Have a Nifty Thrifty Christmas

Before Thanksgiving we decided to put our spending plan on a budget. With debts we want to pay off and things we want to save for, it was time to really control more regular expenses like grocery shopping and hobby spending. It's been one of those 'growth experiences', the kind that are difficult but beneficial. There have been some growing pains, but I have learned a lot.

I've discovered that I have more food storage than I thought. It's not much, but there were a few things in my pantry that I had been avoiding, mostly because I wasn't sure what to do with them and didn't want to take the time to find out. It really didn't take long to figure it out and now I wonder why I didn't do it sooner! I have also been reading my friend Heather's parsimonious blog, which has me thinking about new and creative ways to save money.

We did most of our Christmas shopping with cash back from the credit card we want to pay off. I think our Christmas gifts get fewer every year, and our Christmas joy and peace and love get larger every year. To me this is a direct correlation. Giving gifts to the people we love is important to us, and keeping it simple means we feel love and not stress.

Aaron got a gift card for an office supply store; a 'thank you for spending a lot of money in printer toner at our store this year' sort of thing. So we went shopping for office supplies and Aaron had his spreadsheet out to record all of our potential purchases and calculate the tax, wanting to use the whole gift card without spending anything extra. When he paid for his order, the cashier was stunned that the total was exactly the amount of the gift card. I'm still impressed, and we were both exhilarated. It was fun to accomplish something like that.

I guess we're taking 'cheap thrills' to a new level.