Living Large on a Limited Budget
Pick up Starbucks Iced Coffee K-Cups (16 ct) for $5.49 right now at Target ($0.34 per K-Cup)!
Target Week of 8/2:
Starbucks Iced Coffee K-Cups (16 ct), $13.99
Use 50% off Starbucks Iced Coffee K-Cups Target Cartwheel
Plus use $3/2 Starbucks Iced Coffee K-Cup printable
$5.49 each after coupons ($0.34 per K-Cup)!
Check out the rest of this week’s Target deals before you head out to shop.
Thanks, Passion For Savings!
I’m partnering with a fantastic group of bloggers to offer the 30-Day Budget Bootcamp Challenge and I’m excited to invite you to join us starting now! With the summer ending, school starting, and holidays approaching, now is the perfect time to take a look at how we can improve our budgets and our spending.
Are you struggling to making ends meet? Or, do you need to get your spending in line with your priorities? The 30 Day Budget Bootcamp Challenge is for you. We’ll help you get a grip on your finances in this easy-to-follow 30-day series.
Starting September 1st, the savvy bunch of frugal bloggers listed below will provide tips and an actionable daily assignment to all challengers. Plus, they will be in the Mommysavers Forums to offer personal 1:1 advice on that day’s topic. At the end of the 30 days, you’ll be on the right track money-wise and have the know-how to continue on that path.
| Kim Danger | mommysavers.com |
| Lauren Greutman | iamthatlady.com |
| Rebecca Shirk | lettersfromsunnybrook.com |
| Kristi Sawicki | SavingDollarsandSense.com |
| Mark and Lauren Greutman | MarkandLaurenG.com |
| Lori Felix | morewithlesstoday.com |
| Denise Iannarelli | couponsforyourfamily.com |
| Laura Oliver | afrugalchick.com |
| Amanda Brackney | simplesavingsavvy.net |
| Maura White | happydealhappyday.com |
| Phoebe Hendricks | gettingfreedom.net |
| Lisa Thompson | simplifiedsaving.com |
| Jen Dotson/Sia Hills | thriftynorthwestmom.com |
| Sarah Weeda | givemeneither.com |
| Stephanie Brandt | debtfreespending.com |
| Maria Tiongco Ramos | ASavingsWOW.com |
| Melissa Buckles | everydaysavvy.com |
| Kim Danger | beachreadynow.com |
| Mary Hoover | missiontosave.com |
| Kaley Ehret | chachingonashoestring.com |
| Jen Schreiner | inspiringsavings.com |
JOIN US: Simply create a free Mommysavers Forum account and log in daily starting September 1st to receive your assignment. (The private Budget Bootcamp Challenge forum is located here: http://www.mommysavers.com/c/f/15393/30-day-budget-challenge. It will only be viewable by registered/logged in members).
The Merry Little Christmas Project is the result of my desire to simplify and make Christmas more meaningful this year – and offer resources for you to do the same. If you haven’t joined us on Facebook yet, be sure to do so!
As I write this, I am preparing to turn the last page in my calendar. November has flown by like a jet plane and December is upon us.
Time to check in. How’s everybody doing?
I suppose you’d like to know if I finished my Christmas shopping and wrapping by December 1st as I intended?
I’ll be honest. I have a huge chunk of it done, but there’s still a few odds and ends that need to be wrapped up.
But then – it’s only November 30th – I still have time, right?! 🙂
By now, you may be wondering: “If your shopping is done, what exactly do you plan to do all December?
Ooooh…I’m SO glad you asked!
Here comes the FUN part! The whole reason I have been so willing to stress myself out in November was so that I could actually ENJOY December. To celebrate Advent which is defined as: “An arrival or coming, especially one which is awaited.”
I’ve always wanted December to be a time to just BE and REFLECT.
I want to make TIME this year for things like this:
I want to continue this tradition:
I created an updated Christmas Advent Box Activities List if you’d like to join us.
I want to take more time to enjoy simplicity like these candles and pine branches I gathered today:
And I want to be okay with the fact that nothing is ever as perfect as I hope it will be:
Can I add one more IMPORTANT NOTE?
Please don’t read this and think that I have everything under control. December will come with its stresses and messes and “Oh-NO-I-Can’t-Believe-I-Forgot-That!” moments. I promise. I just am hoping that it will also come with more SIMPLICITY and PURPOSE than it has in year’s past.
If you are reading this and feeling like you have TOO much left to do in order to prepare for Christmas, why not take a moment and make a list? Then go ahead and give yourself an early Christmas present and cross at least 5 of those items off your list?
No one ever said that you HAVE to _______________ (send Christmas cards, make all of your cookies from scratch, hand-stitch presents for all of your co-workers, YOU fill in the blank!) Christmas does NOT have to be as stressful as we make it!
I plan on continuing to share ways we are celebrating the Christmas season over on the MLC Project Facebook page. I hope you’ll share ways that your family is celebrating too!
And now…Let Advent begin!
See more posts from The Merry Little Christmas Project here.
The Merry Little Christmas Project is the result of my desire to simplify and make Christmas more meaningful this year – and offer resources for you to do the same. If you haven’t joined us on Facebook yet, be sure to do so!
If you’ve joined me in the November Shopping Challenge, you may be looking for a simple way to track gifts and spending like I am.
Here are two free downloadable Christmas budget spreadsheets that I found:
Free Holiday Budget Worksheets
If you are a Smartphone user:
Amazon has several Christmas budget planning apps for Android here.
iTunes has The Christmas List budget planning app for $0.99. (Or you could do a search in the app store for other free apps.)
Know of any other resources for tracking your Christmas budget? Leave a comment!
See more posts from The Merry Little Christmas Project here.
The Merry Little Christmas Project is the result of my desire to simplify and make Christmas more meaningful this year – and offer resources for you to do the same. If you haven’t joined us on Facebook yet, be sure to do so!
I shared on Facebook the other day that I have a new plan for my November Shopping Challenge: Since I do most of my shopping online, my new goal is to purchase ONE gift per day through the end of November. (If I happen to cross more than one gift off in a day, then so be it!) Somehow this seems a little less intimidating to me.
Since my goal is to finish shopping AND wrapping gifts by December 1st, I also figured I better set a wrapping plan in place. So I’ve decided to set aside Fridays as my wrapping days. Any gifts that I’ve purchased that week will get wrapped on Fridays.
AND since my wrapping system was a hot mess, I decided it was time to purchase a wrapping paper organizer. I went ahead and purchased this gift wrap organizer from Amazon:
It arrived this week and so far I love it! I think it will really simplify the time I spend wrapping (and isn’t that the goal here?!)
I also made a trip to the Dollar Store this week (the Dollar Store Diva would be proud!) and stocked up on wrapping paper supplies. (Don’t knock it until you’ve checked it out. They have really cute stuff!)
So there you have it. Even my wrapping paper has goals this year.
How about you? Do you have any tried and true systems for wrapping gifts? Leave a comment and help a girl out. I’m a work in progress, afterall. 🙂
Our goal this week? Let the wrapping begin!
See more posts from The Merry Little Christmas Project here.
The Merry Little Christmas Project is the result of my desire to simplify and make Christmas more meaningful this year – and offer resources for you to do the same. If you haven’t joined us on Facebook yet, be sure to do so!
Happy November, all!
Today let’s have a little pep talk.
It is important to me not to get caught up in the commercialization of Christmas. It’s a sacred holiday to me. I have always been the one to wait until after Thanksgiving to pull out even one. single. ornament. And I refuse to play a single note of Christmas music until the last bite of turkey and pumpkin pie is consumed and the annual family football game has been played on Thanksgiving Day.
BUT this year I am choosing to change ONE very important aspect of how I celebrate Christmas.
My goal is to be DONE Christmas shopping AND wrapping by December first.
Sound crazy?
Maybe. But I have resisted this in the past because I felt that waiting until after Thanksgiving was the right thing to do.
And then I found myself trying to cram every single Tradition/Decoration/Cookie/Movie/Advent Calendar/You-Name-It-Christmas-Activity into December WHILE shopping for my entire family.
And I wondered why I was stressed.
I want December to be a month of celebrating…NOT stressing.
So I’m declaring the month of November to be my Christmas shopping month. And I invite you to join me.
Here are three simple ways to prepare to Christmas shop this month:
1. Make a list of every single person that you will purchase presents for this year. You can use one of these free printable Christmas planners to help get organized.
2. Ask yourself if there are any ways to cut back on shopping this year. Just because you did things a certain way in the past does NOT mean that you are locked into doing them the same way this year.
3. Begin to follow my Christmas deals. You can find them right on my navigation bar:
Maybe you’d rather just set a goal to finish shopping by the week before Christmas. Whatever it may be, let’s work together to make our Christmas season a little bit less chaotic this year.
Remember:
“Christmas does NOT have to be as stressful as we make it!”
-Kaley Ehret a.k.a. Me 🙂
Our goal this week? Let the shopping begin!
See more posts from The Merry Little Christmas Project here.
The Merry Little Christmas Project is the result of my desire to simplify and make Christmas more meaningful this year – and offer resources for you to do the same. If you haven’t joined us on Facebook yet, be sure to do so!
According to my Christmas countdown app, we have 63 days until Christmas as I write this – 9 weeks until Christmas Eve!
In days past, I have been the one to resist anything Christmas-y until much much later in the year. After all, don’t we need to celebrate Thanksgiving first?
But what if by beginning our Christmas prep earlier and taking it one chunk at a time, it would FREE us up to truly soak up the holidays?
Well then…I’m all in!
SO that’s why I have been working behind the scenes on what I like to call my 20 Minute Missions Daily Calendar (through November).
I’d LOVE for you to join me. You can check out my Daily Mission calendar here. Feel free to use mine or create your own.
If you prefer to tackle your goals weekly instead of daily, here is a list of what my weekly goals look like:
Week 1: Planner chosen and ready to go; Budget in place.
Week 2: Photos ready to make gifts/ Plan for making gifts in place/Begin asking for gift lists.
Week 3: Christmas shopping 1/4 done. Calendar ready; donations plan in place.
Week 4: Christmas cards ordered; Menu and grocery list planned, Christmas shopping 1/2 done.
Week 5: Address labels ordered, stamps purchased, Christmas shopping 3/4 done.
Week 6: Toys donated/Christmas shopping done!
Week 7: Christmas present wrapped; Christmas cards finished and sent; Two batches of cookies frozen.
Week 8-10: Stay tuned!
I’ll be posting about my progress daily on The Merry Little Christmas Facebook page and inviting you to do the same.
Are you in?
Our goal this week? Begin our Daily 20 Minute Missions!
See more posts from The Merry Little Christmas Project here.
By now I hope you all are donning your Elf Hats and Silver Bells and are ready for The Merry Little Christmas Project to begin! (If you haven’t joined us on Facebook yet, be sure to do so!)
There are three things that I think would have helped me have a tear-free, less stressful Christmas last year.
1. A Plan – It’s not that I didn’t try to plan Christmas last year. I did. But I would have felt more in control if I had one central planning center (that I used!) to track everything from gifts to recipes to decorations, etc.
We are going to do that this year.
2. Preparation – Again, I could have sworn on Christmas morning that I had prepared for Christmas with the best of them. Wasn’t that why I was exhausted? The problem was that a big chunk of my preparation took place in the the late hours of the night during the final week before Christmas. I would have felt much more rested if I had set goals and dates to finish preparations AHEAD of time.
We are going to do that this year.
3. Purpose – I certainly worked hard to make the weeks before Christmas full of all kind of activities that remind us of the reason for the season. But I think there are two questions that I could have asked that would help bring real purpose to all of the activity:
“Can I simplify this?”
“Can I make this more meaningful?”
Guess what? We are going to do that this year.
Starting RIGHT NOW!
Our very first and MOST important step is setting up our Christmas Planning Center.
I have rounded up for you several FREE Christmas planners that will help you get you started on the right foot:
I recommend selecting the one that fits you best and then printing and organizing it in a 3-ring binder.
Or you could opt to simply purchase a Christmas planner from Amazon (like I did).
They have many great options to choose from here. You can purchase the one pictured above for just $5.99 shipped with Amazon Prime. I ordered this one last year (but it looks like the price has gone up).
Of if you are a Smartphone user, Amazon has several Christmas planning apps for Android here.
*I’m having a hard time finding any apps for Apple products. Let me know if you find any!
Know of any other great Christmas planning resources? Be sure to leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you.
Our goal this week? Christmas Planners organized and ready to go! The countdown to our Merry Little Christmas has begun!