Stuff

November 1st and I am already dreaming about Thanksgiving (and the ensuing shopping sales!).

Last year was the first year where I really did good, saving all year-long to have a Christmas shopping fund!  And it wasn’t until Black Friday that I realized that I didn’t save enough.  I had calculated the monthly savings off of what I had spent on Christmas the year before.  I forgot that I regularly stock up on household items on Black Friday sales.  New towels, bed sheets, and more are at some of their lowest prices of the season!  So that is when I buy them.

This year I learned from last year’s mistakes!  I increased my monthly savings to account for Christmas shopping AND the household stock up spending.  I am ready!!!

Last year I had a goal to buy less stuff.  I did “meh” on that goal.  I thought I did good.  Until I went to wrap stuff . . . seeing it all spread out, I didn’t feel like I did as well.

So this year I have renewed my vow!!  I have been brainstorming creative gifts that my children might love, that aren’t just “stuff”.  One child reads this blog . . so I can’t give any more than that away!!  I’ll just summarize with these statement:  I have long since realized that the massive amount of “stuff” in this house is my fault.  I have been working on minimizing, slowly . . it’s going slowly.  But I don’t wish to contribute to the “stuff” problem with unnecessary things that don’t need to be here.

This is a HUGE goal for me.  I do love a good sale.  BUT, I have a goal!  I have a mission statement for myself even – see above statements.  Now I am developing my plan.  I must have a plan in place before cracking open the Christmas savings!!  And I fully intend to succeed!!

Tonight I am thankful for lessons learned on holiday shopping!!  Don’t worry, I’m not skipping on Thanksgiving here!  I Love Thanksgiving!  I just know I need to start preparing now to be ready for the Christmas shopping season too!