The time has come, the Walrus said, to talk of many things… okay, so actually, the time has come to think about holiday planning. Most traditions celebrate something at this time of year, and we all love the festive atmosphere.
Unfortunately, along with the festivities comes… pressure. Pressure from the in-laws, from Martha Fricking Stewart, etc, etc, etc, and it starts to seem like the only way to have the “perfect” holiday is to overbuy, overeat, and overdo. The next thing you know, we ring in the New Year sick, fat, tired, and stressed about our bills.
We love, love, LOOOVE to go overboard on Christmas in my family, me included, so a debt-free holiday around here means careful thought about how to do more with less. I’m always looking for new ideas on how to make sure that I’ve shown the “thought that counts” to everyone we care about without going totally crazy!
Whether you are trying to balance your budget, give more to charity, or save more this year, and whatever traditions your family celebrates, we can all benefit from finding ways to give thoughtful gifts without breaking the bank.
With a good plan, we can all create a loving, festive holiday season that finishes with the best gift of all- a DEBT FREE celebration!
So, welcome to our Debt Free Gifts post series. Got a tip for us? Put it down there in the comment box or contact me about writing one of the posts in this series!
Now, let’s talk BARTERING! DIY is great, but it’s even better if you can make it play to your strengths. If you happen to be really good at baking, and you have a friend who loves to decorate cakes, why not join forces? You can make a couple big batches of cupcakes or mini-cupcakes- half for you and half for your friend- and then get together to decorate them. You’ll have someone on hand to do the skilled portions of the decorating, you might learn a thing or two, and you’ll both have a lot of very pretty, delicious cupcakes to serve guests or give as gifts for a fraction what you’d pay at a fancy bakery.
(Likewise if you can cut hair and know someone who is a great scrapbooker- you do her holiday ‘do and she does your holiday cards- or you take great photos and know someone who can sew- it just goes on forever. Ask around- you might find you can barter a lot of your gift needs this year.)
But anyway, back to the cake. (I take cake very, very seriously.) You can get cupcake boxes that hold one, four, or six cupcakes on Amazon.com or at your local craft store (or any place that carries cake supplies.) They come in a variety of colors and designs, or you can get plain white and let the kids decorate them before you fill them. Just to round out this suggestion for you, here’s my favorite cupcake recipe! It’s easy, it makes three dozen, and it holds well in the freezer. Just make them and freeze them in cupcake holders or storage containers- you don’t even have to thaw them before you decorate, just pull them out of the freezer and go.
