A Lazy Day

I’m one of the lucky gal’s who gets today off. As a substitute teacher, I  pretty much get every national holiday off, a week for spring break, three weeks of winter vacation, and a full 12-week summer vacation. Not bad, considering of those 180 working days I’m home by 3pm. Of course, I don’t get paid on my days off, but that’s a whole other story. So, today I’m spending my day relaxing in the warm California sun. Oh, yeah! Our temp’s have zoomed back up to 77 degrees, making me realize why I pay so much for living in sunny Southern California; the weather!

This weekend I not only helped my husband with a client project, finished 3 school projects, but also had the luxury of spending Sunday and most of today doing absolutely nothing. My favorite thing to do, out side of bike riding (I got to do this as well this weekend). I’ve decided that I can shrug off the guilt of doing nothing because I accomplished plenty on my three days off. But, that brings me to making the most of a 3-day weekend without the guilt. It all boils down to time management:

• Saturday: Since my husband manages his own business, he often has to catch up on projects on the weekends.  I helped him for a few hours. Results: completed one project, got paid.
• Sunday AM: Skype meeting with my brother who is starting his own business. Not only is he 12 hours ahead of me time wise, he also has different work days, Sunday being one of them. Results: finalized his logo, he should pay soon. (He’s my bro, so I can’t harass him too much!) Since I had to wake up early for the meeting, I had enough time to finish 2 school projects. Results: Two down, one more to go.
• Sunday PM: Had time to throw in a couple of loads of laundry while my husband cleaned the car and bikes (my Valentine’s Day gift, I think). Went to a friend’s for an early B-B-Q via a bike ride. Wrapped up the evening with a movie at home and a beer. Results: My do nothing time! Minus the laundry, of course.
• Monday AM: Sleep in! Finished the final school project. Will hop on my bike later today and head out for my 2-hour class. Results: I finished everything without being pressed for time and stressed out.

Since today is a holiday for many people, I intend to catch up on some pleasurable reading and not worry about the remainder of the week’s impending work.

How are you spending your 3-day weekend? Did you get to do something romantic or plan a weekend get-away? Are you one of the lucky people who get’s every national holiday off?

Only during the holiday season does my kitchen fill up with candy, cookies, and chocolate. The remainder of the year, it’s well stocked with beer, cereal, oranges, pasta, and maybe some spring mix salad. None of these items, of course, are in any particular order. I don’t go out of my way to purchase cookies or chocolate in the snack aisle of the supermarket. Yet, once the holiday season is officially finished, I have these chocolate urges that are insanely intense! Again, during the months between February and November, these chocolate urges are less likely to happen, or are easily quenched with a low-calorie hot chocolate drink.

Where does this “I must have chocolate” sensation come from? Through gifts I receive from collegues, friends, or left over candy I purchased as gifts to acquaintances. The money I save on making home made gifts where chocolate is used, may have repercussions later on down the road. I’m not over weight, so it’s not necessarily the cost of health care I’m concerned about, it’s more the cost of replacing pants that no longer snap. Or perhaps it’s the additional time I must now spend losing those extra chocolate pounds that are hanging around my mid-section to my derriere. My time is worth money, and my time is limited!

So while trying to save money on edible gifts, I might instead have to resort to making gifts like bath salts. This would be a safe option since I can’t see myself gobbling up this particular item. And it would no longer require me to purchase the additional dark chocolate chips, or Hershey’s Kisses needed to make my hot mocha mix or small gift bags. I could sail through the holidays without a chocolate chip passing over my lips.

I would only have to resolve the problem of what to do with the candy I receive. I could re-gift my chocolates to others and save money. The only problem I foresee with this is many of the gifts I receive and give hover within a small group of friends, they would easily know I re-gifted! I could donate my chocolate items before I ever cracked open a box of Chukar Cherries, my most recent craving. I could let my husband eat it all. He normally grazes and picks through the good stuff, then tosses the rest when he’s finished. If my will-power was stronger, I could accept this option. Or, I could accidentally forget to take my gifts home and leave them behind. By the time I came back after a 3-week break, they’d be stale and completely undesirable.

In the mean time, I have to work my butt off (literally). I’ve dedicated myself to Well Heeled Blog’s 30-Day challenge (see the side bar at the right). If my Jillian Michael’s DVD comes in the mail  soon, I’ll be able to catch-up and get back into shape. So the true cost of chocolate may be more than the $15 I spent on edible treats for others!

My chocolate equation:   $15 for chocolate + (30 hours of exercise x $40 per hour for my time spent exercising) = $1,215 the actual cost of my chocolate consumption

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas to all! Since this is a day off for me, I’ll quickly list a few of my favorite sites that I visit frequently. Indulge yourselves and have a wonderful day:

• Sunset Magazine: Living in the west was never so beautiful!
• Pioneer Woman: She lives a completely different lifestyle to mine, so reading her blog is refreshing and foreign sometimes.
• Money Funk: A Southern California girl like me.
• Treehugger: Makes living green seems easy.
• Cycle Chic: Bicycling is fashionable in Copenhagen!
• RainyDaySaver: An east coast blogger.

Enjoy this holiday season!

Gift Card Holder from Cardoftheweek.com

Every person has their own opinion about gift cards. But to me, I love them! The way I see them is that they are cash gifts that I can sock away in savings. Of course, this only applies to gift cards that I will actually use. Receiving a gift card to a store I don’t shop in is pointless, obviously. But more times than not, the gift cards I receive are either American Express Gift Cards, which can be used just like a credit card, or gift cards to Starbucks, a place I visit daily.

How does that work, putting the value of a gift card into my savings account? Let me explain;  as soon as I receive, say, a Starbucks gift card, I decide if it’s an amount that I can transfer from my regular checking into savings. If it’s not, I place that Starbucks gift card some place safe and will use it only when I can transfer the value of the gift card from my checking into my savings. When I have the cash to transfer, I then use the gift card that week toward my drinks since its a regular expense for me. I’m basically supplementing my spending habits with the gift card.

Today, I went shopping for Christmas dinner. Instead of using my debit card to pay for the entire grocery bill, I used a $50 AMEX gift card. This is an expense that would have normally come out of my checking account. When I got home, I then transferred that $50 from my checking account into my savings. Gift cards help me (or force me!) to save money.

I relate these gift cards to when I was a kid and received cash as a gift. Many times, a majority of the cash would be deposited into a savings account. The remainder I would spend on a small item that I really wanted. Since I’ve become an adult, I rarely receive cash gifts and instead receive gift cards. And, in California at least, gift cards don’t expire. Some do charge a small fee if they go unused, but it is nominal and I usually use the gift card before this happens.

A few times that I have received gift cards that I don’t use, I’ve been able to sell them on eBay.com for slightly less than what they’re worth. Another alternative to unwanted gift cards, giftcardrescue.com. I don’t have any experience with this company, but it’s worth a look if you end up with unwanted gift cards. They pay between 60% and 80% of the value of the card.

Do you like to receive or give gift cards as presents? Do you have any experience with giftcardrescue.com? Do gift cards alter your spending habits?

My husband and I purchase Christmas gifts for our nieces and nephew this time of year. We usually don’t send them anything for their birthdays, only because we usually forget or remember too late. Best case scenario: we sometimes remember to send them money. But, the holidays are that special time of year when we make sure that most family members receive something special from us. The adults are usually easy to shop for, a book they’ve mentioned over the past few months, some items they really need, or a family gift of Omaha Steaks or Tender Fillet (this company is really pricey in comparison as we found out!). However, finding meaningful gifts for the kids is challenging.

One reason we find this task difficult is we don’t have children of our own. We’re out of touch with what kids want and we wait until the last minute (or week before Christmas) to find those gifts. Another reason it is difficult finding that special present is we don’t see our nieces and nephew very often. We live in different states and see them maybe once or twice a year. Children’s interests also change frequently; my niece was really into horses last year, she may not be this year. Our almost 17-year-old niece is a little easier to shop for, we can usually send her money and she is thrilled. But the 4-year-old and 8-year-old still enjoy tearing open real presents, not opening a card with money in it.

What my husband and I found this year while shopping, is that many toys are geared towards younger children, at least at Walmart. The selection of toys seemed too childish for my 8-year-old niece. The toys also appeared to be made rather cheaply, meaning they won’t last more than a year or two. So this year we settled on a gift we feel that our niece could use, an art easel with a chalkboard, whiteboard, and large roll of white paper. We feel satisfied with this gift, at least it is promoting creativity.

On the other hand, the gift we choose for our nephew was a last minute, “What are we gonna get him?!” present: a hot wheels trike. A gift he will only use a few times and will soon grow out of. We aren’t completely thrilled with the gift we selected for him, but we were in a panic and that trike was on an end cap!

As soon as we reached the registered, we realized that both gifts were quite large and shipping was going to cost a pretty penny. Yet, we couldn’t take the gifts back to the shelf, so we just sucked it up and factored in the additional cost. I’m sure when I sit down and total up our Christmas present cost, it will be close to $500 or $100 over my original budget. Drats! Note to self: start earlier next year!

Short and Sweet!

Since I’m finishing up my gift jars this evening, and trying to get ready for the last day of school tomorrow, I’m making this post short and sweet. The holiday rush is making me cranky! At last, my husband and I made it to Walmart, not my favorite store, and finished up our gifts for our niece and nephew. We ended up going a little bit over our budget by about $60, but that’s not bad considering we have a total of 12 people to shop for. Our total Christmas figure isn’t completely in yet, but it’s hovering around $460 (I originally had budgeted $400). The one thing I am thankful for, however, is that none of this year’s gifts will be on credit and we won’t be paying for them come July! We did have to purchase wrapping paper since both gifts for my niece and nephew are on the large size and won’t fit in canvas bags, and I don’t have enough newsprint to wrap them in. At least my gift jars come in reusable containers, mason jars. So, I can’t beat myself up too badly!

I’ll be able to think more clearly within the next couple of days and actually post an intelligent article! More to come…

I tell myself every year I’m going to get a head start on Christmas: mail my personalized, decorated cards in a timely manner; make or purchase gifts for co-workers and people who have really helped me throughout the year; complete and ship family gifts no later than at least 10 days before Christmas. It never fails, I’m always late!

As I count down the days until Christmas and I begin to feel harried, a few things have taken importance over purchasing gifts or making my own cards. I can easily use these as excuses for my late start. One of these important things was taking finals for my credential program classes. It was important to me to do my best, study, and make sure I turned in quality work. Another thing that wraps up around the same time as holiday activities is school. For the past many years, I’ve been placed in long-term assignments that require me to teach up until the day the students begin their winter break. When teaching elementary school students this close to the holidays, there are many things that need to be done: holiday parties and organizing food and drinks, helping the students practice singing for their program, completing holiday projects that they need to take home before they go on a 3-week break. All of these activities take some of my mental and physical time away from “getting ready for Christmas.”

With these excuses now coming to a close, next week appears to be more open and I should be able to fully focus on the holidays. OH WAIT! I forgot. I have JURY DUTY next week. Well, that depends on if they will really need me. I purposefully rescheduled my Jury Duty for the week of Christmas in hopes that the courts really don’t want to go to jury right before a major holiday. I did this for my husband last year, and they didn’t need him at all. All he had to do was call in for 2 days and he was relieved of this public service for another 3 years. Hopefully this will work to my advantage as well. Especially since the court I am assigned to is kind of far away and traffic will be really bad next week!

In the end, whatever gets accomplished will just have to be good enough. And next year, I will again promise myself to start early. like before Thanksgiving and not be so frazzled!

The past two Christmases my husband and I have spent Christmas by ourselves, meaning just the two of us. Our immediate and extended family members live between a 2 to 6 hour-drive away, but we prefer to keep this holiday simple and quiet and to ourselves. Perhaps it’s because we don’t have children yet, or it could be that in the past when we’ve spent it with family members, we really didn’t like how they celebrated the holiday. On one side of our family, Christmas has been reduced to tearing open gifts without barely looking at what they’ve just received, the emphasis is on how many gifts can one child receive. In contrast, on the other side of our family, Christmas is a minimalist holiday with heated family arguing throughout the evening (mostly between two select people, my brother and my step-father!)

We’ve talked extensively about how we want to cherish Christmas and celebrate it, especially once we have kids. We don’t want it to be primarily about gifts, we feel it’s better to receive one thoughtful gift rather than 20 silly, thoughtless gifts. But we also don’t want to be Scrooge’s and completely dismiss the holiday altogether. So, we’ve come up with our own celebration for now; keep it simple and special. The past couple of years, we’ve created our own traditions as follows:

• Make a tasty breakfast for two. My husband enjoys cooking and breakfast is his favorite meal. We normally don’t eat breakfast in the mornings together, so this is something special we do on this day.
• Open a few gifts to keep it festive. We still have a few gifts that we open Christmas morning. These gifts are sent to us by our family. We discuss the frivolity of them, or how thoughtful a particular gift was. Then, we watch our cats play with the wrapping paper and boxes, that is almost more fun. (We’re not complete Scrooge’s, we also send our families gifts as well!)
• Call our family members. This works out much better than actually seeing them on this particular holiday. We don’t have to witness the children whining and can truly enjoy talking to them over the phone. Also, my stepfather usually won’t argue with my brother while on the phone, so it’s a much more pleasant conversational atmosphere. I know this sounds awful, our family members are really great almost every other day of the year! However, Christmas brings out the worst in some people, especially in our families.
• Plan an outing for the day. A few times this has equated to going to the movies, sometimes we’ve taken a drive to the beach depending on the weather.
• Make a fantastic dinner. Again, my husband the cook usually plans a delicious meal and we top it off with some beverages, usually of the alcoholic type.

I’m hoping that once we purchase our little house in the valley, we’ll be able to host Christmas at our house in our own tradition, focusing on quality time spent together. In the meantime, we prefer to celebrate it alone and visit family and friends after this holiday.

This week I’m wrapping up my fall semester and studying like crazy for a couple of finals. Then, I get a blessed 5 weeks off from school. I can’t wait for the winter break to rewind and focus on some things that have taken a back seat. However, this past weekend my husband and I realized we had to get our holiday shopping completed so that gifts would reach the intended recipient in time. Over the past year we have simplified our lives and made shopping a low priority. Again, I’ve never really like shopping, so this comes naturally to me. So to purchase our holiday gifts for our family members in the least stressful environment, we decided once again to purchase Omaha Steaks gift packages online. We did this last year and everybody really enjoyed the gifts.

My first draft of the holiday card, I need to redo it!

Since we have a total of four families to buy for, we purchased a gift package for each family. Omaha steaks allows you to pick and choose items to personalize each gift package. Each family purchase ended up costing under $80, so it’s also an affordable way for us to send gifts to our families. We ended up under our $400 budget. And, we ordered using our MyPoints link and earned 2,500 bonus points that we use toward Shell gas cards! We still have one gift each to purchase for our 3 nieces and nephew, and one gift for a stepfather on my husband’s side (we have a lot of step parents and extended families, we are children of divorced parents from the ’70’s!) This week we’ll be able to wrap up these last few gifts and get them mailed out before Christmas comes.

My final endeavor is to create our holiday cards. I wanted to design our own this year based on an art project I picked up from an art teacher. If I can get it finished  in time to send out it will be a nice card with a personal touch. Once the finish the beard, my husband will add the Santa hat to complete the homemade Santa design. This week just happens to be a bit hectic with school wrapping up. Time is just so limited!

I have to admit that when it comes to the holidays, I am a procrastinator. It’s the only time of year, and the only area in my life, where I just can’t seem to get a head start. Part of this is due to my own internal struggle with shopping: I really dislike it. Over the past couple of years my husband and I have narrowed down our gift giving to only immediate family and simplified our gifts by purchasing one family gift for the adults, like an Omaha Steak food sampler. This kind of gift also saves us time since we don’t have to lug a huge box to the post office ourselves, we just place the order online and it gets delivered. But we still feel obligated to purchase a gift  for our nieces and nephew. This year, we have vowed to only buy one gift for each, instead of 3 to 5 per child. (My husband gets this excessive gift giving from his mother and his sister – they go crazy with the quantity of gifts per person!)

Canvas Bags Make Great Gift Wrap!

Since we will still be purchasing gifts this year that we have to wrap and mailed, we’ve decided we want to become more eco-conscious with wrapping the gifts we send. A few years ago, while visiting my sister-in-law over Christmas, my husband and I noticed the 4 large trash bags full of torn wrapping paper following the gift opening extravaganza. Because my husband’s family is so excessive with their gifts, the amount of trash was ridiculous! Much of the wrapping paper that got thrown away couldn’t be recycled or burned because of the coating on the paper. So, my husband and I have come up with some alternatives to reuse stuff we have, and are more environmentally friendly to boot:

• Use a canvas bag to wrap the gift. This January in Los Angeles, retailers will begin charging shoppers a carbon tax on plastic bags. Might as well help out a  family member by giving them a  canvas bags now!
• Put a small gift in a mason jar. I recently wrote a post about how I’m making drinks in mason jars for co-workers. Mason jars are terrific for crafts, gifts, pencil holders and the like.
• Use the copious amounts of junk mail to wrap gifts. We’ve been inundated with a ton of junk mail everyday. My husband is on a mission to reduce our mail by getting us off vendor’s lists. But, until that happens, I might be able to use some of that wasteful paper in more useful ways, like gift wrapping.
• Use the funnies from the newspaper to wrap gifts. News print decomposes easily and is made from mostly recycled paper anyway. Show your family that you are learning to live frugally by using it as wrapping paper. (This might send a message to family members who just don’t get it yet!)

These are just a few ideas for reusable gift wrap. If you have other alternative wrapping ideas, please let me know!