Living Paycheck to Paycheck

I’m back, pals!  Back from nowhere, really, but I’m ready to start posting again.  I don’t know why I felt like I needed the break, but I’m ready for things to get back to normal.  I’m also (for now) ditching my weekly to-do lists.  I wasn’t getting anything done anyway.

So Christmas is coming!  I’m in the holiday spirit and my biggest problem (if you can call it that) is that B won’t let me listen to Christmas music around him.  I understand–this is the first year since my senior year of high school that I got into the Christmas spirit more than two days before Christmas.  I’ve been listening to 97.1 for the 24/7 Christmas music and loving it!

So I’ve done something silly…or rather I haven’t done something.  I never made a Christmas budget.  And I’m not going to, either.  I was getting so stressed out trying to budget that I just gave up (that sounds healthy, right?).  January is a three-paycheck month for me, so I’ll let that soak up some of the overflow…if there is overflow.  Because even without a budget, I’ve been getting great deals on things.

My younger brother’s gift is taken care of (or will be when I receive things in the mail).  I got him three c.d.’s that he wanted.  I have to say that the Amazon wishlist thing is quite helpful.  One c.d. is an old one that I was able to order for about $4 off of an Amazon seller.  The other two are new, but were $10.99 and $9.99 respectively and I got free shipping.  So his gift was right at $25.

My cousin has two sons, 2 and 4 months old.  I’m just going to give them two coloring books and some markers.  Obviously the baby can’t play with those, but my cousin won’t care.  Approximate cost for this is $13.

My dad told me that he wanted some dry sacks (or wet sacks?), these bags that keep everything in them completely dry if a person tosses the bag into a river while fishing.  I’ve used them before when tubing on a river, to hold keys, wallets, clothes, etc.  I just tie it to a rope and let it float on the water.  Anyway, my dad gets this Sportsman’s Guide catalogue thing and told me that it was a 3-pack for about $17.  When I went to the website, it was $15-something.  I found a $5 off coupon code, so my final price (with tax and shipping) was $15.46, I believe.  I’m going to find him something else to go along with this; maybe a shirt from Kohl’s where I still have about $20 on a gift card.

I picked out two books for my mom and used ebates to get a good price.  I’m getting 8% cash back by going through Borders.com and I got 30% off one item.  The two books were originally $13.95, so I didn’t have the $25 to qualify for the free shipping until I added the two coloring books that I got for my cousin’s sons.  My final price was $33.20, without the 8% cashback.  With it, it’ll be something like $30.54.  I think that I’ll get my mom gloves and a scarf to finish up her gift.

So I’ve spent just under $75 so far.  I’m planning on baking cookies or making candy for gifts for other people mostly.  Other gifts that I need to buy:

For B:  I have a few ideas…I want to keep this under $50

For RC: A couple years ago R and I went halfsies on a boxed set of Friends with the intention to buy a new boxed set someday.  At the time, we paid around $172.  I’ve seen it online for as little as $80.  I’m thinking that if I buy it, their gift really only costs $40…and less if you count C’s birthday in a couple weeks and R’s birthday that I never really finished getting a gift for a few months ago.

For B’s parents:  wine and a framed picture of B and I.

For my grandparents:  framed picture of B and I, and some cookies.

For my cousin and her husband:  wine and cookies.  I’d like to make some cookies that her older son can eat because he has tons of food allergies.

Another cousin:  bottle of wine or cookies.  He and I always exchange one bottle so I might keep this up.

Otherwise, that should be it for me.  I’m estimating my costs to be around $175 for the things that I haven’t bought yet, not including the cookie ingredients and all the wrapping and things.  Estimating that that will be an additional $75 (I hope that that’s a steep estimate) and adding that to the $75 that I’ve already spent, I’m hoping that I don’t go over $325.  Man.  That’s even lower than I expected.  I’d even be okay with $400.

So, budget or no, I’m still doing pretty well.  As long as my friends and family love baked goods (which reminds me that I might have to buy a couple extra cookie sheets or this will take forever).