Frugal Christmas: Do More with Less
How do we Do More with Less? Here are a few ways:
The holidays are almost gone and with it came wonderful memories that, as a mom, I hope will be cherished in the years to come.
Several years ago, I have started FRUGAL CHRISTMAS and our family has been practicing this ever since.
Here are a few of the Frugal Christmas practices I have done since I started though a lot of it, I have not blogged about:
• Family photo Christmas tree ornaments which started as a project back when we were still homeschooling. These ornaments still adorn the tree and we have added more updated photos.
• Handmade tree decorations. Children and adults as well should try this to foster bonding time, personalize their trees and unleash their creative energies. These hand-made Christmas stockings still hang from our tree this year. This year I added a 3D Christmas tree made of gold tinsel to the Christmas wreath I decorated hanging on our front door. The excess tinsel was used to wrap gifts.
• Japanese paper as gift wrapper. You can choose any color you like depending on the theme of your gifts. This year, I used yellow Japanese paper with gift tags made by one of the children.
• Baked goods wrapped in yellow Japanese paper with personalized gift tags. Since we bake at home, it has been our practice to give baked goodies to friends. (see photo above)
• Personalized gift tags. You can either print these yourself or make from scratch. We always opt for the latter.
• If you love going to bookstores and bookstores that sell bargain books, then you can spend a little time scouring bargain books to give to book-loving people.
• Hand-made gold ribbons hang on our tree every other year. These have seen a lot of Christmases and hang alternately every year with the red ribbons. This year, we are having the red ribbons.
• Hand-made notepads. The last two years had us made notepads to give to the children’s friends. These were made during times when they have “nothing to do”. They also assembled these while watching their favorite videos on their gadgets.
• For this year’s Christmas, everything we served for the Noche Buena were home-cooked or home-prepped:
o Baked ham
o Chicken pasta and chicken fajitas (blog post coming up soon)
o Slow-cooked chicken
o Cheesecake
o Cheese platter
Blueberry cheesecake by the eldest child finally sliced and tasted, a day after Christmas! This is easy to make and you spend less than if you buy commercially baked ones.
For our family reunion Christmas lunch, we brought slow-cooked ribs and the eldest child made brownies. Easy-peasy prep, right?
Photo below is the Electrolux microwave being used to melt chocolates for the brownies.
I know the list is getting longer so I will stop. Finally, yes!
What do all these things mean for “Do More with Less” when it feels like there is so much to do with all the crafts that involve conceptualizing, cutting and pasting and with the baking and cooking tasks?
All these tasks, we do not do year after year. For the tree decorations, since we have plenty of these (and hand-made too!) we alternate what we put up on the tree. Buying Christmas tree decorations every year is not something we do since we already have at home. Baking goodies for family and friends is what we love to do and for the last three years, the children are tasked to do these, making me have more time to do other chores. The personalized gift tags are easy to make because we have been doing this for several years already.
We “Do More with Less” by planning ahead, making lists and following up on schedule to avoid the hustle and bustle of the season. The gift packs for the village guards and Noche Buena packages for the families of Manang Salve (who helps clean the backyard) and Joey (our occasional DIY guy) have been distributed a day or two before Christmas Eve. Christmas and New Year’s Eves are not main worries because we already have the things that needed on-hand and so we don’t have to join the rush to purchase what was not bought and getting stressed caught up on long supermarket queues and traffic jams.
We “Do More with Less” investing in reliable appliances like Electrolux that make chores easier so we don’t see housework as burdens. Our Electrolux Vacuum Cleaner is something the kids use by themselves. This is the youngest child’s task: cleaning the area where the puppy stays.
We “Do More with Less” by giving more importance to tasks that foster spending time with our loved ones.
Aside from not spending too much money, the family also tends to give importance in having more time bonding because we are all working together to make wonderful Christmas memories that we will look back with fondess, joy and love.
“Do More with Less” everyday, it is good for the mind, body and spirit.
KitKat Break Movement
This week marked the first week of our Back to School days. I say “OUR” because even if I do not have to be in school like my children do, I wake up way earlier than the rest of the household. Wait, let me rephrase that… I go to “school” too, in my little room where I am called Teacher Julie which is a world different from my children’s school.
Anyway…
There are days when the going gets rough and even though I have all things prepped down to the last minute details, there are those little things that I forget: that folder in the home library that the youngest is supposed to bring with her to school, the supplements that children should have taken before going to bed, or that change of shirt for PE days. The list could be endless depending on the circumstances.
In all these things that keep me very busy, I am in need of a break, in particular, a chocolate break for which I can derive not just sweet indulgence and pleasure but a kick and boost in my system. Having said that, I nod my head in agreement to the tagline: Have a break, have a Kitkat.
So for this question…
Did you know that taking a KIT KAT Break can unlock hidden skills in you that make it seem like you can break the impossible? If so, what skill would I like to unlock and why?
a. Type faster and flawlessly.
b. Never forget any detail.
c. Create awesome presentation decks.
d. Multitask at any given time.
My answer to this question would be: Never forget any detail.
Why? Here’s why.
My day begins at 4:30am (or earlier) when I prepare breakfast and packed food for the children to bring to school. The children need to be up half an hour later because the school service arrives before 6am. Then we bring the eldest child to where she can get a ride to go to her university before the husband and I can have our breakfast and prepare for the day’s activities ahead of us.
The activities I need to do are varied, depending on my work schedule though the busiest days I have are three days of work. I have to be home before the children gets home from school though to get dinner ready. Good thing I have small kitchen appliances that make cooking and preparing food easier. So yey!! Laundry is taken cared of by the eldest daughter though when she goes back to school next month, this will again be my responsibility. Ironing is something I don’t do so these clothes that need ironing goes to the laundry shop. The backyard is being tended to by a cleaning lady because yard work is not really my thing.
We haven’t had any household help for more than 11 years.
So tiring just to read about our day huh? That’s why I need to Never Forget any Detail.
As for the skill “Type faster and flawlessly”, I only need this when I have to make an Assessment Report or a Progress report that i have forgotten to encode and need to bring to a doctor or to the parents of my student.
For “Create awesome presentation decks”, I don’t see the reason for the need of that skill since I do not work in the corporate world.
“Multitask at any given time”? Multitasking is my other name when it comes to running a household and working at the same time.
I multitask because I have to, with of course, the help of these little things I use at home. Example of one of my fun multitasking skills with a kitchen aid : While I (and the rest of the family) am having a good night rest, my slow cooker is cooking our food for the next day. Now… if I forgot to turn on the slow cooker, imagine how it would be if we wake up with the food uncooked? The horror!
Never forget any detail, is my mantra. This is what digital calendars, alarms, notepads, post-its and children’s sharp memories are for, to not forget details. As long as you don’t forget to make notes of the details you need to remember of course 😀
Practical Gifts
Did you give practical gifts last Christmas?
You know, things that can be used by the recipient? Or would these just gather dust and be discarded after a year?
I think we did. One of the gifts we gave away to the teachers were handmade notepads which they can use just in case they needed to write down notes and thoughts. The notepads were not big and could easily fit in a small bag.
These were the papers we used for the notepads. For more info on how these notepads were made, click here.
For the person who loves arts and crafts, arts and crafts materials are the best to give. For the one who loves to cook, a cookbook or a kitchen gadget.
These were just some ideas and I’m sure there are so much more practical gift ideas out there.
DIY Projects
I just love DIY projects. In the last two years I made a lot of notepads that I gave away.
Personalized gift tags? Check.
Family photo Christmas tree ornaments? Check!
Now I want to buy beads in bulk so I can make bracelets like these to give away. My eldest daughter used to make bracelets too and she has some leftover materials I have to find first before getting the supplies I might need.
Gifting need not be expensive as long as one is creative. This may mean some manual labor but that would be more fun than jostling your way to the cashier during sale events, right?
Frugal Christmas Gift Ideas
I have several things in my (mental) list of what I want to do for Christmas in terms of having yet another round of frugal Christmas gift ideas.
Of course, the notepads are a priority because the daughters requested I do these for their gifts. I’m slowly filling up my list and got some toys at a recent toy sale.
Should I do baked goodies again but do it differently? I think I should especially since I discovered about cookie bouquets. Of course it is easy to just send cookie bouquets but to actually make these myself would make me feel good albeit super tired. Let me say that I just love the idea of these cookie bouquets!
I’m guessing I’ll be adding cookie cutters in my list of to-buy 😀
Now how to do the frosting…
