Week 4 - Jewel 4

As the final days of January are rapidly approaching, thoughts of Christmas become distant memories. Yet, the jewels offered here will support you throughout your gift giving year: Christmas, Anniversaries, Birthdays or otherwise.  We are a creative and hands-on group of gals that are always ready for a challenge!  To supplement our shopping strategies we also do some home-made gifts.  Over the years we have made an array of home made crafts from sewing projects to wreaths, that are always fun to construct and truly treasured by the receiver, but one of our newest endeavors has been making homemade jam together. 
 
Our History: Four years ago Marcie’s bought a new home which included a small orchard.  The bounty of apricots, plums, peaches, cherries, and apples have since kept us busy making delicious sweet creations.  Before Marcie’s home with fruit trees, Jaime was the only one who had ventured into the mysterious world of home food preservation.  All of our grandmothers had canned out of pure necessity, but why would this group of modern gals ever need that skill?  Marcie was about to go crazy with too much fresh fruit to consume, we decided we could make jam - maybe it would turn out and we could give it as gifts at Christmas! 
 
Since then, the three of us have logged countless hours picking, pitting, and preserving!  Some batches turned out perfectly, some not as much, but we have learned so much about the time honored tradition of preserving summer’s bounty for a cold winter’s day!  We made enough jam for our family for the coming year as well as enough for gifts.  Jam is a perfect gift for teachers, the kid’s bus driver, or co-workers.  A single jar can be eloquently wrapped (raffia – cheap and beautiful!) and given alone, or combined with other home made treats in a festive holiday basket.  Any way you do it: this gift is a welcome surprise at Christmas or any other time!
 
In the current economy, more and more people are trying to get back to basics – or find creative ways to acknowledge people and events without breaking the budget. As you are settling in with your New Year’s Resolutions, consider adding your own special talent to the mix. I’m sure you have one: You just need to tap into how to create a great gift. 
 
Your Turn: Maybe making jam isn’t your thing (yet!) but we encourage you to think of some skill you posses that you could use to make something beautiful to add to your gift giving repertoire.  Find something that serves double duty, excess fruit made to jam, that we can eat during the year (savings!!) and that serves as a delectable gift.  Most importantly do this project with a group of friends, as we have found it makes any job less daunting and so much more fun!
 
What is your special talent? Maybe you have several. Crochet? Knit? Card Making, Scrapbooking, wood-working, gardening, music, singing, drawing/painting, photography?
 
Here is a list of several ideas to get your home-made gift giving a try. Think of what you are good at – and then get creative of how to give it away!
Crochet/Knit
            *Make a scarf, blanket or sweater vest depending on your skill level. Make pot holders – or teach your children how to do simple stitches and have them make pot holders for their grandparents or aunts and uncles. Christmas yarn might still be on sale or on clearance! AND, you have all year to work on them. Winter is the best time to work with yarn, especially with blanket and afghans because it keeps you warm while you work!
Card Making
*Develop a small collection of cards (8 or so) that could be used for different holidays. Buy a nice pen and wrap them up together as a simple, useful and beautiful birthday, anniversary or just thinking of you gift. Or get some done and put them away as gifts on your Christmas list.         
Scrapbooking
            *Create ready-made pages for a friend. Maybe someone is having a baby – create ready-made pages that they can slip photos into, or glue on for quick and easy bragging and album pages.
            *Buy several sheets of paper, ribbons, pens and create a simple basket (or bag) of goodies for a photo happy friend.
Wood-working
            *Create a simple planter, and add a package of seeds.
            *Make a shelf with your friend in mind! Do they like to hang quilts? Add a bar at the bottom. Do they want one in the bathroom? Add some hooks for towels.
Gardening
            *Some simple pails with dirt and bulbs in them make a wonderful gift. Most people love enjoying them in their house, then transferring them outside. If you are giving it to someone who is not a green-thumb, be sure to include a card with directions.
            *Put together a basket of gloves, seed packets and a new shovel. Or tie a gift card to a local nursery onto a gardening tool
Music
            *Create a recording of you playing or singing favorite songs of your friend. Record this to a CD and pass it along. If you are unsure how to record, find your closest friendly high school student – most of them are capable or have the ability on their laptops.
            *Invite a friend to a play, concert or evening out enjoying music you both share an interest in. This way you get to spend time together doing something you both love!
Drawing/Painting
            *Draw or paint an image of a scene or picture your friend would enjoy.  A simple frame and you have perfected another gift!
Photography
            *Take a photo your friend adores and have it put on a canvas. Many Costco and other stores will do this for a reasonable price.
            *Take photos at the next event you are together. Then create a collage – or save the photos, and find the perfect frame on a Black Friday sale to put them in.
            *If you are a pretty good photographer with a decent camera, offer to come out and take family portraits as their gift. Provide the set up, suggestions on background, colors, offer the time they want, groups, individual shots, etc. Then develop the prints and return them with the negatives.  
If you have a great idea that we haven't suggested above - leave it in your post for others to view. Together, we are brilliant!

Week 3 - Jewel 3

Memories from the corners of our minds:

                In 2003, Sherrie worked on her first Black Friday at Kmart.  She was just starting out in the world: had finished college, moved to Oregon, and had a place of her own.  Those were the days!  Remember how great it was to be on your own for the first time?  She had camping chairs and milk crates for furniture!  Since she's always been cheap, she wouldn't turn on the heat - her ability to save even a few cents began then, and blossomed into a Black Friday Frenzy. Regardless of those meager beginnings and being scheduled to work, Sherrie hit the stores at 4am prepared to shop.  She ran all over town all by herself (really not as much fun though - get some friends to go with you!) collecting the hot ticket items she longed for.  She didn’t even have a list - scorn!  By 9am she was sitting at her work desk, yet daydreaming about her purchases - AND her savings.

                A couple years later when Sherrie had moved back to California, had a better job (and better furniture) she was still willing and even eager to stand in line on a chilly morning in search of that great deal.  In 2005, Marcie and Sherrie went Black Friday shopping together for the first time, though Marcie was still a bit skeptical about the entire concept. Jaime just laughed at the thought. Jaime's mother always preached that going out at O'dark-thirty was ridiculous - so since that is what Jaime grew up - it's what she thought.  Regardless, Sherrie and Marcie bought the newspaper. EEK! It was the wrong one! The ads come in the paper THANKSGIVING MORNING! In today's world there are lots of websites (www.blackfriday.info) that have the ads plastered early - so it's even easier in to create your shopping list.  Nonetheless, that year, they combed through the ads over and over, in order to have a game plan for the big day - and thus, our traditions began to take hold.

                Despite the fun, each year presented a new reason why NOT to shop on Black Friday: Marcie went just a few short weeks after giving birth to her son.  As a nursing mother she sat in the back seat and pumped as we drove up the freeway in the middle of the night because she didn’t want to waste time at home doing it!  In 2008 Sherrie was in a serious car accident and broke her neck in two places on November 9^th but miraculously she was able to recover enough to go shopping!  She still got up at 3am to be in line before her favorite stores opened.  She had on a neck brace and used her cart as protective armor.  You think other shoppers might have cut her some slack, but you would be wrong!  She slept the entire next day to recoup but she thought it was worth it after all! Jaime lived a few hours away, but our shopping trio was not complete without her so she has to drive up a few days ahead of time to be a part of the action. 

                It wasn’t until 2009 we really had things figured out we were all together, we were armed with our budgets, lists, cash, and matching sweatshirt.  Each year our Black Friday traditions bring us together for the sake of laughter, spending time with friends, and let’s not forget SAVING MONEY!

        Chat with your friends now! Make a pact to go shopping on Black Friday - use the tips in the past weeks, to sort out a budget, make a plan and stick with it. This is a new year! New things can happen! Make a decision now, so that in November, when you are feeling swamped, and your coworkers and friends are feeling pressured, you can happily sit back and think, I've got this all under control!

 

If you would like to know more about the more about the origins of Black Friday check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_(shopping)

Week 2 - Jewel 2

Getting it DONE!

Kids are back to school, the routine is back in order and it is the perfect time to reflect on holiday shopping to take a few minutes to update your running list of ideas.  Download the excel spreadsheet for budgeting – there’s a sample (you can look at it, and then delete) to get an idea of what to do: Then make it very basic. Anything too complicated and it might be hard to stick with it. Identify who you’d like to shop for and figure out how much you want to spend on each person. Your total number divided by 11 (11 months until Black Friday) is how much you need to be squirreling away each month until then. We will give you ideas of how else to add to that foxy pocket as the year progresses.

Things to consider when budgeting for gifts:

1)      Write down anyone you may have accidently overlooked this past Christmas.  Every year Sherrie’s sister-in-law brings her father to our family Christmas and she always forgets him.  She vows not to forget him this year by writing him on her list now -no more awkwardness for her! 

2)      Review your budget: Sherrie realized she is spending too much on her nephew because he lost interest in the gifts, and simply wanted to play with what he had already opened. So, next year she pares back on his budget and opens up room for additional people (like a new niece!)

3)      Consider birthdays, anniversaries or other events that fall shortly after Christmas. Jaime has several birthdays for friends and family in January. She adds them to her shopping list on Black Friday. She gets a better deal, or she gets something that goes with the Christmas gift. AND it sure makes January easier.

4)       Make sure to create a budget space for this separate gift as well.

Create a separate tab on your spreadsheet to help with gift ideas. Having a running list makes shopping so much easier next season.

Things to consider when creating a running list:

1)      Have the same people from your budget list. What items did you get that they really seem to love?

2)      Delete items that might already be on your list that they have received from other people and add new ideas based on what they seem to love right now. You can continuously maintain this list all year long (might also help with birthday ideas!)

3)      Consider what gifts they received this year: Are there accessories that can add to that gift? Get the information, website or store where you can purchase those things. Add it in next to that person – that way next year, you know exactly where to find it! Sherrie bought her mom a quilting table, and this year she was able to buy the cutting mat accessory.  She was so easy to shop for this year thanks to this jewel of a tip!

Things to shop for now:

1)                          January is the perfect time to find Christmas decorations, cards, and even gifts at deeply discounted prices.  This last year Marcie sent out Christmas cards that she bought discounted 11 months before!  They were regularly $5 per box of 18 cards, but marked down 75% off and ultimately paid $1.25 for the box!  Pack them away in the box of Christmas decorations you generally open first. That way you will be sure to find them.

2)                           Also, another idea would be to write yourself a note in your planner (paper or electronic), put a note in the month of November.  That way when you turn to November, you have a reminder that you made the purchase and where you stashed it!! 

3)                          Other items to purchase after Christmas include strings of lights (that Marcie wanted for a spring wedding).

4)                          Toys that are packaged for Christmas will be discounted substantially after the first of the year. If you were unable to get something on Black Friday, you might go looking now.

5)                          Random household items:

a.      Extension cords: Green ones are sold for outdoor Christmas lights, and are discounted after the holidays! 

b.      Timers: These can be used in the yard or for house lights inside to turn on at a specific time. (Isn’t it nice to come home at night and have a house light already on? Also, it’s nice for when you are on vacation to have lights that automatically come on - making it appear someone is home).

Week 1 - Jewel 1

Money saving jewels are the tips that we consider essential. Some seem logical and even easy, but it is the culmination of all jewels together than provide an easy, laughter filled holiday shopping season. We will post one new 'jewel of a tip' each week that contains new and exciting ideas that will help you prepare for your Black Friday Frenzy!

This weeks focus is on setting up a budget. Consider how much money you spent this past year - BE HONEST! Don't forget to include the teacher, baby sitters, and co-workers or those extra gifts you might keep handy for the "you shouldn't have" people. Make a tally of it all, so you have an idea what you should save to be prepared. If you blew the budget in 2010, then our ideas are just the thing that you need! Start by making a pre-planned budget part of your New Year's resolution!

Create a Christmas or Holiday account at a place that is not part of your regular banking - otherwise the temptation to spend it will be too easy!  It doesn't have to be an account, you can just have an envelope in your safe! Depending on your will power, consider what will work for you - some banks or credit unions have accounts just for this purpose, with automatic with-drawl - or consider an online interest earning savings account.

Whatever you decide - stick to it. Don't be tempted to use it! You will be so happy you saved when November arrives.

Pay attention to upcoming posts on budgeting! We will discuss how to make a budget, provide a template for your use, and give out tips on money saving options! Check back with us soon!

Your Best Jewelers,

MSJ