These are lean times.
Some of us are fortunate enough to still be doing OK financially, even if it's paycheck to paycheck. Others of us... are not doing OK, or we can see "not-doing-OK" barrelling down at us like a freight train.
And yet, the holidays do come around, lean times or no.
As always, my thanks to sarahnity, regular author of this column, for letting me discuss gift-giving yet again. In her words:
Welcome to Frugal Fridays where we share money saving tips, discuss living frugally and generally talk about personal finance issues.
I've always had a soft spot for tales of winter holiday merriment, often from years long since past, where gifts were simple but joy was abundant. Where did that spirit go, I wonder, when I look around at the frantic excess that so often marks our winter celebrations today.
I've also been thinking about the oft-quoted comment, recently attributed both to Rahm Emanuel and MI Governor Jennifer Granholm:
You don't want a crisis to go to waste.
Perhaps out of crisis this year, we can find the opportunity to truly make this holiday less about acquisition of expensive "stuff"?
In last year's Frugal Gifts: Holiday Edition, I explored multiple ways that the concept of frugality could be applied to holiday shopping. These ran the gamut from sale shopping, to shopping with an eye toward sustainability, to making your gift dollars do double-duty as fund-raisers.
This year, I think it's appropriate to narrow the focus to what an extremely inexpensive holiday might look like, with some literary nuggets to inspire you along the way.
First, from Little House on the Prairie, by Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Laura and Mary think they have emptied their stockings...
Ma asked if they were sure the stockings were empty.
Then they put their hands down inside them, to make sure.
And in the very toe of each stocking was a shining bright, new penny!
They had never even thought of such a thing as having a penny. Think of having a whole penny for your very own. Think of having a cup and a cake and a stick of candy and a penny.
There had never been such a Christmas.
What I take away from this kind of account, memoir or fiction, is that Christmas hasn't always been this materialistic! It's harder to scale back than to start with low expectations of course. But it can be done, if there's either the will or the necessity (or both) to do so.
Most important point for a low-expense, low-"stuff" Christmas (and I said this last year too):
ENVISION A PLAN.
I'd challenge you this year, whether you need to or not, to pick what feels like a ridiculously low dollar figure, either as a total or per person for gift-giving.
What do you think? Could you "do" Christmas on $20 per person? How about $15? Do I hear $10? Or, take it as a budget total: what's the lowest total spending you can envision? Then... what if you cut it in half?
Next, VERY IMPORTANT SUB-POINT #1:
Enlist your loved ones.
I don't recommend a family meeting full of long faces as you go over a doom-and-gloom budget line by line. What if, instead, you entered into this with excitement and good grace - fake it till you make it, if you must. Turn it into a challenge or a game. Who in the family can be the most creative about making holiday on a shoestring?
Talk about strategies together. Make an agreement.
Here are some thoughts on how that might look, some borrowed from previous diaries:
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Then, there's home-made gifts...
I'm making a separate section for these, because they can be an excellent foundation for holiday gifts on a super-tight budget. Be aware, of course, of the trade-off between money and time: it's not worth doing homemade gifts if it will be more stress than joy for you. Also be aware, as quoted from last year:
Sometimes materials for homemade can add up to the point that the gift is no longer particularly frugal. Be aware of what you're spending on materials, and consider recording that on your gift-list as well. I like to shop the sales at craft stores like Michael's or JoAnn Fabrics -- check your local circulars or search online for their printable 40%-off coupons.
One low-cost homemade idea I'm using this year is that I'm making a set of matching fleece hats for nieces & nephews. Fleece isn't necessarily a super-frugal homemade gift if you're buying enough for, say, a no-sew fleece blanket. But with an aforementioned 40% off coupon, or buying from the remnant table, you can get several hats out of a yard of fleece!
An idea from EJP in Maine last year:
Hanging bags to hold plastic shopping bags for re-use. It uses just a little fabric, encourages recycling, and people seemed to love them.
(One pattern is here).
The above pattern is from CraftBits. I'd add that there's some other neat inexpensive projects at the site, such as Homemade Hair Scrunchies or a soda can holder made from a vintage LP!
One could really do a whole diary on the home-made gifts thing, but I'll let you contribute your favorites in the commments. Here are a few additional links for sites with some ideas:
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A Few Additional General Holiday Frugality Ideas - and Links
Ideas for an inexpensive tree - if you live in a college town, you might consider scrounging a tree after exams, abandoned by students who got a tree for their dorm room or apartment until they left town.
Do you have another plant at home that might be suitable for decorating in place of a tree? (One year Mr. AnnieJo and I hung a bunch of little angels on our dragon-tree plant instead of getting a Christmas tree!)
Don't forget the old standby of stringing popcorn chains, maybe with a few cranberries in between to be festive -- lots of fun as a cooperative project! Paper chains are cheap and easy and decorative too.
Another place to save some money, if you haven't already made this switch: form-letters and photo-cards and postage can be an expensive item, especially if your list is long. How many of those could be sent out via e-mail instead this year?
Two more additional money-saver links from BetterBudgeting.com:
63 Gift Ideas Under $10
Thirty-nine Frugal Tips for Saving Money at Christmas
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Giving of Ourselves - Together
From Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott, which begins with a Christmas story in lean times indeed. The four daughters each receive a single book from their mother, and each give their mother a single present (and then make merry together creating a theatre production). Remember what happened with their Christmas breakfast?
"Merry Christmas, little daughters! I'm glad you began at once, and hope you will keep on. But I want to say one word before we sit down. Not far away from here lies a poor woman with a little newborn baby. Six children are huddled into one bed to keep from freezing, for they have no fire. There is nothing to eat over there, and the oldest boy came to tell me they were suffering hunger and cold. My girls, will you give them your breakfast as a Christmas present?"
They were all unusually hungry, having waited nearly an hour, and for a minute no one spoke, only a minute, for Jo exclaimed impetuously, "I'm so glad you came before we began!"
You don't even have to give away your Christmas breakfast to help others in need over the holiday. Ask around your community for volunteer opportunities for your family to participate in. Not only is it something joyful and meaningful to do together, that costs nothing but your time, but it's a good reminder that whether or not we're having difficult times ourselves, we have something to share with others who may be having an even tougher time.
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And finally, one last literary word,
from the Grinch himself:
It came without ribbons!
It came without tags!
It came without packages, boxes and bags!
-- How the Grinch Stole Christmas, by Dr. Seuss
Yes, indeed. What is necessary, and what is excess?
And with that... let's hear from all of you!