Holiday Challenge: An Update

Here's how I'm doing so far on my Holiday Challenge:

• I requested a pile of books at www.paperbackswap.com and pretty much ran through all my credits. I requested a total of three books for my 6 year old, two for my 2 year old, two for my husband (my husband is, alas, not a reading enthusiast but I found some travel books that I think he will like) and one for me (hey, I deserve a present too!).

• I won a drawing on the blog Moms Mutterings. (http://momsmutterings.blogspot.com) for a $25 gift certificate to ABC Ties. This will be a nice Diwali gift for my husband!

• I found a couple of nice new tops for me for Diwali at a local thrift store. One is a lovely fancy top, and I think it will go great with some bottoms I already have. The other is a more simple top that I’m considering altering to make it into a tunic – depending on whether I feel adventurous enough to dust off my rusty sewing skills. Even if I do not alter it, I think some leggings would go great with it. Plus I also found a lovely Italian leather purse, not sure how old it is but it’s in beautiful condition. Total spent so far on clothing and accessories for me: $14.

• I ordered two piggy banks and one kid’s t-shirt from Kellogg’s with their Toy Story 3 promotion http://toystory3.kelloggs.com/ . I had a few codes from Kellogg’s cereal boxes and traded stamps (from Quad Readers Club) for the rest. Waiting on one more code to order one more t-shirt.

Running total spent (listed by gift recipient):
6 year old - $0
2 year old - $1
Husband - $0
Me - $14

Holiday Challenge Update #1

A few more details on my Holiday Challenge:

I’m not counting the cost of stamps that I use to mail OUT things (like for refunds or mail in gift-with-purchase), but I will count in my total the cost of any shipping from an online site or catalog. I usually count shipping as part of the cost of a purchase anyway, so I won’t change my internal accounting for the challenge.

For Diwali, the gifts that I plan to give are new clothes for each of a 2 year old girl, 6 year old boy, my husband and I. The kids will also receive toys and other goodies.

For Christmas, I plan to give stocking stuffers for a 2 year old girl, 6 year old boy, my husband and I; plus stocking stuffers for three of my husband’s cousins (2 guys, 1 gal) whom we will be meeting on a holiday trip (shh – don’t tell them about their presents – it’s a surprise.) Also two secret Santa gifts (adults) and 10 teacher gifts (these have already been taken care of since I hit the 90% off clearance sale at Bath & Body Works last January – price tags still on, so I’ll calculate the cost of these). Plus my mommies group sponsors a needy family every holiday – we all pitch in a little bit of money for items on the family’s wish list, and I always put together some little gifts for each member of the family too. This is the tricky one to plan in advance – we don’t know until a few weeks before the holiday the composition of the family, so there could be kids from baby age all the way through high school. For the challenge, I won’t count the monetary gift but I will count the cost of the “extras” that I give.

I’m off to a pretty good start already, I think. Here’s what I have so far:

• Walgreens has both Crayola washable markers and Crayola 24 pack crayons free after rebate this week (ending 8/07), so I picked these up. Actually, these were better than free, because both were purchased with a 15% off coupon, and I’ll receive the full price in the refund.
• I mailed in for free Small Book of Big Fun from National Geographic. http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/activities/new/big-book-of-fun/ My 6 year old will love this.
• I cashed in one of my book credits at www.paperbackswap.com for a Lego Knights book. This will go great with some Lego Knights figures that I had previously purchased on ebay with paypal (paypal earned at www.quickrewards.net ).
• I plan to stop by Borders today to pick up a free Glitter Ball. http://www.bordersmedia.com/coup/20100806glitterball.html Thanks to the original poster at http://www.freesamplesite.com/ydf/forumdisplay.php?1-Freebies-Discounts-Deals&order=desc ! This will go great in my 2 year old’s stocking.

How are you doing so far?

August = Time to Start the Holiday Challenge

Ah – August. We have settled into summer, with endless days of heat and humidity. The swimsuits are all stretched and faded from constant use. Hacking open a watermelon is the only kind of cooking that I want to do. The dog reminds me, with his uncanny ability to find the coolest spot in any place, why these are the dog days of summer. In August, I lift my eyes to the calendar, and find myself mentally preparing – for the holidays.

The holidays? Aren’t they 4 months and 1 ½ seasons away?

Precisely. That’s precisely when an obsessive over-planner (like Darth Mama) starts getting ready. Well, not exactly. I never really stop getting ready for the next one. I just start gearing up more now.

This year, I’m trying something a little different. As an obsessive over-planner and a compulsive bargain shopper, I have a tendency to go a little (a lot) (an ENORMOUS AMOUNT) overboard. Now, I don’t think I’ll be able to stop flinging myself overboard, but I’ll add a twist – and maybe a double back flip – this year.

Which brings me to the twist -- my HOLIDAY CHALLENGE. This year’s theme? How low can you go. How little can I spend while still doing my usual big holiday splash for the kiddies and my husband?

A few simple rules for my challenge – I start now, where I am and with what I have. For example, I have about $9 in gift cards sitting in my account at http://www.amazon.com/. In my holiday challenge, I am free to use that amount without “charging” it to my cash total (especially since those gift cards were free with swagbucks, but that’s another blog post). The cost of stamps will not be included in my holiday total (mostly because I don’t think I’ll be able to keep track of all the stamps I use for sending in rebates, and because I receive 10 stamps a month free from Quad Readers Club – but again, that’s another blog post). If I have stuff squirreled away in my house, it’s free game to use as gifts, because there’s no way I’ll remember accurately how much I paid for it, and it’s better to use what I’ve got than to keep on buying (plus I just stumbled across a Hello Kitty poster yesterday hidden away in my kitchen cabinets – don’t’ ask how it ended up there -- that would be GREAT for my daughter’s room). Gifts with purchase count as free so long as there is a real use for the purchase. For example, if I buy a happy meal for lunch and save the toy for a kiddie present, the toy counts as free only if I actually eat the happy meal for lunch (and do not eat two lunches, which is something that I should not do even if it doesn’t violate my Holiday Challenge rules).

And here’s the double back flip part – our family celebrates Diwali as our big holiday, which falls on November 5 in 2010. So, I’ll have to finish the bulk of my challenge BEFORE the Black Friday sales. We also do stockings for Christmas but the gifts are much, much smaller. That means two holidays instead of one, with the big part coming early.

So – here’s the first things I did for the challenge:

1. I moved that Hello Kitty poster to my gift stash so I can find it at holiday time. That's assuming my stash stays in the same place, and I do not forget where my current stash is (now you understand even better the "if it's in the house, it's free game" rule. I estimate I have at least three stashes that I've lost and I am still hoping to stumble across).
2. I sent off for a free Toy Story 3 story book from Band-Aid with three proofs of purchase. http://www.bandaid.com/offers
3. I checked my credits at http://www.paperbackswap/ and pondered what the kiddies would like, but have not ordered anything yet.

Anyone care to join me in my holiday challenge? Jump in with a comment!