Tip for Gifts When Times Are Tight

I have a couple of friends who have raved about Swagbucks for months. They talked about trading swagbucks for Amazon.com giftcards and using their swagbucks to get birthday and Christmas gifts for their families. I didn't pay much attention.

Then times got tight for me. I gave in and joined a week ago. You might want to think about it too. It's primarily for people living in the USA, I think, but I understand that Canadians have swagbuck opportunities as well.

SwagBucks.com is a GPT (get-paid-to) site. By joining, you have the chance to earn rewards online. Many websites ask you to fill out surveys and sign-up for spam, and you can do that on SwagBucks too, but you can totally avoid that and still earn swagbucks! How, you ask? You can use the SwagBucks Search Engine as you normally would in Google or Yahoo. A popup announces a win. Winning from searching happens randomly. The trick is to search regularly every hour or so. You can win as much as 5 to 50 SBs (swagbucks) per random win! You can also earn swagbucks by answering a daily poll, watching commercial videos, and more. Then there are secret codes that are hidden now and then for you to find. When you join, the website keeps an ongoing tally of your bucks in the upper righthand corner. It's very nice to see that number go up. They have a blog and tip pages as well. Joining the SwagBucks page on Facebook can help you figure some of this stuff out. 

Each swagbuck is worth about 2 cents. In the span of a week, I've earned almost enough for a $5 Amazon e-giftcard. Some people are a lot more active on SwagBucks than I am. Still, every little bit helps in the current economy. Suppose I do the minimal amount each week. There are 52 weeks in a year. That means I could end up with an extra $260 to spend online each year, and if I really want to dive into Swagbucks, I can earn more! Watch out, though, as going after swagbucks can be addicting!

You can also earn swagbucks from referrals, so if you want to help me out as you check it out, 

my referral link is: http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/RadiantSunset

Do you already Swag? Post and share your tips or your favorite gift!

May: Mother's Day Christmas Ideas

May is for Mother’s Day

May has two big holidays: Mother’s Day and Memorial Day. I don’t think Memorial Day will offer much in the way of gift ideas, so let’s focus on Mother’s Day. Do you have a mom? Are there moms in your family or in your close circle of friends? Do you know any moms-to-be? Gift items for the Mother’s Day holiday are going to be on clearance this month. You may be able to snap up some Christmas gifts among the candles, bath supplies, t-shirts, candy, and books that will be on sale. You may even find some mommy gardening supplies!


Do you have a gift cabinet or closet or storage space of some sort where you can stash gifts bought year round? If not, now is as good a time as any to create a space or buy a container. An opaque plastic tub with lid might be good if you don't have an allotted space in your home. Decide where you would like to stash your gift supply before buying the container. If you have snooping kids, you'll have to be sneaky. You might get the under-the-bed box. If you get a larger box, consider faking kids out with a top layer of boring things like sweatpants, an old folded sheet, or newspapers. Then if they find the box while snooping in your closet, they will think it’s nothing and move on. Label it “Tax Stuff” to ensure that everyone avoids it! 


A tip I received last year is to buy one gift card each month. By December, you’ll have a nice stash that you can give as gifts without the anxiety of spending all that money at once! OR, you might use the gift cards yourself for Christmas shopping. This will work if you prefer to do your Christmas shopping closer to the holiday instead of early in the year. Turning your cash into gift cards each month is almost like having a personal Christmas savings account! When you're ready to shop, you’ll know how much you’ve got on each card and be able to create a budget for gifts.

Photo Ornament Ideas

Hi there! Have you gotten started organizing your photos yet?

Photo ornaments can be such fun gifts to receive, not to mention make! If you have a Hobby Lobby or other craft store in your area that posts coupons, now would be a good time to start collecting the supplies to make your photo ornament crafts. If you wait until the holiday season, you're less likely to find a coupon or to be able to use what you find -- not to mention finding the time to make the craft when the whole world is doing the holiday hustle-bustle! It just makes sense to work in advance.

I found the instructions for making a shaker ornament (with fake snow inside) here . The example uses a graphic of a snowman, but I think this would be awesome with family photos in place!

I love snow and snowmen and have a whole tree's worth of snow-themed ornaments. This pattern for a snowman photo ornament is something your children could make. If you're anything like me, you'll want to make some too. :)

This Christmas photo ball ornament involves cutting a photo into strips, which seems so wrong, but makes an awesome, lightweight ornament!

Excuse me while I go work some digital photo magic on my laptop. I've got some photos saved there that I want to use in my Christmas project!

April Album Antics

Happy Spring Fever, everyone!


Oh my, the pollen has left a fine, yellow-green coating on everything, including my dear daughter's allergic nasal passages. We want to be outside enjoying the sunshine, but perhaps a better idea is to stay indoors and work on Christmas ideas. 


This month, the burning question is this: where are those holiday pictures that you or your relatives took during your December festivities? If you don't have a collection of photographs placed in an album, scrapbook, or otherwise saved (online in a slideshow? Saved to a CD?), this is the month to tackle the task! 


Years ago a friend of mine lost five years' worth of digital family photos when her computer crashed. She had never gotten around to printing or saving them. The pictures are gone for good.  It's so easy to put off printing or otherwise saving your photos once you've uploaded them to your computer, but your computer isn't a good storage device for precious memories! You need a backup plan! Currently, I upload my photos both to a laptop and to a desktop computer. I then create albums online. I try but don't always succeed in printing my favorite photos several times a year. I think doing this monthly is ideal, but that's not something I've been able to do. I need to follow my own advice!


Having my mom here at Christmastime helps me be more diligent with my photos. When she spends Christmas with us, I always upload and edit my photos and make her a special photo album to take home. If I ever lost my photos to a flood, fire, or crash, I know I could call my mom and get those albums and make copies of those photos! Online I use Photobucket to upload photos and create slideshows. I also make albums in the photo section of Walmart.com when I use them to order prints. They save the albums as well. I'm sure there are many other online options; these are just the two I have the most experience with.


So tell us where your Christmas 2010 photos are right now! Still on a camera? On your hard drive? Sitting in an email sent by a friend or family member who took the photos? Or have you already taken steps to protect them or place them in albums?


Bonus April Photo Tip: Use those photos in fun Christmas crafts! Choose photos to use in photo ornaments or other Christmas craft projects. (I have some ornaments found in a consignment store that need photos added, and I have a banner with spaces for Christmas photos as well. You might make gift tags featuring photos of the recipients' faces -- then little children can help pass out the gifts by connecting the face on the tag to the face of the person in the room! 

March Mayhem

Jaw dropped from shock.
Don't let this be you!

Dear Readers,
It's been a month that reinforces my message for the need to be prepared. My lovely writing and editing job that pays my mortgage is coming to an end. Rather than work on Christmas concerns, I've been updating my resume, joining LinkedIn, and spreading the word that I need a job!


Because I believe in being prepared, I do have a small savings account. I also have an IRA that I can draw from. Best of all, I have some good leads on jobs. Hopefully I'll have more work lined up before I run out of savings. 


For me, this situation reinforces the idea of being prepared for the holidays. You never know when disaster is going to strike. If you don't plan in advance for Christmas, what happens if disaster strikes in November or December? You may not have the finances or interest for normal festivities. There may be no happy memories made. Your kids may remember the holiday as the worst in the history of holidays.


As for me, I had already started adding little gifts to my gift cabinet as I came across sale items that would make good gifts. My cards were bought and stashed away in January. I have a supply of Christmas wrapping paper and bows that may last until the Lord returns! Ready or not, Christmas is coming; it won't catch me by surprise because I do plan ahead. It may be a toned-down holiday this year, but it will still be fun. We'll make the new desserts we experimented with last month. We'll enjoy the free local activities. There will be gifts, even if most are of the homemade variety.


Some of you will be grandparents by the time Christmas rolls around. Some of you may become parents for the first or second time. Some will lose jobs, while others will find new jobs. Some will move to a new home or even a new region. This year may bring the biggest changes of your life . . . or it may be the same ol' same ol' that it always is. Either way, you can make Christmas special. It doesn't take a lot of money, but it does take thought, and it takes time. Don't leave it to chance.


Get motivated to start planning now for the best Christmas ever. You can bet I am!

February: Valentine Surprises can become Christmas Goodies!

Hello, Christmas Lovers!

It's the month of love, and Valentine's Day is almost upon us!

Did you find a special recipe during the Christmas season that you didn't have time to try? Maybe you could pull it out and make it for Valentine's Day. If it's a hit, then you'll have a new dish/dessert in your portfolio for December!

February is a good time for trying new recipes, at least in the northern hemisphere. It's winter and cold outside, keeping us indoors. The Super Bowl is over now, so there's not much left to do this month. You might as well experiment in the kitchen. :-) My daughter learned how to make cake balls last month, and she's making new flavors this month. This is something that we know will be a big hit come Christmas. Everyone who has tried them has raved about them! The more she makes, the easier it becomes. That right there is a great reason for trying new holiday recipes now rather than waiting until the bustling month of December!

My daughter's red candy coated peanut brittle

For those of you without a passion for cooking or candy-making, find something else creative to do with your time this month. Perhaps art is your passion. You might experiment with designs for homemade Christmas cards or gift wrap. Why sit on the couch facing the TV in your Snuggie, when you could be getting a head start on Christmas 2011?

Bright Idea: On Valentine's Day or the day after, check the clearance sales for bargains on items that would work as Christmas gifts. Love isn't just for Valentine's Day, you know! I'll be looking for red candy sprinkles that can be used on cakes, cookies, and candies!

Have You Had Snow Recently? Will You See Snow Again Soon?

Ornaments on the Snow

I love snow -- just can't get enough of the sparkling white stuff! Since I work from home and my daughter is enrolled in an online school at home, snow doesn't throw off our schedule. It just enhances it. :)


A week ago we spent the week snowed in. It was a wonderful experience, and it gave us time to  do more cooking and to try a new recipe. We made red velvet cake balls, and I'm gleeful to report that they were awesome! They will be great for Valentine's Day, and they will be perfect for Christmas. 

Red Velvet Cake Balls - like candy!

Snow is in the forecast again. I didn't think to tell you earlier, but I'm telling you now. If you get snowed in with the power still on, you will have the perfect opportunity to try new recipes that you might enjoy during your Christmas festivities. As it so often happens, we can't find the time to experiment with new dishes and desserts in December. We may have found some promising recipes, but time ran out, and we stuck to our old faithfuls and tucked those promising recipes away for next year. Well, untuck them! Get to the store while the roads are still clear and collect your ingredients. Then when it snows and you're stuck at home, you can make the most of it and whip up some new foods. 


By the way, if you get snowed in and your Christmas decorations are still up, you might want to go ahead and pack those away. February is fast approaching. I know snow makes you want to lie on the couch, eating and watching movies and sporadically gazing out the window, but please do yourself a favor and accomplish a chore or two while you have the chance. You'll be glad you did.

January Head Start!

Leo the Cat at the Front Door

The Christmas decorations are mostly put away. For me, this is quite an accomplishment. In the past it's been closer to the end of the month, and occasionally into the first or second week of February before I've handled that time-consuming chore! Now I'm sitting up in anticipation of seeing the promised snowfall. I almost want to run get my Christmas lights and put them back up so I can take "Christmas" pictures in the snow! Have you ever done that? A few times in my life I've staged a Christmas photo in January. One was when we brought our first baby home from the hospital one January 3rd. He was born early in December with some health issues, and the agency didn't let us know that we had a foster baby waiting until after the holidays were over! Well, in my mind no child should miss his first Christmas, so I put a little elf cap on his head and sat his carseat in front of a fake fireplace decorated with poinsettias, and I took his picture as if it were still Christmas. 


Anyway, you know why I'm writing, don't you? Christmas clearance sales began the day after December 25 and have continued into January. Have you taken advantage of any? You can snag some sweet deals on cards, gift wrap, party supplies, decorations, and other Christmas items! Buy these things now and put them in your designated "Christmas corner." When the holidays roll around again, your money can go toward gifts and groceries rather than these other "essentials" that every Christmas-lover simply has to have!


I got two boxes of Christmas cards at 50% off -- the store was almost out of these, and I knew they wouldn't last until the 75% markdown. I went back to the store when the holiday clearance was reduced to 75% off, and I got two different boxes of cards -- cards that I had liked but had seen that they had plenty left during the 50% off sale. I'm all set on cards! 


I went to another store's sale and got a set of ornaments for my daughter, whose tree was sparsely decorated this year. She had graduated to a full-size tree and just didn't have enough ornaments to cover it, so next year she'll be all set. I also bought a good-quality snowflake stocking to replace my cheap one that started falling apart. The 75% off sales are the best time to buy stockings for the mantle! The expensive ones often don't sell out at full price, so you can get a quality product for little money. 


I bought holiday paper plates and napkins. I used some for a New Year's Day gathering with friends, and the rest I saved. They don't take up much space.


The last purchase I made was two books written with a Christmas setting. My mother loves to read, and I know she will enjoy receiving those books to read during her Christmas break. 


Not only am I now prepared with cards that I could send right after Thanksgiving (if I do things right), but I've also started shopping for gifts. I wouldn't buy perishable items this early, but there are some standard gifts that keep well. Books, candles, ornaments, mugs, photo albums, snow globes, etc. When you can find these at 75% off, and you haven't already spent yourself into the red, it's smart to get started on your gift stash. 


Just remember, it's not a bargain if you already spent your money. I wouldn't want you to get into debt with your holiday shopping if you don't have the spare cash for it. It's worth keeping in mind next time around, though. It's a great idea to save some money for the January sales, andit  gives you that much less to shop for come next November and December!

What have you done so far this month to get a head start on Christmas 2011?

My Carolina Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Has your Christmas been picture perfect? I didn't always take my own advice, and I paid the price. However, I DID get all the presents wrapped before Christmas Eve this year. So what if it was the night of Dec. 23? At least I got to bed at a decent hour on Dec. 24 and didn't sleep half of Christmas Day away! LOL One of these years, I'm going to wrap them as I acquire them. I'm always surprised how many hours it takes to wrap what looks like a small pile of gifts!


News Flash: Upstate South Carolina had the first Christmas Day snowfall in 47 years! Woooooooooooooo!!! It was a peaceful addition to the day. But it hasn't stuck yet. (My company, who traveled from out-of-state, is worried about the trip home in a few days.)

I'm already making plans to "do" Christmas better next year.  How about you? Do you want to take another trip around the sun, preparing for Christmas All Year Long?