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Wargod
Moderator
07-16-2001
| Thursday, October 23, 2008 - 1:45 am
Grumpy, those are really cute! I also saw your Disney box posted somewhere and really liked that as well! My bil, both "adopted" brothers, little "adopted" sis' hubby, a couple cousins and some friends have all been laid off work since May (they're in construction.) Fingers crossed, they are going back to work in a couple weeks. The families decided to buy no gifts for each other or the kids. So I'm making beaded book thongs (I've got a box of new books here since I'm always picking up extras, that's not technically buying for Christmas is it, lol?) for the kidlets. I'm thinking of making little wooden jewelry boxes for the girls and some beaded necklaces/bracelets, but I'm not sure what to do for my three older nephews or my youngest nephew and two youngest nieces (both babies.) Sis is talking about baking goodies, I hope she does, my ovens broke so there is no Christmas baking going on here and my kidlets would love that. We boardgames. Family fun with the kids, plus when we get together with the rest of the family the games come out and everyone has a good time. There's some really neat ones (old and new) and usually most stores have some great sales on them. Escapee, funny your talking about building a horse barn! Sis, bil, and I were just talking about building their girls a playhouse. I'm not sure if they're doing it, but they have me all excited about painting and decorating, lol. I'd love to do something like that for Kota, but unfortunately, I think she's at that age (10) where she might enjoy it for a few months and then outgrow it.
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Biscottiii
Member
05-29-2004
| Thursday, October 23, 2008 - 4:08 am
If you have any leftover blue jeans from the kids in their younger years, a possible gift they/you can make for grandparents/old maid aunts: Years ago, my SIL and Niece/Nephew made hanging Windsox type things for hanging indoors. Chopped off a child's bluejeans pant leg, top of the leg. Sewed a metal ring around the inside of the top, rope type twine to hang it from. They cut strips using pinking sheers to prevent fraying running straight up the legs (about 2 inch intervals) all around the leg. The kids sewed cute buttons, ironed on appliques to decorate, used sparkle glue to write our names. Totally charming. My Mom (their Grandma) and I later kept adding buttons to ours. Pins (like from the Titanic exhibit), my kitties former pet tags, my 5-yr/10-yr/30-yr pins from work - whatever - to turn them into our very own personal historical displays. Anytime anybody in the family traveled, when they brought back a souvenir for Grandma, they bought a pin of the country they went to. This was a wonderful gift that was more valuable than money could buy!
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Hukdonreality
Member
09-29-2003
| Thursday, October 23, 2008 - 4:39 am
Since my $$ has been short the past couple of Christmas seasons, last year I scanned in photos from my mother's albums and put them onto DVD's for my family members. They could either watch them as slide shows or print them out if they wanted to. Recipients can take a DVD to a lot of drug store photo kiosks if they don't have the means to print them off at home. It was a very inexpensive present that meant a lot to all who received them. Blank DVD's cost next to nothing, and I printed a simple cover for them to identify what was on each one. The scanning took some time, but now the family photos are in the hands of many and we'll never have to worry about originals being lost. For my favorite niece, I also printed off a bunch of hers and put them into an album for her. When her parents divorced and my idiot brother had control of things, all of her childhood photos mysteriously just disappeared. She was really grateful that I had a bunch of pictures of her and her sister, especially since she has her own children now and can finally see who they resemble!
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Hukdonreality
Member
09-29-2003
| Thursday, October 23, 2008 - 4:53 am
I also remember now that I'm thinking about this Christmas...that I am going to be copying a lot of the things I'd put into the thread called "The Good Old Days" (under Free Expressions) for my sisters. It should be a lot of fun for them to remember things from our childhood. I will probably also put these things onto a DVD, or copy them into Powerpoint or something so I can put some narratives with them. To me, Christmas has always been more about making memories. Presents are nice at the moment, but how many things do we really remember by the next year unless they are meaningful? Two years ago, I bought a ratty old clarinet, cleaned it up and turned it into a lamp for my best friend. She loves music and still plays her clarinet in an orchestra. The lamp was a huge hit, and my efforts were rewarded with her tears of happiness. Total cost for the clarinet, wood base, lampshade, and lamp parts was about $50.00. Here's a picture of the lamp:
You can use anything at all that means something to someone and make a lamp out of it. It's super cheap to do if you get a flea market find!
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Happymom
Member
01-20-2003
| Thursday, October 23, 2008 - 1:48 pm
Great ideas in this thread! Another idea is to shop online at Overstock.com where shipping is always very cheap or free or to shop online in the clearance/outlet section of the website. I have gotten amazing deals at several clothing stores, Crate and Barrel.com and Amazon.com over the years on lots of different things, kitchenware, books, clothes, jewelry and more. Also stores like Ross, Marshalls, Burlington Coat factory have really good deals. Kimsue, the problem I find with that age is that they are so particular about what they want and often want certain brands (like Abercrombie and Fitch). It is harder to get away with good deals at places like Ross. (My kids are 12, almost 15 and almost 18.) They usually make lists but often the stuff of the lists are just whatever they see online that they want. (I encouraged making lists on the computer to help with their typing skills. They began to window shop online and it all led to this. oh well, it probably would have turned out like this anyway.) Often that stuff is super expensive. I just make sure that whatever I get my kids can be returned. They are going to have a very lean Christmas this year but there is no choice. I haven't talked about it much, maybe once in a light sort of non passing way. I will talk more when it gets closer. I checked for the Oprah show today, but here it shows that Oprah will have Mary Kate and Ashley Olson on, and the Zappos.com owner, I think. I'd really like to take my kids to a soup kitchen this year. In the past they have picked out gifts from the Operation Christmas child catalog but we just can't be sending money like that now, even for the really inexpensive things. (It is a neat idea though, the catalog has blankets, food, goats and lots more for poor people around the world. You just send in the form and the money and you know what you are donating and maybe where it will be donated. It is Christian based though and they probably include Christian lit. with things. We have also done the Operation Christmas child shoe boxes in the past too.)
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Happymom
Member
01-20-2003
| Thursday, October 23, 2008 - 2:02 pm
Suze Orman was on Oprah yesterday. In clicking around on Oprah's site, she has a lot of money info there. There are lots of links under the show for yesterday about money and kids.
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Wargod
Moderator
07-16-2001
| Thursday, October 23, 2008 - 2:30 pm
I've got a funny story to share. Dakota's doing an extra credit assignment for math that she just got yesterday. She was really excited about the assignment..it's not really math mom! Anyways, she has to write out her Christmas wish list. And then she has to guess how much she thinks each item will be and add all of the prices together to figure out how much the total cost would be. Then she has to go through sales ads, catalogs, online, etc, get the real price and add those us for a final total. She sat down last night, wrote out her list and then guessed the prices. First thing on the list, some stuffed dog that walks or poops or something, she guessed $50 and continued on down her list and added them up. Look mom, only $97 for all of this! I hid a smirk and handed her the catalogs and Toys R Us ad I had and let her get to work. She had blown it on the first one, the dog she wants is $150 some odd dollars. She added everything on her list up and it came to $674.27. My poor kidlet looked sick, lol. She told me when she writes her real list, she's going to take some of it off, lol. I should go thank her teacher, that one little assignment taught Kota quite a bit!
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Thursday, October 23, 2008 - 2:41 pm
What a great assignment!
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Beckie03
Member
07-05-2007
| Thursday, October 23, 2008 - 3:09 pm
that's a good assignment war...wish my teachers had done that with me... definitely more teachers should do that...
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Serate
Member
08-21-2001
| Thursday, October 23, 2008 - 4:11 pm
One thing that I started doing with my bonus kids a couple years ago. When shopping for school clothes - or clothes period - I no longer say I'm gonna get them a X number of pants and X number of shirts. I tell them you have X number of dollars to spend. The youngest - and also the one who would whine for the most expensive clothes and would NEVER look at clearance racks - shocked us and did the best at shopping and got the most amount of clothes. We still have final say on how they fit and I refuse to buy jeans with holes or the dirty looking ones [not sure if they are still in fashion] unless for some reason they are found dirt cheap like $7 or less. [And yes you can get jeans at Kohl's for $7, just have to find the right sales and the right days, and hubby's 30% off coupon he gets in the mail every 3 - 6 weeks.] The first time the kids looked at me like I was losing my mind. Now they are used to it. Youngest has figured out that if she makes really good choices and is thrifty her evil wicked step mom seems to forget about adding taxes into the total amount and she's able to buy more clothes. I'm so evil!
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Escapee
Member
06-15-2004
| Thursday, October 23, 2008 - 4:18 pm
I own a couple of pairs of Jeans from Kohl's that were less than $10, especially if you get an extra 15% off every month. If you hit the clearance racks at gottschalks on a secret sale day, you can beat the prices!
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Julieboo
Member
02-05-2002
| Thursday, October 23, 2008 - 4:25 pm
One idea that i think is a great idea--especially for those people who you can never figure out what to get is one of those books they make from your photos. You get to put your own text in it. Shutterfly is just one of the many places that does it.
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Julieboo
Member
02-05-2002
| Thursday, October 23, 2008 - 4:28 pm
Does anyone know a way to find out if the toy or game you are buying is the lowest price? Or do you just buy it and hold onto the receipt in case you see it lower somewhere??? I bought 2 toys already that were on sale last week and this week I found them 5 dollars cheaper on sale somewhere else. (And would you believe they were the only 2 toys I bought??) Any tips or tricks when it comes to toy buying??
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Escapee
Member
06-15-2004
| Thursday, October 23, 2008 - 4:29 pm
Julie, my sister had one of those done for her wedding album.
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Julieboo
Member
02-05-2002
| Thursday, October 23, 2008 - 4:47 pm
I think they are great. Very cool idea for a wedding album!! HEre is a link: http://www.shutterfly.com/shop/Photo_Books/product_c18000 This is one of my favorites. It looks way professional and cool: http://www.shutterfly.com/shop/Celebrate_Everyday_Life_designed_by_Ali_Edwards/product_c18510
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Christy358
Member
07-10-2007
| Thursday, October 23, 2008 - 8:07 pm
War, Sent your post about the math homework to a couple of parents I know. Sounds like a great way to teach about math and money at the same time.
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Wargod
Moderator
07-16-2001
| Friday, October 24, 2008 - 12:25 am
It came in handy here, Christy, hopefully it will for your friends too. In a way it was educational for me as well. Both my kidlets know if they want something, and it's not near a birthday or holiday, they have to save their allowance until they can afford it. Caleb has a pretty good understanding of how much his legoes and video games cost, but it was an eye opener for me how off Kota was on some of her guesses. Maybe it's not too surprising, Caleb saves his money and buys legoes and video games and knows exactly how much the cost, while Dakota usually isn't saving and buying more expensive toys. Now I think she has a more realistic idea of how much the things she wants cost.
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Happymom
Member
01-20-2003
| Friday, October 24, 2008 - 10:01 am
War, I love that assignment! Thanks for sharing that! I am going to have my kids price out all their stuff on their lists! Serate, I do that too. I did not used to, but it came down to the fact that we only have so much money. If they need to do their laundry more often because they bought more expensive things and don't have enough to last all week...well...that is the natural consequence of spending too much on just one or a couple of items. Julie, great idea for a gift! Thanks for posting that! I don't know about the price comp. on the toys as far as the brick and mortar stores, but you can compare them online at Bizrate.com. There may be other comparison shopping sites too.
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Grumpy
Member
02-08-2004
| Friday, October 24, 2008 - 7:31 pm
Thank you Wargod. I really do enjoy doing stuff like this, but sometimes it kills my back. Sad about yor family being laid off, Ktbb and I are also in construction. It is very slow. We can empathize!
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Wargod
Moderator
07-16-2001
| Friday, October 24, 2008 - 9:08 pm
Heh, Grumpy, I sometimes use the ironing board for crafts. As long as it's not a project with a lot of parts and pieces and can fit, that is. No matter what room I'm in or where I'm sitting it raises and lowers to the perfect height...no hunching over. Construction jobs around here are really bad right now. Even with the guys going back to work, hopefully, if the company doesn't get some more contracts, they'll only have a couple months worth of work. I can only remember once it's been this bad and that was 7-8 years ago.
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Grumpy
Member
02-08-2004
| Sunday, October 26, 2008 - 12:37 am
Wargod, We dont have an ironing board. I usually sit in my chair now and do my work. And use a TV dinner tray table to set my stuff on. But when I work on stuff at the dinner table my back starts to kill before long. We are in northern CO and we are slow. My company is slow but busier than most. It gets pretty scarey not knowing if there will be any work "tomorrow". I hope it picks up soon, we are already behind and the snow hasnt fallen yet.
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Wargod
Moderator
07-16-2001
| Sunday, October 26, 2008 - 1:31 am
Do you guys work when it's snowing/snowed, Grumpy? We have one cousin who's actually had steady work, but to get it he has to work in Vegas. He works four days, comes home 3 and hates it but there's not much choice. Hopefully, the work picks up everywhere! Julie, those photo books are a great idea. My moms been bugging for some recent pics of the kids. They will probably enjoy putting one together for her.
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Julieboo
Member
02-05-2002
| Sunday, October 26, 2008 - 8:27 am
War, I think they are just awesome. It is so weird yet so cool to see your own personal shots in a book that looks so commercial. AND it really is not that expensive anymore.
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Kimsue
Member
07-08-2005
| Sunday, October 26, 2008 - 9:28 am
Well we had the talk with the kids. They thought we were kidding at first. Then they were a little put out.....wanted to know specifics (as if I would tell them) so they could help figure out how to finance their gifts. When they finally figured out that the low budget Holiday was all that was going to happen they pouted a little and DD even stated "why have presents at all? Why not just skip it all together?" At first my husband was a little angry with my daughter then I told him to just ride it out and it was just emotional acting out. After everyone calmed we presented the kids with options. 1. Putting names in a hat and drawing to buy a single gift for each person having divided our budgeted amount between the four of us. 2. We divide the money between the four of us and each person will use that money to buy three small gifts for each of the others. 3. One large gift for all of us to share. Like a Wii and a couple of games or something like that. They have until Thanks giving to decide and they are aware that regardless of the decision the budget will not change. Between my husband and myself we have decided to look around and find a charity to help with a food drive or cooking for a shelter. The kids will join us and we will do this as a family. For Thanksgiving and Christmas. We Figure a dose of reality along with doing something good for others will be good for all concerned.
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Grumpy
Member
02-08-2004
| Sunday, October 26, 2008 - 9:30 am
Wargod,No we usually are off when raining or snowing/ has snowed. If it snows alot we might be off nearly all week. We can get job attached unemployment which helps but you can only be on it for like 6-10 weeks or you'll have to search for another job. Does your cousin have a direct route where he goes to the same customers every week? I would hate not being home every night, been there done that. Now I hate to even leave the house to go to work. Would love to be able to work at home, but dont find anything yet. Yes I hope work picks up, I hate pinching pennies!! Only when we are off, my creativity comes out for a peek.
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