Christmas Shopping the Easy Way!

If you have any trouble getting into the holiday season mode early…start by walking through the malls come November first…the Decorations come out earlier and earlier every year! Soon you will see mall Santa’s in August! I understand that there are huge Christmas sales that go on around the holidays, but just think how wonderful it would be to get something on sale say during a Labor day sale??? Then just put the gift away!

I ALWAYS laughed at my mom for buying us Christmas presents early. We would be shopping in July and we’d want something and she’d say “I’ll buy it for you, but it’s for Christmas” We’d always roll our eyes and agree…but now fast forward to today, when I only have to shop for immediate family, and I totally get why she did it! Who wants to battle the crowds??? The holidays are supposed to be a happy time…why get miserable spending your weekends getting pushed and shoved in the aisles??

So my answer to you is…think ahead. You are going to be buying the presents anyway! Plus how great is it that you don’t have to spend a lump some of money if you spread out your gift buying. It won’t seem as much of a financial strain! It’s a total win win situation all around!

Buying Christmas presents BEFORE Thanksgiving Works for me. If you want to see what works for others check out Works For Me Wednesday over at We Are That Family!

I know the idea of binders isn’t anything new. But I decided that it would be a good idea to take that idea and expand to other aspects of my life. If a binder was so useful in wedding planning, why wouldn’t it come in handy for other things?

When I got my dog Tinkerbell I was very careful to keep all her information in one area. I bought a clip board. I mean hey…this little dog needed me to take care of her, and gosh darnit I was going to do it right. In this clipboard I have every single receipt from every vet visit she ever went on. It comes in handy so when I am asked a question at a vet appointment. I can easily check back and see what happened. I know when she had her shots, how much it cost and so on. It works like a charm!

Fast Forward to today. I’m married, and now not only in charge of my dog, but I am in charge of my husband. There is a lot of information! When I got placed on his insurance plan I wanted to make sure too keep all of our information in one place. How did I do that? Well in a binder of course! I started a medical binder! In it I keep phone numbers and records. It’s not very extensive yet, but just think how great it will be when we have kids?

When I found out I was pregnant I got yet another binder that would act as that baby binder! In it, I put my husband and my medical history that we both got from our parents. I started to keep notes about how I was feeling, and wrote down questions I had for the doctor. Mind you that binder didn’t get used that much due to the miscarriage, and now is thrown behind a closet door till I can use it again, but when that time comes I know that binder will come in handy.

Some may laugh at my binders, and trust me they do! (you know who you are) but I gotta tell you, I find it very handy and useful! I may not be able to keep order in every aspect of my life…but if you want to know my Dentists telephone number and address I can go to my medical binder, find the Dentist Tab and tell you right way! How about the results from my last blood work up? DONE!

So there you have it! Binders work for me! If you are interested in learning other tricks of the trade head on over to We Are That Family for Works for me Wednesday!

Eating lunch at home has many benefits. We’ve already mentioned that he gets to be blessed with my presence since I work from home and am usually there during lunch..but beyond that we’ve found that we save ALOT of money! His previous job was pretty far away and the people in his office would eat out 5 days a week. Yes he could’ve packed his lunch..but who wants to be the only person in the office sitting at their desk eating while the rest of the people are out together? Not my husband that’s for sure. So saving money is a huge bonus. Another bonus is the fact that eating IN is far more healthy than eating OUT. There is no comparison. Eating home allows you to be in control of how the food you want is prepared. Most of the time eating out for lunch would leave my husband eating pizza, Wendy’s, or a ridiculously huge deli sandwich. All not the most healthy and calorie conscious options.

Having my husband home in the day is a great treat for me also. I look forward to sitting with him while we eat talking about our mornings. I will admit that we do meet up to eat out about 1 day a week. Normally our routine is to meet up with some friends on Friday…but I think a little treat is always good.

 I am one lucky lady to have my husband want to come home and have lunch with me. By doing so we get to spend some time together, save money and are healthier (notice I said healthier not HEALTHY) . For those not as lucky to have their jobs as close to the home as we do..then I really do recommend bringing your lunch to work. I totally get that eating out is more fun, and yummy pizza tastes so much better than the PB&J that you might pack…but in the long run you’ll be happy you packed. Especially in this economy…who wants to pay $7 for a Deli Sandwich??

This is what works for me…to see what things work for others go check out Works for me Wednesday at We Are That Family.

You may be asking yourself…Why I think I’m so special? ING has been around for a while? And you are right! It has! But I don’t just have 1 savings account, I have like 7 of them! Basically what I do is I start a fund for whatever I will need money for down the line. For example, I have had many weddings to attend and be a part of. So in order to be able to pay for all that, a few years ago I started a “wedding” ING fund. Every other week $25 comes out of my main bank account and into my “wedding fund”, and over time that amount grows and I am able to pay for bridesmaid dresses, and bachelorette parties with that money, so that when the time comes to need it, I won’t feel the burden on my main account. It’s wonderful!

My husband and I decided one year we wanted to go away to a Carribean Island over New Years. So we figured out about how much we’d need and divided that by how many months we had till the trip. It worked out that if we each put $25/week away into the fund, that we would have our trip paid for by the time we wanted to book! It worked out wonderfully! Again, we didn’t feel the the $25 from our account every week. In reality if you just didn’t go out for lunch  and packed that covered it! And when it was time to go, our trip was paid for!

I have accounts to pay for the down payment of my next car, Christmas Presents, Presents for my husband, weddings, and vacations. We also have more long term savings there with our wedding gift money as well as the generous financial wedding gift my parents gave us. We keep this all separate from our “everyday” money so that in the future we can buy something special with it. And we will know where the money came from. Plus, ING probably has the best interest rates out there…even compared to CD’s. My husband and I even made a separate fund to put the wedding gifts from our friends who’s weddings we had this year…their money was pretty much a loan since we will give the same amount back to them..so we plopped it all into an account and when their weddings come up we just use that money there!

Now for the part where you can get FREE MONEY! That’s right I will repeat…FREE MONEY!!! All you have to do is contact me (you can get my info through this site) and let me know you are ready to sign up for ING. If you deposit at least $250 into a savings account, and that money stays in that account for 30 days you will get a $25 BONUS! Plus, I get $10 for referring you. That’s right! FREE $25 just for being referred by an existing customer! I have the links ready to send you, so when you are ready, contact me and we’ll get you that FREE MONEY!

So there you have it…my little secret. It takes no time at all to sign up for an account and it’s all done online. It links to your bank account and you can easily transfer money to and from each account when you want. This method certainly works for me, and if you think it through…I think it will certainly work for you too!