Holiday Frugality?

Well, kind of.

I definitely spent less money this holiday season than I have in the past and only brought the charge card out a time or two. Those splurges should be paid off in-full within two months - definitely better than I've done in years gone by.

Everyone was happy with their gifts and the kids didn't even notice my spending cut back. We gave used books whenever possible, bought some used electronics, and generally gave much more thought to our purchases than we have in the past.

Last year, in the interest of being less wasteful, we started wrapping our gifts in newspapers. At the time, my youngest and I decided it would be fun to come up with a different "theme" each year for the ribbons. Last December found us in the ribbon aisle at Michael's tossing polka dotted ribbons of every size and color into our cart with, I'm embarrased to say, wanton abandon. I cringe right now to think of how much money I spent on ribbons alone last year!

Determined to adhere to our new-found tradition, and after spending several hours agonizing over the possibilities in two different craft/fabric stores, we decided to use twine and buttons to decorate our packages. We already had lots of buttons at home, so spent only about $15 on twine and another package or two of buttons.

While stringing buttons onto the twine or gluing them onto the packages in festive, holiday-themed arrangements was time-consuming, it also was a lot of fun. The packages ended up being unique works of art, with a quirky, old-fashioned air about them. Just what I like!

And for the first time in more than 23 years, we've started putting money away in advance for next year's holidays and birthdays.

Gee, looks like maybe I'm finally growing up...