We celebrated a pretty simple Christmas in our home this year.
We made our traditional Sloppy Joes for Christmas Eve dinner, and I also made a very nontraditional Taco Salad, which we warmed up today when we got hungry rather than making a big Christmas dinner. We decided this year to make it easy on ourselves and not cook a big Christmas dinner and just enjoy the day without having to cook or clean up a messy kitchen. It was really nice to just be able to enjoy each other's company and not have to worry with cooking and cleaning up the kitchen. I think this will be a new tradition for us in the years to come.
I actually lucked out on the price of the ground beef for the Sloppy Joes. I was behind another customer who was right behind the meat department employee who was marking down the meat with yellow stickers and I was able to purchase four pounds of ground chuck for $9.49, so $2.38 a pound, which normally sells for $13 plus change for the same package. This made a large amount of Sloppy Joe meat, which will be frozen after Christmas into meal sized portions for those who want them. This will last for several months.
Presents were kept simpler this year than in years past. There was no big gift for my daughter this year, but I did take the time to pick out several smaller, thoughtful gifts that I knew she would like. One was a personalized notebook with her name on it from Etsy, and a handmade necklace, also some Harry Potter stamps from the post office, which she was thrilled with and said she would never, ever use because they were so special. In the end she was very happy with her presents and that made me happy as well.
As for the tree, we used our artificial tree, which was bought on clearance from Lowe's several years ago, the special ornaments that we've collected down through the years, and the wrapping paper was also from the past, bought on clearance in January of 2012. At the rate I am using these ten rolls they are going to last me for a long time.
I sent fewer Christmas cards this year and even used some forever stamps that I already had on hand rather than buy new Christmas stamps. And of course I already had the cards from past years as well. The number of cards we receive diminishes each year and I suspect younger generations are more into greetings on social media and not the Christmas card tradition as older generations were in the past.
As we begin to close out the 2013 year, we think of many of the things we accomplished this year and look forward to what is in store for us in 2014. I hope all of you, my readers, had a blessed Christmas day today and your 2014 holds many treasures for you.
Until next time,
Belinda
CFO ~ Chief Frugal Officer
© Belinda & Frugal Workshop, 2011-2014.
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without”
