My Plans for a Frugal Christmas & Holiday Ideas with TwitterMoms & Staples

I started out half the year thinking about how to be more frugal with Christmas given we have five kids and three sets of parents. I was losing track of the ways I was going to make this an inexpensive yet nice Christmas so I went to Staples, picked up a cheap handy journal to keep my lists of money making opportunities ranging from surveys, buyer advantage programs, bank debit programs and other opportunities.  TwitterMoms and Staples has put together a challenge for moms to share how they are saving money.

When I think of Staples, I always rememeber my step son taking the "That was easy" button and blasting it in my ear last year for Christmas.  Staples is another great place to pick up some of those high tech gifts or even office supplies or furnishings.  An avid printer might appreciate a big supply of cartridges.  A hopeless direction finder would love a new GPS (my sister for example)!  Not only can you get your presents but you can order wonderful personalized cards, calendars and one of my favorites, gift card holders.






Deals for Busy Moms This Holiday Season Check out This Week's Deals!

About this TwitterMoms Blogging Program

Looking for more creative ways to save money?  Zazzle, if you are creative, is a great venue for making items with no costs out of your pocket. I started in the political arena and ventured into other areas such as business cards, children's products and invitations. Not quite a year later, I've made over $2,000 which has been handy for customized photo gifts and cash. This will definitely take care of a few gifts.

My latest real time frugal Christmas deals/buys.

Customized Wine Labels:

Use these to customize and accompany the wine to explain the vintage, type and other wine maker notes:

Mypoints.com is a quick way to make points to turn into gift cards and more. If you buy a lot on the internet, definitely use this site as the points add up fast! They also offer other incentives to earn points ranging from surveys to games to referrals. The points accumulated will amount to one gift off the book for Christmas in a Macy's gift card! 

My bank offers debit card rewards so whenever we click that debit button, we add on more points. Utilize those cards especially if it's via a free account! These points will knock off two more gifts in the form of two gift cards from The Gap for those hard to buy for teens:

I'm trying the survey route as many bloggers note are worthwhile along with Swagbucks but I haven't quite got the hang of that one so I'll keep moving along as a snail's pace.

Take advantage of cosmetic type freebies if you use products such as Clinique or Lancome. They have nice free items that can add up to a nice gift basket:

My employer also provides thank you for a good job points to spend with a company in exchange for gifts.  It's been a good year and here is what I'm purchasing as gifts:

I know that one isn't necessarily fair as not everyone gets a perk such as that from their employer but it's to show an opportunity that I could spend on myself but am choosing to use towards making the holiday more frugal.

My Coke Rewards points can add up quickly if you an avid Coke fan as we are.  Thanks to TwitterMoms, I took part in an earlier opportunity where I received an additional 500 points which quickly bumped up our Coke addiction points.  Not sure what I'll purchase yet but it's looking like a $50 gift card.

This year, I will also bake to save a little from purchasing some of the higher priced YET very good baked items.  I posted previously about some really simple but elegant looking from AllYou.com.

CreativeGiftWrapping.Com has very elegant and sophisticated packaging to add the final touch to your gifts.

Have you ever noticed how many bloggers have giveaways? If you have the time, enter! There are some really nice giveaways and given the volume, you are bound to win something eventually!

Light Up Your Child's Mind by Renzulli and Reis Book Review WINNER

Congratulations to

JanetFaye, LuvDayLilies, Margeret & Civ05, Your Information Was Received & Books Should be Coming Soon!

JDaniel4's Mom, please contact me by end of day today! Thanks!

I had the great opportunity from The Product Review Place and Hachette Book Group to read Light Up Your Child's Mind by Joseph Renzulli, PhD and Sally Reis, PhD.  I took an interest in reading this book mostly because I have three children at home.  They range in ages from 2 to 21 so I wanted to see if there was anything I could have done differently to invoke some creativity in the oldest one's mind.  I've grown myself since those early days with her so I can look back and reflect on what I can offer and provide both from a more mature level as well as from a resource perspective. 

I encourage the creativity in my children mostly because I'm creative myself or at least I like to think I am!  Talking to my dad today, I learned that I got it from him and they got it from me most likely.  My middle child is currently pursuing writing, acting and many other artsy type hobbies.  She's a natural and where she lacks in memory (I think due to epilepsy medications), she gains in having a wonderful ability to create almost anything.

What I liked about the book is what many parents, I would think, don't realize and that is that schools are so busy building, teaching and sticking to assigned schedules and requirements that they don't have the time to tap into each child's unique interests and desires.  This is by no means the fault of the schools but as parents, we have the ability to show our children the way through many opportunities.  It provides direction in how to guide your child versus pushing and directing their interests.  It gives suggestions on how to spark an interest and how to pursue the interests.

I think we all remember the kid in school that had the most incredible looking projects and you knew their parents helped if not created the entire project.  This method advocates tapping into the source by instilling excitement and interest without pushing.

I highly recommend this book as a great way to educate yourself on how to spur creativity in your child.  It's a great resource to teach both you and your children on how to tap into the hidden passions and carry forward in a healthy, productive manner.

The Giveaway

Hachette Book Group is offering this wonderful opportunity to allow five of my readers a chance to receive their own copy.

All you have to do to enter, is leave a comment.

For extra entries:

• Follow my blog
• Blog about the giveaway
• Tweet the giveaway

Leave an extra comment after each activity to let me know you did.

Giveaway ends September 30, 2009.

That's a Wrap: Creative Wrap

I tend to focus a lot of this blog on things that make gifts more special and unique and as I have mentioned previously, I always try to make each gift come from the heart.  I search over and over for the perfect presentation to show how much I love and care for the person I'm honoring. 

That's a Wrap has the most incredible display of beautiful ways to wrap that special gift because after all, if you go to the trouble to make the gift heartfelt, you might as well make it beautiful upon giving.

The products range from everything you need to wrap your special gifts.  I'm really amazed at the volume of products they have and how they coordinate them into Gift Kits or you can individually select what you want.

They offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee.

They have many different containers as well.  Boxes, purses, take out boxes and many other types to choose from.  They also have all the fillers and bows you could ever dream of from tulle to tissue paper and so much more.

On their site, they offer how to's which is great for those that are not Martha Stewart!

Since Christmas really is fast approaching, check out their great supplies.  They range from cookie and wine boxes to bevel gourmet boxes to cello rolls, stockings and all the other gift wrap coordinates.

I really love this shop due to the creativity, the variety and their help in making sure your gift truly is special.