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?