Saving and Giving has moved to savingandgiving.net! I hope that you'll all join me over at Saving & Giving's new home. I'm planning some fun giveaways to kick things off. I'm still working on the site, and I'd love to hear your input. Let me know which features you want me to keep. You can email me at savingandgiving@gmail.com. If you're currently an email subscriber, you shouldn't see any change in your daily email newsletter. I switched the feed over so that you should continue to receive your daily updates.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Stress-Free Christmas Part 1

Christmas countdown banner

Today was the first day that felt like Fall here. It made me start to think about the leaves changing colors and the fact that Christmas is quickly approaching. Last year I made an effort to be more organized with everything surrounding Christmas. I tried to have our cards done early, our gift plan/budget made, and my baking done ahead of time. It did make Christmas less stressful.

This year I'm starting even earlier. Will you join me in trying to make this Christmas stress-free and more enjoyable for everyone in your family? Because let's face it, if you're stressed, everyone in your family feels it. We can try to put on a happy face and act like we're enjoying running to the mall at the last minute or making a quick dash to the grocery store because we ran out of flour in the middle of making cookies. But picture instead having a plan, sticking to it, and reaping the rewards of a Christmas that is enjoyed by everyone... especially YOU!

As I was planning this series of posts, I stumbled upon another blog dedicated to a stress-free Christmas. What great timing! The blog is 100 Days to Christmas. I got in a little bit late... with 95 days to go... but it's definitely not too late to get caught up. Will you join me - and the people at 100 Days to Christmas - and plan ahead to be less stressed?

Click the banner below to go to the 100 Days of Christmas website. Then come back and leave a comment about your plans for a stress-free Christmas.

2 comments:

Tara said...

This will be our first ever no credit card Christmas--which will force me to stay in a budget--but ultimately will lead to less stress as I won't have to watch those bills roll in!

Jennifer said...

We did our first credit card-free Christmas a couple of years ago. It was hard to cut back on what we spent, but it was INCREDIBLY eye-opening! We were spending far more than we thought we were. Now we set spending limits and stick to them. If we want to spend a bit more on a particular gift or person, we talk it through first. We can then decide where to come up with the money... maybe cutting another spending category... maybe earning a little extra elsewhere. I'll be sure to share with you in a future post how we maintain our credit card-free mindset!