Inventory, Week 6

We're done! We're done!!



Husband did finally order the gifts for my sister and nephew last week, and picked them up today. I spent most of Sunday shopping with my mom, which might have been a fun time except we had to drag Monsoon along, too. He's sick of holiday shopping, and I don't blame him one bit - he even balks at the mention of ToysRUs these days.

As always, if you are on my list, don't go sneaking around this page!

My sister - 500 sheets personalized note paper (she's graduating with her teaching degree!). Value, $150. Paid, $0 - prize won at a local event in the Fall.



Nephew - I won't say what it is, but it has to do with his football team winning their "Super Bowl" this year. If he's found this site, he might be tempted to cheat, I'll just say it has a value of $50, and was also a prize from a printing company which came in the basket we won this Fall.



My dad - a wallet. He's very particular about his wallet, and likes a new one every couple of years, so it's not as lame as it sounds. Original price: $26. Paid (after sale and coupon discount), $9.99 - paid w/ GC.



BIL - Henley shirt. Original price: $36. Paid (after sale and coupon discount), $9.99 - paid w/ GC.

Santa Gift for Nephew - $5 GC to a place he goes to eat after school sometimes, paid cash.

Santa Gift for Monsoon - Nate The Great book. Original Price: $4.50, Paid (after Borders Reward bucks), $0.

Aunt & Uncle (and a few others, not in budget) - Homemade spaghetti sauce, which I'm planning to can tomorrow. Ingredient cost: $15 (just under, but I don't feel like getting out the calculator for a couple of cents).

Our budget allows for a total of $80 for the people above, not including the Santa Gifts, which are not a part of our budget.

The total cash cost to us for all of the items above is: $20. That's a real savings of $60 this week.
Adding up each week of inventory, we have spent a total of about $71 cash on family members* for whom we budgeted $300, bringing the total REAL savings so far this Christmas to a whopping $229.

*family members, not including me or husband or Monsoon - whose gifts are filed on separate days on the blog.

Cheating on the husband, so to speak

I'm so close to budget on Monsoon, I can't buy him anything more, but the husband was really excited earlier in the season to get the boy a Monopoly game for kids that we could play as a family. Monopoly, which I do not particularly love, is my husband's favorite board game. He was a little disappointed when I didn't pick it up as one of Monsoon's gifts.


What he doesn't know is... I did pick it up, but not for Monsoon. Yes, I'm cheating a bit - it's a kid's game, and one that we won't likely play without said kid, but it's one that my husband will enjoy as much - if not more - than the rest of us.


I may also have skewed the books a bit when it came down to our family holiday tradition. Every year, we open one gift on Christmas Eve at home - pajamas that we wear on Christmas Morning. Unfortunately, I didn't leave enough in Monsoon's budget for his pajamas, so I'm taking it out of the husband's budget.


Husband's pajamas were $14.99, paid cash.


Monsoon's pajamas were on sale for $10, paid cash. I'll take half of this off Husband's budget, and half off his budget for me.


Monopoly Town game was $10, paid with gift card.

Previous balance on Husband's budget: $57.04 spent ($24.05 cash).

New balance for Husband: $87.03 spent ($49.04 paid with cash), leaving $12.97 for Husband's stocking stuffers.

A tad behind? Yeah, me too.

I had grand intentions for a couple gifts this year, but it seems I have let time slip by for too long. I'm sending the husband out tomorrow to order the two items, both from separate printing companies, neither of whom have websites from which to order. It's a pain in the butt, which is why we haven't done it yet, but the gifts will be worth it - if only we can get them in time for Christmas. And yes, they are free with gift certificates that we won at a local event this fall.

Fingers crossed.

The first is for my sister, who will be finishing up her teaching degree this quarter. We are ordering her 500 sheets of personalized stationary with matching envelopes. A "From the desk of..." type thing.

The second is for my young nephew, whose football team won their league this year. We're having his team photo blown into a poster for his room. This was my husband's idea, so kudos to him. Our nephew will love it.

That's about all the shopping I have (not) done this week, except for the husband and Monsoon, which I'll report about later in the week. I might have gone over budget, so I might be cheating the system. Just a bit.

Inventory, Week 4

Whew, it's been a while. I haven't even shared the fantastic Black Friday deals I got a week and a half ago. So, I guess this is really my inventory for week 3, but I haven't purchased much since then. Here goes...

**Once again, if you are someone for whom we buy, you might want to come back another day. Or be a Grinch and peek, it's your choice.**

I also have a side note (I know, I know, get on with already, Ashley!). I posted in week 1 that we were giving my young nephews a DVD player, but honestly it's something I was struggling with. My personal opinion about young children and tv is not shared with everyone, but adding to their screen time just didn't sit well with me. Luckily, my in-laws DVD player broke (remember about the "Stuff"?), and they need a new one. Perfect!

Niece (2): Little Mommy "Baby Knows" doll. Original price: $28.88. Black Friday deal: $15

Nephew (1.5): Clipo creativity table/blocks set. Original price: $29.99. BF deal: $14.99. *paid with GC.

Nephew (2): Clipo creativity table/blocks set (same as above). Original $29.99. BF deal: $14.99. *paid with GC.

Nephew (7): Hot Wheels race track set. Original price: $19.99. BF deal: $7.99

Nephew (9): Hot Wheels race track set (dif from above so brothers can tell them apart). Original price: $19.99. BF deal: $7.99

Cousin's son (5): Hungry Hippos game. Original price: $19.99. BF deal: $10.

Cousin's daughter (3): Medical kit. Original price: $12.99 . BF deal: 4.99. *paid with GC

Cousin's son (11): Mysterious Benedict Society book. Original price: $6.99. BF deal: $5.25. *paid with GC

MIL/FIL: DVD player. I already posted the "deal" for this, so I won't count the savings twice.

We have so much money in gift cards to stores like ToysRUs and Borders, we were also able to buy "Santa gifts" - small gifts for the children at my Gran's on Christmas Eve, delivered by Santa himself (my husband). We did this last year and it was so much fun. I didn't think we'd be able to do it this year, but it has worked out very well.

Santa gifts:

girl (3): Paper Bag Princes book. Original price: $6.89. BF deal: $5.21. *paid with GC.

boy (11): Book 2 in the Mysterious Benedict Society series. Original price: $6.99. BF deal: $5.25. *paid with GC.

girl (2): Purple sequined dress scarf. Original price: $14. It was discounted for BF, plus I had a "$10 off any item $10 or more" coupon, bringing my total to $1.21. AND 6-pack of princess panties. Original price: $15. Also discounted for BF, also with another coupon, bringing my cost for these to $0.87. Had to ring them out separately, but it was worth it.

boy (1): The Pigeon Has Feelings Too board book. Original price: $6.99. BF deal: $5.25. *paid with GC.

Our Budget allows for a total of $180 for the people above, not including the Santa gifts, which are not part of our budget.

The total cash cost to us for all the above items was: $40.98. That's a REAL savings of $139.02 for this week (not to mention the BF/discounts - original prices totalling $218.68 minus sale prices totalling $98.99 equalling $119.69 in sale savings).

Adding up weeks 1 & 4 (the only weeks I have done inventory), we have spent a total of $51.02 cash on family members for whome we budgeted $300, bringing the total REAL savings so far this Christmas to a whopping $248.98.

Inventory, Week 1

Warning for my family, if you have happened over here - please stop reading NOW. (if you are still reading - shame on you! You might enjoy a nice surprise come Christmas, so LOOK AWAY!)

Here is what I have so far:

My mom - Longaberger Basket with cover and tray. Price: $99. Cost to me: $0 (giveaway)

Family Exchange - Cookbook. Price: aprox $10. Cost: $0 (local event prize)

Family Exchange - Recipe Easel & set of 50 matching Recipe Cards. Price: aprox $10. Cost: $0 (local event prize)

Grandmother - Shutterfly 8x8 soft-cover photobook. Price: aprox $26 w/ tax & ship. Cost: $10.04 (w/ discount & free code*)

MIL & FIL - Collage photo frame w/ pictures of grandchildren. Price: aprox $22. Cost: $0 (bought frame last year for a gift and didn't use it. Photos free from Shutterfly**)

Nephews - (2 brothers) - DVD player & Transformers DVD. Price: aprox $50. Cost: $0 (part of prize pack I won at a local event).

Our budget allows for $120 for the total people above. $120 - $10.04 =

A REAL savings of.... $109.96 (not to mention the $217 worth of stuff that cost us nothing)


*Shutterfly is running a 20% off promotion on all photo books, making the 8x8 soft-cover to 15.99. I also got an additional 10% off code that simply popped up when I logged into my Shutterfly account. I received a coupon code for $10 off any order, bringing the cost down to $4.39 + tax & ship.You can get your own $10 free code by registering at Parenting Magazine (plus, you can then vote for some cute kids in their baby/child model search - or enter your own child for a chance to win free Shutterfly goodies.

**When you sign up for Shutterfly as a new customer, you get 50 free prints.

The People List

These are the people (and ages of children) for whom we normally buy. Aside from the "Just Us" and "Exchange" categories, we typically limit our spending to $20-$25 per person or couple, which comes out to $420-$525 spent (WOW! I've never added it all up before). We don't budget for "Just Us" (yikes) and we always do a $10 family exchange with my aunt/uncle/cousins on one side.

This list is more for my own benefit, so I can check mark who gets what and keep track. I recommend making a list for yourself & keeping it with you if you are trying to stay on a budget - it really helps keep costs down when you shop and limits the "oh-why-not?" purchases.

Just Us:

• Husband
• Me
• Monsoon

My Immediate Family:

• Mom
• Dad
• Exchange (sister, brother OR BIL) - from me
• Exchange (sister, brother OR BIL) - from husband
• Nephew (12)
• Niece (2)
• Nephew (1)

The In Laws:

• MIL & FIL (combined gift)
• Nephew (1.5)
• Nephew (7)
• Nephew (9)

Grands:

• Grandmother
• Grandmother
• Grandfather

Extended Family:

• Cousin (5)
• Cousin (11)
• Cousin (3)
• Aunt & Uncle (usually a combined gift)

Exchanges:

• $10 limit, family - from me
• $10 limit, family - from husband

I would like to stick with the $20 per person allowance, as far as worth, but I'm not sure how that's going to fly since some of the items will be purchased w/ money from the stuff we sell and some items will be literally free - because I won them.

As far as "Just Us" goes, we've agreed to stick with a $100 budget for Monsoon, and only purchasing gifts for each other if we have extra money after everyone else has a gift.

Grand Total: $540

I'll post tomorrow with the items I already have, who they are for, and where our monetary budget lands afterward.

This is really a lot of fun.