I decided I would have a garage sale – in Chetek Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. It is worth it to haul everything up there for the additional people you get. We just have to give the Garage 10%. Anyway, I priced this afternoon and got everything not only priced, but cleaned up and polished to a shine. Did you know you can polish books? You can. And it makes them look a lot more appealing.
Now the idea. I know that not all of you are on this Dave Ramsey Money Makeover thing, but I think you all are in the position where you want to be financially conservative. So I was thinking that maybe this year we could limit gifts to things that you found at a bargain price from a garage sale or Goodwill or Savers or on ebay or whatever, or to things that you made yourself. (Well, I guess ebay isn’t always cheap. But where you get things is up to you.) The point would be to try to give meaningful gifts without spending an arm and a leg. I know there are a lot of people to buy for and it could really add up. That would mean probably not posting lists, because it is hard to know what someone would find for you. I know in the past few years there have probably been as many gifts given that were not on the lists as were on the lists.
Anyway, if we are going to do this, we need to know soon, so we can start looking, because it takes a while to find really good bargains!
And I know that it isn’t really my business what you do with the name drawing and stuff, but I just thought I would mention it as an idea. And I would feel better searching for cool bargains if I knew that others were doing the same thing and that everyone would understand that our motives are good and that it doesn’t mean we don’t love you just as much.
Could everyone weigh in on your thoughts, pro or con?
Somewhere in the back of my head I was thinking that were weren’t going to exchange names this year. I might be wrong though.
Could be. I wasn’t really in that discussion, but either way, it might be more sensible to buy economically this year. It gets to be all about expectations and I hate to have anyone feel bad because someone spent a lot more. I know how that feels because Don’s family does that and we always feel guilty because we won’t spend that much.
I think it was part of the discussion in the dining room when we together for New Year’s and were talking about future plans. The only thing I remember for sure is that we decided to get together at Thanksgiving time. The rest is fuzzy.
Yeah, I can’t remember our Christmas family discussion AT ALL anymore… Someone should have taken notes! 🙂 I do remember talking about gifts but I can’t remember what we decided. But I do like your idea of looking for meaningful gifts without spending an arm and a leg!
It might be time to switch away from the individual names and move to more
“family” gifts for each other. It is getting to be a lot of kids if you feel you have to buy for each individual niece and nephew. But it is totally up to you guys how you do your buying for each other.
Yay! I’m back at work which means I have internet and can post again!!
I LOVE the idea of bargain hunting for gifts but I may be slightly addicted to garage sales, salvation army, etc. If people want to exchange gifts we are in! Just let us know.
Good to know that I’m not the only one who prefers “bargain hunting” to shopping!
Sounds like you are happy to be back at work. Must be hard to leave little Mae, but good to know she is in good hands. And good to have some adult time, too! I would guess that kids do better if their parent’s lives don’t totally revolve around them. That could get suffocating for both, I would think.