Holiday Ways to Save

I love the Christmas season. Everything about it.  The cooler weather, decorating the house, gathering with friends, good food, giving (and getting) gifts.

Really, if you don't enjoy the holidays, I am not someone that you would want to be around. 

We haven't started putting up the Christmas decorations yet, but we are making plans about what we want to do the same as in the past, and what we want to change.  

We, also, start saving money for Christmas gifts during the summer, so we are doing pretty good on the gift budget.  (Now, if I can just stick to it!)

Any way that I can find to save money over the holidays is appealing to me.  I want everything to be festive and fun, without breaking the bank.  So, of course, I turn to Pinterest. Where else would I go?

I was able to find an awesome Christmas Savings Guide that is printable from Passionforsavings.com

via passionforsavings.com

This is really genius.  There are planners for baking, parties, and cards; a budget worksheet, a gift list, a shopping list for Black Friday, and a Santa Survey for the kiddos. 

It is completely free to download when you sign up for her email updates, which are so useful!

You will get daily money saving deals right to your inbox, plus access to freebies.  Head over and get signed up!

Another way that I like to save money during the Holidays is by creating my own decor and wrapping using free printables.

These really cute tags are at Shanty-2-Chic, from last Christmas:

via Shanty-2-Chic

It makes so much more sense to make your own tags. You can get exactly what you want in the number you need.  For years, I had half used sheets of those sticker tags left after Christmas, and didn't want to use the same ones the next year!

This precious Christmas Countdown is available over at The Crafting Chicks, and would definitely add to the excitement for little ones and big ones alike!

via The Crafting Chicks

Collections of freebies are always fun to browse, and Pretty Providence gathered a list of 50 printables of types last year.  There tags, cards, cupcake wrappers, and prints to frame.  Head over and check out her list!

via Pretty Providence

These are all great ways to get you thinking about different ways to save money during the holidays.  And, creating items at home is one of the very best way to do it.  And, when you create your own decor and wrapping, you can really put your own personal stamp on your Holiday season.

Do you have printables and other ideas to share? Tell me in the comments!

Budgeting: Bringing In Income With Consignment

Clothes, clothes, clothes and more clothes!

This pile is huge, and there are at least 2 more like it!

They don't sell at garage sales like they used to, do they?

At least, not around here. 

So, I have bags of kids clothes that I really need to get rid of....and shoes, games, and on  and on.

In the past year and half, if you have read this and this, then you know that we are on a quest to save more money which includes ways to bring in more money to add to the budget.

We have no desire to be wealthy by the world's standards, but, wealthy by our own standards.
We have a tremendously loving family and our time that we spend together is one of our top priorities, so we believe that we are rich in the love of our family and our love of Jesus.

Our desire to create a little more room in the family budget leads me to have garage sales, sell on Facebook (occasionally), and now to participate in a community consignment sale for children's clothes. The sale is the week and weekend of September 13th, and lasts for 4 days. I have heard that the crowd that comes is huge!

It is such a great way to sell your gently used children's clothes and even buy a ton of great items, as well.

We don't play these games anymore. Well, I was informed this morning that Battleship had to stay.....

The prep is a little time consuming, but I know it will be worth it.

Here is what I have to do:

Sort all the clothes by size and gender
Check them over for stains and tears and discard those
Put EVERYTHING on hangers
Pin the clothing to the hangers with safety pins
Write a description on an index card and pin the card to the item
Decide my prices
Print barcode labels from the Sale website
Apply each barcode to the index card on the correct item

For shoes/toys, they have to be put in plastic zip baggies and the index card taped to the baggie with packing tape.

Yep, lots of work.

Count 'em. Six pair of brown shoes...and, all of them are very similar. In fact, two are exactly alike!

(My name is Amy, and I have a brown shoe problem.)

I haven't ever done this sale before, but I hear it is awesome.

They hold the sale 2-3 times a year in Tyler, TX, which is only about 40 minutes from my house.

I think that they have done one in my home town, but it wasn't as well advertised.

A really good friend of mine has participated in the sale for years, and the last check that she received was for over $600. That much would certainly help out the Christmas stash!

I'm really excited to see how it goes.  I'll show off my completely prepped items when I'm done.

How do you bring in a little extra money around your house?
How about Christmas spending? Is it cash all the way?