The Best Thing to Spend at Christmas is Time - by Danu

Over the years, my family has grown up, matured, gotten smarter collectively. My sister has been a great role-model throughout my life. She, being the eldest of my siblings has had to figure a lot out on her own and I, luckily, get to learn from those discoveries.

One thing my family never passed down was financial wisdom, which seems weird considering both of my Grandfathers were accountants. But, nonetheless, some of us had to learn things the hard way. Recently, my sister has taken some classes in money management. I found out when we went to have lunch together and she paid in cash. It was odd seeing her, or anybody for that matter, actually use the stuff. She is the one that really got me to understand the best thing to spend at Christmas is time, not money.

Now, I’ve never been a fan of using credit cards but even using my debit card was a denial of the process of handing over physical dollars to someone for each expenditure I made. When Christmas rolled around, I, like most of America, spent beyond my means. Then, my family made a pact. We drew names and were only allowed to buy one gift under $50 for our recipient. The idea was to make a wish list and that way everyone would end up getting one thing they actually wanted or needed.

So, no more of this…

This year, instead of drawing names at Thanksgiving, we did an online drawing. This website-

Elfster.com is making our gift exchange even more simplistic than before. This year I vowed not to step foot inside of a mall, AND I vowed not to spend more money than I planned to. In fact, I did some research of the items I was planning on buying and went to the ATM and withdrew only enough money to buy the items I planned to.

 

So easy a dog can do it!

It’s the first year I didn’t walk out with presents for myself, (which is actually a present in itself.) On top of the bad financial genes, we also inherited a clutter gene.

 

Come On-a My House

So, my mom has requested that we only get her consumable items: food, wine, bath goods; stuff she can use and enjoy and that won’t add to the clutter issue. So far, this system has worked out really well for all of us.

Here is a cool source for unusual gifts that are all under $77 and here’s another called Perpetual Kid that I love.

Limbs are yummy!

I highly recommend setting up an Amazon.com wishlist. Even if people that are shopping for you don’t dig online shopping, they can still get an idea of your preferences and find similar items at local shops.

Oh, and that reminds me- I know you can save a few bucks here and there by making your purchases at Mal-Wart and the like,

Always.

but I urge you to revive your local economy and try to find gifts at locally-owned businesses.

This man will thank you for it!

Happy Holidays to you and yours,

Danu