do well with this goal:

• I have a rotating schedule working both days and nights, so I cannot have a set time every day to do this (or anything else)
• I keep forgetting to do this
• When I tried to make this a bedtime habit I would fall asleep reading

New Goal: Study scriptures every day for at least 10 minutes or 1 Chapter when I wake up.

How I am going to accomplish this:

• Utilize a calendar to mark off days that I have read (especially important since sometimes I wake up in the morning and sometimes I wake up at night, depending on work)
• Keep my scriptures on my night stand so I see them when I wake up
• Use the timer on my phone to keep track of how long I read

Old Goal: Save money

Why I did not do well with this goal:

• I did not use a budget very often
• I tried to use a computer budget (excel spreadsheet)
• I did not keep track of every transaction in my bank account
• I spent money I didn't have or didn't need to i.e.buying things because they were on sale even though I did not need them
• I was in charge of the bills/budget and did not involve my hubby enough.
• I used my credit cards for groceries and gas (to get points) but did not keep track of spending and went over budget, then had to use what savings I had to pay off the credit cards

New Goal: Create a budget and use it with every paycheck to make sure every $ has a place (including at least $5 for savings).

How I am going to accomplish this:

• Create a financial binder with a paper budget that is easy to access every day
• Involve my hubby with paying bills and budgeting with each paycheck.
• Stop spending money on unnecessary things!
• Have a specific plan for saving money
• Utilize an envelope system for gas and groceries so I do not spend over budget.

Good news for you! I am focusing my January blog entries (for the most part) on the useful tips I have listed above for accomplishing my financial goal. I have searched through Pinterest and the internet for budgeting and money saving tips and found that most of them give the same old advice-I am going to give you some new advice! Check back often to see how you, too, can get a financial jump start to your year.

Craftnanigans & Snazzysauce