Extended Family Christmas Budget
I am a daughter of a divorced household, so we have two Christmases. My husband’s parents are married, but both grandmothers are alive. Thus we have two sides of the family to work with there, too.
My Mother’s Family
Adults
They usually want pictures of the kids for Christmas, and I like making food for them. One Christmas craft with stevia fudge will be going to everyone. I’m going to be maki
ng my mom some Ukranian egg ornaments and, if I have time, I’ll make some for my aunts and Grammy. I’ll be posting about these this coming week. I budgeted $20 to give my mom some fun jewelry and she will also get surplus stevia.
Kids
I have a young step-brother and step-sister, aged five and eight. I have budgeted $5 for each. He is getting a small toy car,
My Father’s Family
Adults
My Dad had more kids than my mom. My mom had me and my two brothers, who are twins. One brother is counted in my Mom’s family, getting a Christmas craft and fudge, and the other doesn’t celebrate Christmas. Then, from my Dad, I have my half brother and sister, each of whom will get a Christmas craft with fudge.
Dad and my step-mom will get a Christmas craft with fudge, my old bread maker and bulk yeast that I never got around to putting on ebay, and surplus stevia. I asked if they wanted the bread maker and surplus yeast for Christmas and they did. I might have gotten more than what I usually budget for them if I resold it, up to $40, but I’m glad to be giving it to someone who can use it.
Kids
I was thinki
ng of making a cheesecake for my step-sister. I did cheesecakes for everyone a few years ago and she ate the one I gave to her family real fast. She’s 13 and doesn’t eat much, so she needs it. I found a Wham-o ball
My Husband’s Family
They used to have a gift swap where everyone drew a name and gave a gift of about $10. Dan’s uncle has been under-employed for several years now and has two kids in college, so that has stopped. They still buy for our kids, which I would rather they didn’t, but I guess it makes them happy to buy gifts for little kids. Just about everyone buys too much for our kids.
We exchange gifts with Dan’s parents. We have an up to $40 budget for them, and it’s Dan’s job to decide what to do. I always have lots of suggestions for him, though, because I like to help. They will also be getting the Christmas craft and fudge.
Dan’s maternal grandmother has Alzheimer’s so we are giving her lots of pictures of us and the kids along with her Christmas craft with stevia fudge. Dan’s paternal grandmother will also get a Christmas craft and some Turkish egg ornaments if I have time to make extra.
Everyone in each branch of the family will also get wallet sized photos of the kids.
To sum up, we have a $20 budget for each of our parents, including step-parents. We have a $5 budget for the kids we buy for. Everyone else gets the same homemade gift.
The purchased gifts have been bought with swagbucks Amazon.com gift cards. Yes, swagbucks paid for Christmas. If you haven’t signed up yet, you should. If you have, refer your friends. Referring is not only good for you, it is good for your friends, too. (For full disclosure, this post is full of Amazon referral links, but their primary purpose is to show what cool stuff I’m getting, not to sell you that stuff.) If I didn’t have swagbucks, about half of this would have been saved for, and half would be purchased through mystery shopping.
So, I’ve gotten my family’s shopping done, but I still have crafts and cooking and wrapping. I’ll be writing a separate post about our immediate family’s budget and what we’ll be getting each other. That shopping I have not finished yet.
How much shopping have you gotten done?
How do you decide how much to spend on everyone?
Will this year be different than last?
Continue reading Extended Family Christmas Budget …
From Under $1000 Per Month.
Christmas Craft How-To
I feel like December is about to fly by. It always does, and people say that time goes even faster when you’re older, and time flies the fastest when you have little kids. Well, last week I turned older and I have a flock of little kids and December is always fast anyway!
I have a lot I want to say, but don’t think I’ll get it in because I have a lot of holiday related stuff to say, too. So highly anticipated posts about homeschooling and how to fit your stuff in small spaces may have to be put off until next year. Actually, writing that sentence about them makes me excited to maybe squeeze one or two of those posts in. We’ll see.
Today, I wanted to run through the how-to of my Christmas craft. Here is my template. I used a paint document to superimpose the shape over the photographs I wanted to cut out. I’m sure there are better programs out there to do that, but I like paint.
Step One
Pick out and print pictures. You can either get a copy of the whole picture and cut it into the shape of the side or bottom, or make it the shape on your computer and then cut it out. Also, I made each side three layers of card stock thick so it would be sturdy. I printed out two extra template pages for each bowl I wanted to make. I chose to paint the outside black, but you could choose more pictures on the outside, kids artwork, a different solid color, pictures on the outside and a color on the inside; there are a lot of options.
Step Two
Cut and assemble sides. Since I painted the outside, this was included in this step. I used little tape rolls to tape the three layers of the sides together, as painted paper is a little uneven and glue didn’t hold well.
Step Three
Laminate and cut each side. I got a pack of ten laminating sheets. Depending on who you’re giving them to, this may not be necessary. I was able to laminate the sides and bottoms for twelve bowls with nine sheets, leaving the tenth for any sides I mess up in later steps.
Step Four
Punch and assemble sides. My Gran used to assemble them by doing a fairly simple stitch around the outside of each side, and sewing them together. I felt this cut into the pictures too much. So, I chose to literally tie them together. I made one model to mark where to punch holes on each side to they were even.
First I tied two sides together, then added each one until I had a string of six sides. Then I tied the two ends together so they made a sort of loop. Then, I attached the bottom. I choose the first spot to tie pretty randomly, then tie a spot on the opposite side. This was the trickiest part of the whole thing, as the bowl had to be help in position as you tie. After that, the bottom was sturdy enough to easily tie the rest together.
Step Five
There are a few finishing touches. I tied around the top to give it a more polished look. I need to go around and cut off the loose strings. I will then put a dab of clear nail polish on each knot so that it doesn’t unravel.
Total Cost:
Card stock: $4
Laminating Pages: $10
New Printer Ink: $20
Mini Whole Punch: $5
Thread: Bought long ago for jewelry making.
We refill printer ink, and would have needed a new cartridge eventually anyway. With refilling ink, I can refill it about seven more times before the ink head gets too clogged, so $20 is not a true cost. I have put the old cartridge back in so that I can use it to it’s fullest before working on the new cartridge. I have a ton of leftover card stock for future projects, and the mini whole punch will be used again, so none of this is the actually the true cost, but even if it were, each bowl cost $3.25 out of pocket.
I haven’t finished all the bowls yet. I have to make twelve, but I’ve only completed five. I am somewhere along step four or five for the rest. The deadline to have them all finished was this past Sunday, but that was an arbitrary deadline set up so that if I didn’t meet it, I would still have time left. Good planning, huh?
Continue reading Christmas Craft How-To …
From Under $1000 Per Month.
Intro to Christmas Craft
Dad, please don’t read this.
My Gran used to make these candy dishes for Christmas gifts every year. She made them out of the Christmas cards she had received the year before. She got many ladies in her church making them for charity. She sold some of hers to a seasonal farmer’s market that also sold local crafts. As a kid, I helped make the candy dishes every year.
I only have one left. I don’t know how many are floating around the rest of my family. Gran died from cancer in 2000. My last candy dish has held many things and right now holds hair accessories in my bathroom. This year, it will be the model for my Christmas craft.
Here is my vision: instead of using Christmas cards, mine will be hand-painted black on the outside, making it year round friendly and blending with every one’s decor. I will use black yarn to hold it together. The inside will be a collection of black and white pictures of my kids. Then, I will be filling each one with sugar free (stevia) fudge. Just about everyone in my family is on some form of a low carb diet.
Here is my schedule:
November 1
Have model built, with stencils made.
November 8
Have the seven inside pictures picked out, which is tricky since they will be an odd shape.
November 15
Have each side printed on card stock, cut and assembled.
November 22
Have edges of each side sewn.
November 29
Have dishes completely assembled.
I had to wait for Thomas to be born to start getting pictures of him. I usually do projects in a cluster, thus I am a little over a week ahead of schedule, but I may not touch the project again for a while. As long as I stick to each week’s deadline, I am fine.
For some family members, this will be the whole Christmas gift. For other family members, we have a budget to buy something else along with this. I will do a separate post about how our family budgets for various people’s gifts.
Continue reading Intro to Christmas Craft …
From Under $1000 Per Month.