$41 - the Christmas shopping for all of our little friends.  We have three little ones that are like family to us, and I combined this with two birthday gifts for kids (the total order was $69) to get free shipping.  All of the gifts are made from sustainable wood and are earth-friendly.  I had budgeted $15/kid for Christmas, so I came under budget by a few bucks.  But now I am sad since all the fun gifts have been purchased!

$2 - stocking stuffer for our kid.  This was an impulse purchase at the craft store - I got him 2 sticker books with stickers.

$20 - gift certificate for the stepfather.  We get him the same thing every year.  Whatever.

$46 - Crap from Bath and Body Works.  They kept giving me coupons for $13 in free stuff when I spent $10.  I am not a big fan of this store, but my sister loves it.  With the coupons, I took care of my sister, her boyfriend, my sister-in-law, and our niece.  Each of them is getting basically $20 - $22 worth of stuff for $10-$12.  I am glad that I found this deal because all of the people mentioned above are hard to shop for.

$23 - a clearance truck for the kid from Little Tikes.  The box is damaged, and the batteries may need to be replaced (I can handle that!).  This is one of those really big trucks that he can push around and play with in the yard.  We like the fact that Little Tikes toys are made in the USA, and this truck got great reviews for being durable.

This leaves us with $95.  We expect to spend $25 on my brother (we’re going in on a video game with my grandmother), $25 on my sister-in-law (gift card), and $20 for my sister-in-law’s boyfriend.  That will leave us with $35 for the tree, and nothing else for the kid.  I’m not sure that this is going to work, as we would like to get a couple more things for the kid; I want to at least spend a little money on yarn so that I can make him some more stuff.

I’ll have to show the numbers to the husband so that we can make a decision.  I am thinking that another $50 might be reasonable, but I don’t want to go overboard.  Any thoughts?

I was asking if there were any new video games that he might like, and she couldn’t think of any, but mentioned that she was thinking of picking up a Wii for him, since she was at her local Walmart the day before and they looked “kind of cool.”

I had never thought of a Wii for my brother for Christmas, only because I didn’t expect there to be any available.  I expressed to my mom how that would be a great gift, since he would have to get up and move around to play the games (he participates in Special Olympics, but has a fairly sedentary job and doesn’t do much when there aren’t Special Olympic practices taking place).

I added that there was a pretty good chance that there weren’t any more available, since she had seen them at the store the day before.  I promised that I would try to hunt one down for her if she wanted me to, and that was the end of the conversation.

Yesterday, she told me that she was able to pick up a Wii for my brother!  I was really excited for him, since I think that he will like it a lot.  Then she said, “I got one for you guys for Christmas too, if you want it.”  She went on to say that she could return it to the store, but that she wanted to get us something fun this year, since “you guys always want practical things and that’s so boring!”

I am not sure what I was more shocked by - the fact that my mom dropped some major cash on a Wii for us, or that she had just called us boring.

So here’s the question: Should we accept?  I’ve wanted a Wii for awhile, but never really considered getting one until they went down in price.  I would really love to get a Wii fit to try to learn some yoga.  I think that we would have fun as a family playing together, and if I had to choose a video game system for my son when he gets older, this would be the one.

On the other hand, it’s not practical at all!  I had mentioned that a gift card to Lowe’s would be a nice gift, since we need to replace the fixtures in our bathroom.  I’m guessing that this falls into the category of boring to my mom…

So if you were me, what would you do?

This weekend, we went to visit some friends, and took some time to walk around Washington DC since the weather was so nice.  As the kid was attempting to scale the Washington Monument, I was looking around and saw the White House from a distance.  As I turned back around to check on the kid, he was laughing happily with a couple other kids from a different country as they all tried to scale the wall.

It just kind of struck me that regardless of who we all go in and vote for on Tuesday, people aren’t really all that different.  Perhaps it is because this is the first election where I have a child myself (and therefore am more aware of the daily political news), but I feel that this is an election where so much hatred, ugliness, and division has bubbled to the surface.  Sometimes it is easy to forget how lucky we are to have the right to walk around our nation’s capital freely, and talk about how much we love (or despise) a candidate, and be able to vote.

I guess that I found myself to be a bit surprised to become humbled when visiting our nation’s capital, instead of being more fired up for Tuesday.  I also can’t wait to take my son back to Washington DC when he is old enough to start learning the significance of the monument he was trying to scale…

We already overpay slightly on our mortgage (we just round it up to the nearest $50, so we pay an extra $48 per month), and we intend to keep making the same payment, but it is still a pleasant surprise.

I’m very happy, because it is an additional $180 we can use to rebuild our emergency fund!  Dave Ramsey would be proud

I’ve mentioned in a previous post how craft stores can be great resources for gifts.  I was in our local craft store today with my 50% coupon and was looking for something for the in-laws for Christmas.  I found a cute picture frame that lends itself to woodburning (there is a picture of it here), and it came to $3 with my coupon.

I’ll try to post a picture of the frame when it is done.  Right now, we are just planning on keeping it simple and adding some “I love my grandpa and grandma” text or something of this sort.  However, we have carbon paper for tracing, and are open to suggestions!

Just to keep track of the Christmas budget, we are now officially left with a $227 balance!

I’ve been scoping out holiday deals, and made my first big purchase tonight.  I mentioned in a previous post that I signed up for a pretty good Shutterfly offer, and I coupled this with some additional codes that I found on Slickdeals.net and a $50 gift card that I got for free through ShopDiscover (that 5% back we got for gas was a huge help!).

Basically, for $20 out-of-pocket (It will actually be $18, since we’ll get $2.00 back for shopping through the ShopDiscover link) we got 75 holiday cards, 50 prints, and 4 calendars.  The holiday cards are a big deal for us - we send along personal notes and pictures, and it’s a great way to keep in touch with more distant relatives and friends.  The prints are for the kid’s photo album, and the calendars will take care of holiday shopping for me (this is my one gift to myself!), grama, great-grama, and grampa.  Our families really like the calendars, and love to show them off!

I’m also really happy to be getting our cards early this year.  I would like to have the kid “decorate” the envelopes with stickers and scribbles, so this gives us some time to play with.

So to keep tabs, $250-$20 = $230 left.  Do you think I can do it?

It’s time to get back on track.  I’ve been doing some serious bargain hunting - I managed to find some great deals online at The Children’s Place, and got the kid a winter jacket and 5 shirts (I even splurged and got him a flannel for holiday pictures!) for $30 with shipping.  He outgrew almost everything from last year, and many of the second-hand shops in the area didn’t have anything for his size.

We’ve done a pretty good job tackling the potty training - we are down to a pull-up for nap time, and a nighttime diaper.  That’s some money saved!  Also, the kid will be 3 in January, so I’m pretty comfortable with the timetable that we are currently on.

I am still working a lot.  I am going to tutor as much as possible before the holidays to try to pay off some debt.  We’ll see how that works, since we are going on a trip to Arizona in November!

Other than that, I have learned how to knit.  I’m making a scarf for the kid right now.  I made him a “bunny” - it might pass for road kill, so I decided to take it down a notch to something more simple.

That’s all for now!  I promise to get back on the train this week.  Take it easy!

I’m also feeling the need for a change in the layout of this blog, so please be patient if you see some weird experimental changes over the next week.  I hope everyone who is reading this is doing well.  Take it easy!

We’ve just ordered a Shutterfly gift card through our Discover Card rewards program, and will definitely be taking advantage of this offer for holiday gifts.  The calendars make a great gift for gramas and grampas!

Or is it?  I think that perhaps we’re really at a turning point — a sort of reality check where those that have not been realistic about what they cannot afford need to come to terms with the consequences.  While this is happening at a personal level, I am not really sure that it is happening on Wall Street and in the government.

I know that for us, things are a lot more tight financially because we are trying to rebuild our emergency fund quickly after some major truck repairs.  But we’re really coming together as a family, mostly because I am working evenings to generate additional income to rebuild our fund.  This is an added responsibility for my husband, since he has to come home from work and take over childcare duties.

Although initially it took some getting used to, I think that this is also a great opportunity for us to really evaluate what is important in life.  I think it has helped us develop a better appreciation for what the other person is doing, since now we are both working, and both taking care of the kid alone.

We’re also very thankful that we are frugal, and can currently handle our financial situation.  I don’t need to run out and make the big $$$, but can stay at home with the kid during the day.  At the same time, it has strengthened our resolve to get out of debt, and I am working harder to generate additional income streams.

How about you?  Are you keeping your head up in today’s economy?  Why or why not?