Handling a surprise expense

This year, my father's birthday happened to arrive the same weekend as Easter. I had planned on giving him a humorous card with two bars of dark chocolate with almonds, a favorite of his. However, my brother called five days before our dad's birthday and asked me to contribute toward giving Dad a gas grill for his 60th birthday. As one of five children, my share would come to $40. I was taken aback at the expense to which my brother informed me earlier he was looking at $60 per person. After querying if Dad wanted a gas grill (yes, he's admired my brothers' setups), would the propane tank be filled and ready to go (not sure, will check into it), I checked my gift giving allocation.

The reason I was uncertain about the gift was twofold. One, I prefer to be warned more than a few days beforehand of an expense so I could save for the item than raid my savings account. Two, I wanted to keep my hard-earned money in my savings account. Luckily, after checking my budget, I had more than enough to cover the $40 in my gift spending category. This was a relief and demonstrated the necessity of having a gift-giving allocation and for spending less than I needed to. Because many previous gifts had been handmade or purchased secondhand, I had not spent the full amount allotted for gifts every month. The leftover money accumulated over time and allowed me to easily afford a share of a gift I had no idea I would be giving my dad.

My dad liked his new propane grill and my brother took care of all the hard work of purchasing, assembling the grill and transporting it to our parent's home. It all worked out (my brother did not have to resort to guilt trips to "encourage" me to contribute) and I was able to keep my savings account intact; a winning situation all around.

Making reusable gift bags

About eleven years ago, I took a community class on quilting, decided I enjoyed it, signed up for a second class and went crazy buying cotton fabric to use for quilting. The quilting bug bit me hard for about two years before my interest waned. However, this still leaves me with lots of fabric (and planned quilting projects), but little completion in sight.

In fact, when I put together my unsuccessful garage sale, I put some fabric out for people to buy. No one bought it then. I posted pictures and noted the lengths of the fabric on craigslist--no nibbles there. So I had resigned myself to sending this fabric to a charity thrift store.

However, when I was figuring out what to wrap my niece's birthday gift of clothing and a notebook in, I realized I had no box, bag or wrapping paper to use. Plus, I really did not want to buy additional paper just to wrap her gift. Then a small light bulb went off in my brain.

When I had purchased my reusable grocery bags from Reusablebags.com, I noticed one of the items that could be purchased was reusable gift bags. Since it was Christmas time, I was thinking, "yeah, having gift bags that can be reused would be great!" All the gift paper in my family gets thrown out and that is a lot of paper! Paper gift bags do get reused, but there may not be one of the right size when needed.

I found directions for sewing reusable gift bags and recalled the fabric I was giving away. One fabric design was with colorful cats, perfect for a six-year-old child (or any children at heart). Therefore, I sewed up one bag, realized it was too small and created a larger one that was bigger than needed but worked for my purposes.

I was proud of not giving my niece paper to throw away, the bag was cute and it cost me nothing but my time to make! I have enough fabric remaining to make two to four additional gift bags and knowing that sewing these items are so simple, I will be hardpressed not to make more. However, I still have Christmas and other gift wrap in my house to use so my reusable cloth gift bags will only be used occasionally until I run out of my current gift wrap and ribbons.

A special gift for my sister

I am the oldest of five children and my sister is the youngest. Thirteen years separate us but there is one thing we have in common--we are both the only ones in our family who graduated from college. While our degrees are worlds apart, we both had really clear ideas about what we wanted to do. She wanted to get a job as a legal secretary and I wanted to go to graduate school. It took my sister six months after graduation to find the job she wanted but she is excited to be working for the lawyer she is and revels in her new job. While I attended graduate school, I decided a Ph.D. was not for me and left with a Master's degree, worked at the same university I received my degree from then jumped the academic ship for industry, where I have been for the last 5.5 years.

I started working when I was 27; my sister is 22. I knew I wanted to save for retirement but did not do anything until I had a job. I put about 6% of my pretax income in my 403b plan starting in 1999. Unfortunately, this meant I bought while the market was high so my portfolio lost half its value. I left my job in 2001 and waited until 2007 before the plan value matched what I put in to roll it over into an IRA. I wish I had known better and placed more of my pretax money into retirement. Presently, I invest 16% of my income for retirement and will keep increasing that percentage as I receive raises. Hopefully, this will get me to a comfortable retirement. I would like to think so but it is hard to predict something 30 years in the future.

Since my sister has the opportunity to invest in a 401k with her new job and they do have some matching, I know she is planning on joining the plan as soon as she is allowed. She also has a student loan to pay off but she was smarter than I and does not have credit card debt. Currently, she lives at home with our parents and drives the family car to work, a 40-minute commute.

I want her to start off on the right foot, start saving for retirement and get herself on the right track for the future sooner than I did. I was never truly in a bad place but I see now as an opportunity for my sister to situate herself well earlier than I managed to do. Therefore, she is getting a gift of a personal finance book for Christmas from her wonderful older sister. The book I chose was based on The Simple Dollar's recommendation for recent grads: Automatic Wealth for Grads. I included a card with a handwritten note listing my wish for her to get off on the best financial foot possible. I hope she reads the book and learns some techniques to apply to her situation.

The more sensible my sister is with money now, the more years she has to double it for the future. She already has an ING Direct account and plans to save for a car of her own. Living at home gives her a great opportunity to save without other expenses. Our brother stayed at home until he was married, and he and his wife put a nice down payment on a house.

Visit the thrift store--now!

Today, I walked into my local charity thrift store and was excited to see my Corelle dish pattern there. While not in as good a shape as I would like, 50 cents a piece was quite a bit cheaper than the dinner plates were going for on eBay. In addition, I found a shirt (brand new!) and a sweater to add to my wardrobe.

At the end of the year, charity thrift shops are inundated with donations from people looking to lighten the load both on their house and on their taxes. Businesses also like the tax writeoff and donate stock (e.g., clothing) that did not sell to the same charity stores. That means the stores have a lot of stock and a lot more variety than during much of the rest of the year.

With so much new stock and both storage and floor space at a premium, this is a great time to visit your thrift store. As my experience demonstrated, I found items I have been looking for but did not hope to find (i.e., the Corelle dishes). I usually make a Saturday run to the thrift store, but since I have time off between Christmas and New Years, I plant to drop into the thrift store several times. Selection changes every day and I want to maximize my opportunity to find those storage containers or salt and pepper shakers I have been looking for!

So, shop the thrift stores! You may find some last minute gifts and some great buys for yourself.

Successful Christmas gifts given and received

My most frugal gift this year was 24 skeins of four different colored yarn and some silver jewelry that I only cost me some time and wrapping paper. My friend loved it all (as I suspected she would) and an unexpected bonus--the jewelry inspired her!

I enjoy receiving sweet goodies from colleagues for the holidays, but I really like two of the gifts I have received. My very artistic friend gave me silver earrings with freshwater pearls. I love it because she made it herself with her own talent. My wonderful coworker gave me a frame she etched with a fun pattern. However, I really liked the whole presentation. She wrapped it in tissue paper (used) and placed it into a small gift bag (again used). The picture frame was free as our company gave it away, but she removed the company-specific logo and put her own design on it (reusing an item and making it new). This is what I like to experience--the creative and personal touch with items on hand.

I hope you receive some gifts you like and are both frugal and environmentally kind.

White elephant gift exchanges--how I won this round!

The company division that my department is a part of had a holiday party today that included a white elephant gift exchange. Both my boss and I took to heart the white elephant part--take something from home that the individual would never use and did not want, and use this opportunity to foist...I mean allow another person to take it home. Last year at my family's gift exchange, I chose (and could not get another to take) an unopened box of a vintage 1970s hostess set including cow creamer, sugar dispenser, and salt and pepper shakers. I considered eBay as a way to make money and get it out of my life, but then I would have to post the listing, hope I get enough money to make it worth my while and then get to the post office to mail it. I am lazy so in my house it sat.

Then I received this party invite including a white elephant gift exchange and thought "Ah ha! I can get rid of this piece of clutter!" The damn thing haunted me and I just did not want it but could not throw it away. I was considering posting it on craigslist until this opportunity came along. Still, once I was at the party, I had to avoid getting something I despised even more and would only swap one piece of clutter for another bit of clutter in my house. Thankfully, I managed to downsize extremely well. I came away with a set of almost tealight-sized, Christmas-shaped candles. Small, usable and best of all, a lot easier to dispose of.

The gift I "received" is not completely earth friendly but compared to the entirely petroleum-based vintage set I had, I am thankful. Besides, I like candles and the size of the package is a tenth of what I had. I was able to avoid items that were completely useless to me and would only add to the clutter in my home. Besides, I already have an item I intend on using for the family gift exchange and would not want to displace that. Now if I could only be so successful Christmas eve (find something I like and no one steals it). Tall order I know. Here is hoping!

Frugal Christmas gifts

With Christmas creeping even closer, I have been taking time to do some baking. The recipients of my gift include my colleagues, my grandparents and my neighbors. Since today is the last day the majority of my colleagues will be at work, I needed to get all my baking done in time. My current selection includes gingersnaps (a favorite of my mom's father and I like their bite), chocolate peanut butter cookies (Reese's chips in a chocolate cookie) and Danish cookies. I made a fourth cookie but most of them were a failure. I am not sure where I went wrong but when I try something different, the results can be mixed.

However, my most frugal gift is to a friend at work. She likes to knit and create silver jewelry among other arts and crafts. My aunt had tried to crochet, decided it was not for her and then asked her relatives at Thanksgiving if anyone wanted the yarn she purchased. I took it because I thought of my friend. She had a tall kitchen garbage bag full of yarn in four colors. I also asked if anyone in my family had any silver jewelry they no longer wanted and my sister contributed two rings. Other than a cost of a few minutes of my time, I am giving my friend a gift of free stuff but they are all items she will use.

I intend to bake two more batches of cookies and two loaves of lemon poppy seed bread to make sure I have enough for my neighbors and family. My neighbors are getting gifts because they have been kind enough to help me throughout the year whether snowblowing out my driveway, mowing my lawn while I was overseas or allowing me to borrow a wheelbarrow. These efforts save me time, money and my body so I want to show my appreciation.

Other than baking, all I have left to do is wrap three more gifts, pack up the baked goods and write out a couple cards. Despite my tone, I am feeling some stress and am looking forward to my time off. Hopefully, you are dealing successfully with holiday stress and enjoying being with family and friends.