Amazing Deals & Homemade Gifts for Christmas

Christmas is six days away! I for one am so excited to celebrate my baby's first Christmas! It is going to be fun to see everything through his eyes. A baby is also a wonderful reminder that Christmas is not about the gifts, but about the time with your family and loved ones.

With that said, many of us still give gifts and this time of year, there is always a rush to finish shopping. This year, our family is focused on giving thoughtful gifts, but in the spirit of getting lean financially, we are using a smaller budget than in the past. In addition, we added a White Elephant Gift Exchange to the afternoon. Our white elephant gifts could not be purchased, had to be found in the house and should be slightly funny. This is more about the time and laughter with family than the actual gifts.

As I did my shopping, I came across two ways to save: amazing deals using sales and coupons and homemade gifts. I thought I would pass some of these along to you in case you are still completing your shopping.

Amazing Deals

1. Target
1. Cartwheel - One Day Gift Giving Extravaganza today, 12/19
1. 50% off Wii + Skylander's Giants Bundle
2. 50% off Houdini Deluxe Wine Tool Kit
3. 40% off Kids Fur Beanbags and Chairs
4. 40% off It's so me! Activities
5. 30% off Barbie Holiday Ballerina and Barbie Holiday Ballet Set
6. 25% off Hot Wheels Wall Tracks
7. 25% off Air Hogs Sharp Shooter Copter
8. 25% off Star War's Playtent
9. 20% off Disney Planes Airport Playset
10. Tons of other deals too and new deals are added each day
2. Target Coupons
1. Toys - Several games and action figure coupons
2. Entertainment - $2/3 off movies and TV seasons
3. Baby - $5 off $25 baby accessory or toy purchase
4. Home - $5 off $35 domestic or $30 home purchase
5. Photo - 40% off portrait collections or $2 off a $5 photofinishing purchase
6. Many more deals available at http://coupons.target.com/
3. Weekly Ad
2. Walmart
1. Online Specials
1. $25 Crayola Easel
2. $124 100-piece Train Table Set and Table
3. $35.98 Character Corner Bundle - Toddler Desk and Chair with Storage Bin
4. Many more deals online
2. Online Clearance
1. $49 2-player Basketball Game
2. $39.96 48" Air Hockey Table
3. $29.99 4 Qt Wooden Bucket Electric Ice Cream Maker
4. Many more deals online
3. Weekly Ad

Homemade Gift Ideas:

1. Christmas Ornaments
1. Handprint Ornament
2. Egg Carton Christmas Bells - Make Christmas bells by cutting up an egg carton. Cover each bell shape with aluminum foil or decorate as you please. Then, use yarn threaded on a large needle, insert through the bottom of the bell, then insert it back through the top and cut and tie it off. The knot will be on the inside now.
3. Get creative and make other great ornaments, such as trees, stars, or angels. Crafts are 25% off today at Jo-Ann Fabric.
2. Pictures/Frames
1. Baby's Picture - who does not love a picture of a baby? Add a frame to dress this up. Many retailers have frames on sale. 
2. Family Picture, e.g. Grandparents with baby/children, Picture of your family for Grandparents
3. Homemade Frame - craft idea for kids! 
3. Sweet Treats
1. Christmas Cookies in a holiday tin or on a holiday paper plate
2. Festive Mason Jar with holiday pretzels and/or fudge
3. Homemade Jam, Preserves
4. Fragrant Fun
1. Potpourri
2. Candles
5. Other Arts and Crafts for Kids
1. Pencil/Pen Jar
2. Paper Weight - let the littler ones simply paint a rock 
6. Customized Gift Certificates
1. Parents' night out - free night of babysitting; this is a great gift for grandparents or aunts and uncles to give parents.
2. Dinner & Dessert - host a family, couple, etc.; Give a Christmas card with an IOU for a fun evening! 
3. Coupon books - get crafty with construction paper, on the computer or search for free printable books online.
1. Chore Books for kids to give parents, e.g. Walk the Dog, Do the Dishes
2. Date books for significant others, e.g. Night out without the Kids, Girls' Night and I watch the kids no complaints ;)

I hope you enjoy these gift ideas, but most of all, I hope you enjoy the holidays with your family. Please comment and share your ideas too.

Rethinking Brand Loyalty

In my first attempt to get lean and trim my budget, I am challenging my loyalty to my favorite brands. As I reflected on my budget and looked at ways to save, I realized that I many of my buying decisions were based on a preconceived bias.  

My pantry, cleaning closet and clothes closets reflect my favorite brands, which were decided simply by personal preference. While shopping, whether in the grocery store, discount store or at the local mall, I favored "my brands" and my demand for the products was relatively inelastic despite price differences or promotions on other similar products. I would grab items off the rack and shelf as soon as I saw the familiar packaging or label without a look or glance at the price tag or shelf label.

I had to pause and ask myself, "Why?". Do I value the brand, the ease of shopping, the connotation of the brand? Does the brand actually matter to me if I could save money buying another brand?

In looking at my budget, groceries make up a large part of that budget, and I'm sure that the same is true for you. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of December 2011, Americans spent 15.3% of their income on food. Given our dependency on food, I thought this was a great first place to start the brand loyalty discussion. Currently, I shop at SuperTarget weekly for groceries. I value the service, assortment, clean aisles and the ability to shop general merchandise while out for groceries (Note: the available general merchandise can be very dangerous to the budget too). In my new role, I am not sure these values are enough to keep me shopping at one store if deals can be found elsewhere.

With my retail background, I know the best way to compare grocers is to comp shop! I decided to shop Aldi as a representative of the low cost provider, Costco as a representative of the "bulk buying club" and SuperTarget as the general discount store to determine the best location to shop. In this trip, I focused solely on groceries. I will do a future trip focused on paper goods, personal items, cleaning supplies, etc. 

Overall Impressions

• Aldi: Amazing prices, minimalist presentation, busy/tight aisles, fewer product options (e.g. one sugar option), rarely carries national brands (coupons would be harder to use effectively here), and lacks organic and whole wheat products.
  Important to note: You can pay a quarter to rent a cart, which will be returned when you return the cart. Bring your own reusable bags, as Aldi does not provide bags. 
• Costco: Large product sizes, lack of overhead/directional signing, product organization is initially confusing (I am sure I would get in the hang of this quickly), visible and helpful employees, organic, wheat and niche product offerings.
  Important to note: You need to purchase an annual membership, which currently costs $55 in Minnesota. The product assortment is vast, even extending to gas, tires, electronics, etc.
• SuperTarget: Ad/Temporary Price Cut signing very visible in grocery, overhead signing is consistent and easy for direction (I am also most familiar with this retailer), helpful and available employees, some organic and whole wheat product offerings, but limited in Produce and Bakery).
  Important to note: You can save an additional 5% on everything by using your Target Visa, RedCard, Debit Card, etc. Cartwheel and Target Coupons also add to the savings - more to come in a future coupon post!

Comp Shop Method

I made a list of 17 basic grocery items and recorded item size, cost, and cost per unit at each retailer. I have a full list of this information, but I will highlight the total trip cost for one of each item in the available unit size (comparable if possible) and the overall unit cost if I were to purchase just one unit at each retailer, e.g. one ounce, one pepper, etc.
Note: I did not include coupons or credit card savings in this comp shop. 

The Bottom Line

• Aldi:
  • Total Unit Cost: $8.20
  • Total Trip Cost: $28.53
• Costco:
  • Total Unit Cost: $8.91
  • Total Trip Cost: $94.07
• Target
  • Total Unit Cost: $12.52
  • Total Trip Cost: $47.72

My Conclusions

• For my family size of three, Costco's sizing is too big. While their pricing is better on some items, particularly in dairy and produce, I am likely to let food go to waste by buying such large quantities. The total trip size nearly doubled the next closest option, which indicates to me that Costco could easily end up being the most expensive option if  we cannot consume everything we buy. In my eyes, Costco makes sense for families of four or more when there is more than one child over 10 years old. 
• As my family grows, this is something to continue to reconsider. 
• For a larger family, unit cost between Aldi and Costco was close, and if you only wanted to make one trip, Costco seems to be the best one-stop-shop. 
• Aldi's pricing is incredibly competitive, especially in produce and "stock the pantry" items. 
• SuperTarget and Costco both offer more organic and whole wheat product. 
• SuperTarget's product selection and sizing fits my family's needs, but I need to be selective on what I purchase at SuperTarget as unit cost can differ quite a bit, e.g. a Red Pepper at Aldi is $0.56 vs. $1.99 at SuperTarget.
• SuperTarget also offers Cartwheel, 5% RedCard savings and Target coupons - I am excited to share more in a future post, but I hope to use these additional offers to bring total and unit costs down for Target trips.

Next Steps for me:

• Change how and when I shop:
  • Biweekly planned shopping trips - lessen the frequency and be intentional with what I am buying. Do not shop when I do not need to - for me, more trips equals more dollars. 
  • Shop based on a meal plan - pick-up items that we need for the next two weeks for our meals, or pantry items that we have run out of along the way. No more grab and go! As I mentioned before, I grab products off the shelf based on brand. Now, I am going to be intentional about purchasing just what I need and shopping on price. 
  • Shop based on pricing - start the biweekly trips at Aldi where I will buy the majority of my list and pricing is most favorable. Next, shop at SuperTarget to purchase organics, whole wheat products and complete my shopping lists.
  • Do not sacrifice quality - one value I am not willing to compromise is product quality. While I was impressed with the overall quality at all the stores initially, I am going to keep an eye to quality during my shopping trips, despite my primary objective of price reduction. I am still shocked with the amazing savings at Aldi; I am pleasantly surprised, but I want to maintain a close watch to ensure this continues. 
• Coupons - explore how adding coupons and shopping weekly ads can further add to my savings and if those additions change how and where I shop. 
• Optimize - as I start to learn more, I will be able to improve and optimize my routines and increase my savings. I do not want to go back to a comfortable rut where I just buy my normal items without comparing prices. I will be sure to pass on future savings in upcoming blog posts.
  

I know this was very eye opening for me and I am so glad I paused rethink by brand loyalty and consider all my options to maximize my savings on groceries. How do you save on your grocery bills? Where do you shop and why? Please comment and share all your great routines!


Full Comp Shop Notes

     Key: Pink text highlights the best unit price across the three retailers

The Numbers

I thought I would jump right into getting lean financially and address the most difficult topic - the numbers! As I was struggling with my decision to work vs. stay home, the pesky little numbers that I needed to add up just would not. My husband and I discussed the options and realized it wasn't simply an exercise of summing the numbers and coming up with a different answer. It was about how we could change our lifestyle.

With both of us working full-time, we had a huge network at our disposal to make it work. We had a nanny that spent every weekday with Aedan, house cleaners, an expensive dog trainer to try and tame our high-strung dogs, lunches out, and countless trips to Caribou and Starbucks to simply stay awake. Bottom line, although working provided a pay check, it was also expensive.

I had to pause and think about the kind of life I wanted to live for me and my family. We were surviving the two working parent household, but the way in which we were surviving was not what I wanted.
      Did everything get done? Yes.
      Did Aedan have great care? Yes.
      So what was wrong?
I felt like I was paying other people to live and experience my life and bottom line, I did not have the time to bond with my baby. I missed our days of babbling, walks and playing with blocks. I needed more time. I wanted to live my life myself.

Well, time is expensive, which brings me back to the numbers, specifically, how to make it work. Well, first we had to decide on our non-negotiable items. Although we were willing to change our lifestyle, there were certain values that we have always held that we were not willing to change. For us, this meant we wanted zero debt, with the exception of our mortgage, and we wanted to continue to contribute to our children's college accounts and our retirement account.

Okay this is where my strength from work came in handy (competitive driver). I needed to drive for results and figure out how to make this work. If you are at this time in your life now, this is the part that may take time. You may need to continue to work as a two parent family until you pay off debt, add to your savings, or work towards another non-negotiable you have. The exciting thing though is that there is an end to the tunnel and you have a goal to strive towards.

The answer for us was that we had done a good job with our savings up to this point, but to make this work now, our lifestyle needed to significantly change. I had to create a budget and stick to it! Some items were easy to cut - lunches/coffees, childcare, work clothing, dry cleaning, etc. Others, like groceries were harder to reduce spending. Then, once I had a budget, I had to look for ways to be more frugal to stick within my budget each month. Since I am just beginning, I will keep you updated on how this goes and I am planning future blog posts on the tactics I am already using and the ones I hope to learn along the way. Just to name a few: well-planned and reduced shopping trips, coupons,  free community activities and play groups, menu planning, cooking from scratch more often, homemade baby food, cloth diapers, consignment clothing stores, etc.

I like a good challenge - and to be completely honest - this will be a challenge. What I do know though, is I have all the tools at my disposal to make this work! I plan to learn a lot along the way and I love tips from mommies that have stayed at  home for longer and have ideas, so please comment and share!

I do not know how this story will end, or what the numbers have in store for me. What I do know though, my little one is ecstatic to have more mommy time :).

YOLO

"YOLO" You only live once. What does that mean?

To me, it meant that it was time to take a risk. Why follow the "happy path" or the "normal path" or what was expected if it no longer made me happy? I have been reminded too many times this year that life is short and we only have one.  If I only get to do this once, I am going to have fun and live this life to the fullest.

This rang true for me after my son, Aedan, was born this past May. WOW - a baby can change your perspective in the blink of an eye. Priorities completely shift. Time with him was worth more than any job title, vacation or designer clothing item.

I headed back to work after four months of maternity leave and I immediately realized that I could not have it all. Leaving him 10 hours a day and coming home and still having to worry about work email or projects instead of playing on the ground, teaching him to roll or reading to him did not work for me.

Now, I know that many women are able to make this balance work and do it well. That is awesome! I just discovered, that for me, it did not work.

I am lucky, I had options and a very supportive husband. I would not advise jumping immediately either. I took three months at my company to really see if I could make it work or if there were options or other roles to give me more flexibility or balance. It did not pan out, so I am happy to say I took a leap of faith and last Friday was my last day of corporate work after more than seven years with a company I love.

This blog is about my journey from frazzled working mom trying to do it all to stay-at-home mom still trying to do it all, but hopefully with a bit more balance. Over the next six months, I will share my honest experiences and learnings cutting costs and getting healthy as I lean out of the workforce.