Wednesday, July 15, 2009

MOM MINUTES @ MY MONEY MISSION ONLINE

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! WHAT! SAY WHAT!!

That's right.....it's The Christmas in July edition of Mom Minutes. One of Mom's faithful reader's (and her biggest fan.....HI HELENE!!) wrote this:

"Dear Mom - Everyone is doing Christmas in July articles. Can you include some of your best tips for Christmas that we can get started on or thinking about? Love,Your Biggest Fan

Well, after my Mom got done viewing the before/after pictures of Helene's clean frig, and getting a good chuckle about it, she got right to work thinking of some great tips. So everyone, here is the latest Mom Minutes! :)


MOM MINUTES by Earlene

First of all, I have to say that I am very proud of Helene, and everyone else, who tackled their refrigerator's after last week's post. My dear daughter, however, still has some more work to do on hers!!....and I'm glad that the exp. date was 2007, not 1997, Helene. I about had a heart attack!! :)

For those of you who are counting the days until school starts, do you know what that means?? Not only is Fall fast approaching, but also Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Over the years, I have devised ways to cope with the extra money burden on my budget by doing the following:
  1. Set aside some extra cash now and put it into savings. You are saying, "what extra cash?" Are you planning a garage sale? Put that money into the savings account. Selling something on Ebay? Put that aside. Every little bit helps, and before you know it, you'll have a tidy amount when you need it.

  2. Do some Christmas shopping now. Did you know that the real "magic" of Christmas in July is that the retail stores have a ready-made excuse to hold a big sale. Since July is a rather dry month in terms of sales, retailers are happy to grab onto any reason to bring shoppers into the store.

    This translates into your first big buying opportunity for the coming holiday season. Keep your eyes open and your ears tuned for sales that may happen during July. Some may be on July 25th, but any time of the month is likely to see a big sale happen. If your local stores aren't holding a sale, check for events near you such as arts and crafts fairs. And of course, stay tuned to online sales. Places like QVC and HSN often hold Christmas in July special sales events.

    T
    he key: Get gifts in July that aren't dependent upon being the "hot" thing for this year. "Hot items" probably won't reveal themselves this early.

  3. Update that Christmas list now. Did you receive a card from so and so and notice that it had a different address on it? Get out your address book (or open your online file) and update it. That way, you'll have it when you want to start sending the Christmas cards. Want to include a pic of someone special? (like Alex, Helene?) Don't wait until the day-after-Thanksgiving to snap that photo. Do it now. That is just one less thing that you'll have to do later. At Frugal Shopping With Julie, she blogs about a free photo book at CVS this week. Check your local store to see if they are participating. Hint: This would make an awesome gift, and it is FREE after CVS Extra Care Bucks!

  4. Continuing the FREE theme, now is the time to really look for those low-cost or FREE items that come along at CVS or Walgreens. Some of those items would make great stocking stuffers!

    That is all for now!! Enjoy the rest of your day and stay tuned for more Mom Minutes next week!

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    Daisypath Anniversary Years Ticker

5 comments:

  1. I just wanted to stop by and Thank you for
    your sweet message and my blog. It was alot
    of fun reading your blog as well. I also will
    pop in every now and then and say Hi.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yikes I went to your old url.

    Gonna read the post now. Go read my comment over there

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Linda and Helene....thanks for the nice comments. Thanks for the "Belated Birthday Wish" Helene...I didn't even remember that Danesa put that on her blog! HA!

    Hope you enjoy today's post! :)

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  4. I love the CVS photo book. It will cost me $5 though. Let me explain. Recently my cousin's now-grown and married son who I had lost contact with for 20+ years contacted me. I have photos he doesn't have of his grandpa who raised him, his dad (who I was very close to), family life. At Kinko's I can scan them to a cd (I scanned a few quickly for his wife to surprise him for their anniversary)for $5. Then I can make the photo book which will be an awesome Christmas present. Not to mention the kids and I have family now.

    Mom, I had tears in my eyes from laughing at your comments. I feel famous now!

    Another of my favorite gifts was an awesome book (not telling yet) that retails for around $25. My church was selling them for $5 just to get people to read it. I read it and it was so awesome I got 10 copies for Christmas presents.

    And yep, pictures of Alex go into the cards-they are well-received. Someone at school taught him niceties like How Are You Glad To Meet You etc. He practices them all. Last year I used my Flip video cam to post a youtube like video of him for his dad side relatives.

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  5. I love shopping year round for Christmas. Please tell mom that my gift closet is filling up nicely. I love it here!

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