Teaching An Old Chick New Tricks

Huh.  That sounded naughtier than I intended.  Moving on.

Tip Of The Day:  After spending WAY TO MUCH time trying to sort through and tally my receipts for the last two weeks (i.e. the weeks leading up to Christmas, aka the days of shopping, returning, and exchanging), I have come to an all-important conclusion – To Hell With It.  My past spending is way too convoluted to explain in a blog post, and by the time I got through trying, I would have bored you into a coma.  No one wants that.

Instead, I will simply share with the group what I learned this holiday shopping season.  And next Monday, I will start up again with an all-new Spending Recap.  Lucky, lucky you.

Tip For Tomorrow:  I get to be on Fox 9’s Morning Buzz TWICE this week!  Yay me!  So tomorrow’s post will be all about tomorrow’s segment – Getting Glam For Less.  Tune in for the ideas and deals I’m loving at the end of the decade.

Further Elucidation Of My Cheap Deal:  This year’s holiday shopping was a bit different from Christmases past.  First and foremost, my family and I decided to impose a cap on what we could spend on gifts – $25 per person.  This forced us to shop smarter, and pay attention to what we thought the other person would truly love to receive.  Remember, if you’re going to save money, you’ll have to spend time.

I only went over on one gift (my StepMom’s), otherwise, everyone less was $25 or less.  And everyone got exactly what they asked for, which makes for the best time come Christmas morning.

As for my BFF’s, I wanted to spend $15 or less, I wanted the gifts to be sappy and sweet, as well as practical.  So they got fun socks (always a big hit in MN, where socks are a vital part of our wardrobe 9 months out of the year), and a photo collage.

Now, when I say (or rather, type) photo collage – what first pops in your mind?  Those cheesy photocopies of snipped-up pix, crammed under glass?  Or one of those spendy collage frames, with each square filled with another picture?  Well, I did neither.  I made them 8 x 10 photos, comprised of pictures of our misspent youths, scanned onto the computer, and sent to Walgreens.com.

Why Walgreens.com?  Because they have an online collage feature that allows you to take your digital pictures and compile them into a professional collage photo – complete with borders and a title if you wish (I forewent the title).  They look super-expensive, the photo quality is amazing, and the cost?  Just $4 a picture for the 8 x 10s.  Slide that into an inexpensive frame from Walmart (I may hate this store, but they have the BEST frame selection for under $10), and presto!  Gifts that touched my BFFs hearts.  I hope.  They all seemed pleased anyway…

Another thing I learned this Christmas is the joy, the beauty, the perfection of Amazon.com.  I resisted this megalithic shopping site in the past, mostly because I hate to pay for shipping.  But this year, aka The Year Of Buying Books For My Big Brother, I had to hit up the ‘Zon.  And in doing so, I remembered an ingenious way to get around shipping costs – spend enough money.  My mom and I combined our Amazon shopping into one big spree, thus qualifying for the Super Saver shipping.  5 to 9 business days later, we got our order, sans shipping charges.

I’d been told of this online shopping tip before (props to my BFF HaC on this one) – buy in bulk by combining your order with your friends/family’s order and qualify for free shipping.  Most sites won’t charge if you spend over a certain dollar amount, usually $50 to $75.  Guess what?  It really works.

So let me ask you:  What did you discover while shopping this holiday season?  What new deals or ideas did you learn?