The catch is you need a referral link, but there are a bunch here: http://sicksaver.blogspot.com

My dad has always made trays of baked goods for the adults in the family. Now my brother has taken over that job, or they do it together. Such home-made gifts are accepted, and for that I am grateful.

Also, I am a huge fan of the Amazon trade-in program. Check out the CDs, DVDs, Books, Video Games, and you get a pre-paid postage label and a credit to your account. I find the values often are comprable to an ebay or reseller price, but it DOES vary from item to item. Another good benefit is that your money is only good on Amazon as a credit to your account, as opposed to a paypal or cash transaction that can be spent or even lost (cash from say a flea market sale).

Also check your card and account benefits for various online sites. Best Buy Rewardzone has a shopping partner link to other retailers which includes percent off, or free shipping, or other bonuses, in addition to additional rewards.

I’m actually 25% done with Christmas shopping. Just like a budget being year round, I try to accumulate gifts year round if the deal is good enough or the gift is unique. But make a plan, ANY plan, because it’s better than no plan at all.

Or a yankee swap. I love them. And they are cheap. You never know what everyone will want!

Or you could think up a new tradition, like everyone brings supplies to decorate your gingerbread houses and you pick teams and compete with someone acting as the judge.

The first year may seem blander or strange, but as the years go by the NEW traditions will solidify.

RE: Volunteering on Christmas…
I get the whole desire to volunteer on Christmas, but homeless shelters and such places need their MOST dedicated and well trained people on the most difficult day of the year. They do not need to babysit uselss volunteers who have no idea what to do or where anything is. If you want to do good, donate and start your volunteering in the new year or call this week and say you want to help.

I’m thinking playing a board game may reproduce some of the ‘on the floor in pajamas acting like children’ feelings. But as a family we play boardgames year round. I’m not sure how to make it ‘christmas-y’ or really how to make anything ‘christmas-y’ that’s not already established tradition. This is my actual problem, not that I’m too stupid to think of a different way to spend 1-2 hours of my time. But thanks anyway for your patronizing reply Beth.

Also, hunger is a year round problem, donating one schmaltzy morning of volunteering in one of the biggest holiday cliches ever is more of an insult than a help.

Don’t put your words in other people’s keyboards.

Buying for one’s own children doesn’t seem to be what breaks the bank for most people. Even five presents aren’t a horrible burden to those on a limited budget (but still have SOME disposable income to put towards presents).

From what I see, what breaks the bank is buying the presents for aunts and uncles, gals at work, spouse, inlaws, parents, sisters, brothers, nieces and nephews, brother-in-law’s girlfriend etc…. etc….

There’s no reason a child should automatically get something his or her parents can’t afford. From what I can tell, Santa’s workshop doesn’t make Wiis. The elves make blocks and dolls.

I do try to wait until after Hallowe’en though!

The flour did last longer than I thought but a lot of the other ingredients did add up.

And I bought cheap but pretty bowls from the dollar store and lined them with tissue and cellophane. Wrapped the whole thing in cellophane and ribbon.

It worked great, but was time consumming and not as inexpensive as I thought it would be.

No Christmas music allowed until you’re cleaning up after Thanksgiving dinner. This limits the crazy and helps us enjoy fall and the holiday season.

More than anything, I see this as an encouragement to bake for the holidays (or anytime). Ingredients, unless you do something esoteric, are not really that expensive. A little can go a long way.

The first source is our coin change which we save all year. I turn it into the coinstar in November and get an Amazon gift card, which is as good as cash to me. It’s normally around $600.

Our second source is credit card points which really go quite far since we always spend a good deal at Gamestop – $80 Discover Cash translates into $100 at Gamestop. This April I got $500 cash back from Discover for spending $2000 each month from July to December 2010. Since our bare bones monthly spending on gas, groceries, and recurring bills like cable and car insurance comes to more than $1800, the 2k per month was no sweat for us. With five kids, something else always comes up – dentist, glasses, new shoes, etc.

I don’t know if we’ll reach our goal of not spending beyond our two Christmas funds this year but we’re sure going to try.

I have severely cut my list of gift recipients. We do small exchanges with family, and we’ve limited how much is spent on every recipient. It just gets too crazy. I don’t want to spend the weeks before Christmas running around the mall trying to find a gift for someone who already has a ton of Stuff.