The $3 Christmas Present Piles

Santa pulled it off again this year!

We managed to create a pile of gifts for each of our kids for less than $3 each.

Up first is Oliver's. He got a new child's snow shovel from Home Depot. This past fall, Home Depot had a Facebook game in which you mowed down zombies with a wood chip mulcher to get free certificates. We used a $5 off of $5 purchase to get Oliver a free snow shovel. On Small Business Saturday, we went to a toy store called Timbuk Toys. As I posted before, we got a "Honeybee Tree" board game for Oliver and some jingle bells for Jo. After the $25 Small Business Saturday discount, they came to $2.28. I took Jo's summer clothes into a consignment shop and got enough credit to pick out the baseball mitt for Oliver. On Black Friday, I scored two baseballs for less than 50 cents. A fellow mom in MOMS Club was cleaning out her daughters' bookshelf, and she gave me a pile of Clifford books. They were in great condition, so they went into Oliver's Christmas pile. Finally, I went to JCPenney every day between Black Friday and Christmas Eve to get free buttons that they were giving away. Each button came with a code I entered online. One in four buttons was a winner. I won a substantial quantity of free $5 and $10 vouchers. I worked hard to make purchases of their exact amount to get items for free. Below, you can see Oliver got a toy birthday cake because he loves candles. It was on sale for $10, so I got it for free with one of my $10 vouchers. The Melissa & Doug stamp set was on clearance for $8. I picked up a $2 pair of socks and got the stamp set for free!

Here is Jo's pile. The mailbox was actually once Oliver's. A few months ago, I cleaned it up and replaced the batteries. I stowed it away in the closet so it would be fresh and new for Jo. I got the basketball game from a gift exchange from MOMS Club. We brought in some toys we no longer used and got this in return. The wrapped gift was a bathtub coloring set that I got for free with my Pampers rewards points. I posted previously about good rewards programs, but I ended up saving the bumble bee flashlight and the Dumbo puzzle to give to the kids next year instead. The bathtub fishing net was also free. We ordered a Christmas present on Amazon that came to $20. We were going to have to pay $5 in shipping, or we would get free shipping if we spent $25. So, I searched the website for a $5-$6 toy, since I would pay that much for shipping anyway. Jo loves taking baths, so I chose that for her. The book was saved from Oliver. I paid for the box of Kleenex (which she loved). You can also see the jingle bells poking out from behind the wrapped gift, which, as I mentioned from Oliver's pile, came from Timbuk Toys on Small Business Saturday.

And, so, once again, Santa pulled off a good but affordable Christmas. All told, we spent about $7 in our piles of presents from Santa. In addition, we got a number of gifts using the JCPenney vouchers for next year. Santa plans ahead!

Christmas Tip: Free Photo Calendar

I just got an email from Shutterfly. You can get a free photo calendar by using the code: CALENDAR2013 at check out. The offer ends on Friday. You'll have to pay shipping and handling, but talk about an affordable and nice gift for grandparents, aunts, and uncles!

Also, LivingSocial still has the deal going on for photo books from Picaboo. For $10, you get a 20 page, hardcover photo book. Click here to find that deal.

Enjoy!

Christmas Tip: Small Business Saturday

If you have an American Express card, you can cross a person off of your Christmas list for nearly free! It's called Small Business Saturday, and it's awesome. It helps us as shoppers and helps small businesses, too!

The official rules can be found here: https://www.americanexpress.com/us/small-business/Shop-Small/offerterms, but the basic gist of it is this:

1. Starting at midnight MST this morning (when this entry posts) through November 24 (or while entries last), sign up for Small Business Saturday here with your American Express card.

2. On Saturday, November 24, spend at least $25 in a single transaction at qualified small business that accepts American Express cards. You have to pay with your American Express, obviously. To find a store that qualifies, go to shopsmall.com and click on the tab near the top that says "Find Out Where to Shop." You can enter in your zip code or city, and they will give you a list of qualified businesses near you. When I enter in mine, I get 20 pages of businesses. You can also search by business name. I searched for a toy shop nearby, but there are also restaurants, cleaners, chocolate shops, and more. Even the Monkey Bizness down south qualifies!

3. In 8 weeks, American Express will give you a $25 statement credit on your qualified purchase. If you return your items, they'll take the credit back. So, no cheating!

Last year, I went to a spice shop in Old Littleton that I'd been meaning to check out, and I spent about $28 for some vanilla baking sugar for me and a nice spice gift set for my sister-in-law. After the statement credit, those purchases were nearly free! Enjoy your (almost) freebie!

Christmas Tip: Gift Exchange

You might have noticed me briefly bringing up MOMS Club in my blog. I don't think I've ever taken the time to actually share what it is.  MOMS Club is actually an international club, and it stands for "moms offering moms support." It's for moms who don't work or just work part time. They have local chapters all over the world. Let me tell you, I love the ladies at MOMS Club. Those ladies have a unique way of being able to laugh off all the stressful things kids do, like not sleeping. I have never felt judged with them regarding my kids. If Oliver is crabby, well--Sorry! We tried to come to play time, but it's clearly not working, so we're going home now.

At the end of summer, my MOMS Club group hosted a gift exchange. I waited until now to post about it because, really, how many Christmas tips do you need to get from me in September? One was plenty.

The gift exchange was simply for moms to bring in a couple toys their kids have outgrown (or, you know, to get rid of those toys that just drive them up the wall) and get a couple "new" ones.

Like I've said before, my kids don't care if toys are new in package or just new to them. So, I figured I'd go to the exchange and try to pick out a toy or two that I could save for Christmas time. Yes, I'm cheap. Who cares?

Here are the toys I took to the gift exchange:

You might recognize that tractor, which we bought at Costco back when we had our first annual Kid's Day. Oliver kind of liked it for about a week, when he decided it was the scariest thing ever. It shakes and makes loud noises and lights up. Apparently, that's not OK. He's three, and he's still afraid of the thing. I decided that I've hung onto the thing long enough (2 years!). It's time for it to go to a new home.

I also gave away the caterpillar pull toy, which both kids have outgrown, and a Little People ferris wheel set that Oliver had received for his birthday last year. Both kids love that ferris wheel toy, but it lets out noises of creepy child laughter. As my husband put it after the exchange, "I'm glad you were able to get rid of the ferris wheel. The laughter of small children when I accidentally bump that thing in the dark will not be missed."

In return, I selected this basketball toy:

Neat, huh? I think Jo will be the perfect age for it come Christmas time. So, I stuck it up in the closet so it can make its debut under the tree in a couple months.

I understand that not everyone has a group of parents they can just trade toys with. However, if you can find just one neighbor, family member, or friend with a child around your child's age, you can probably swap a toy or two. I'm not very skilled in the art of Craigs List, but I would think you could even post an ad to swap toys of similar value with parents in your city.

Remember, just because your kid didn't take an interest in a toy doesn't mean another child won't. At MOMS Club, a two year old boy got the tractor truck from Oliver, and he loved it. An item that causes fear in the heart of one child can be another child's treasure!

Christmas Tip: Rewards Points

I know! I know! Some of you are rolling your eyes at me for posting stuff about Christmas in October. Some tips for saving money at Christmas are best utilized well before Christmas, like this tip regarding rewards points. Reward redemption programs work. You get free things for entering codes from the products you already buy. The only downside to them is that you have to actually save your codes and take the time to enter them, and getting your reward can take 6 to 8 weeks.

It's a small inconvenience, but start participating in reward programs. Pampers, Huggies, and Disney all have rewards programs. Even the YoBaby yogurt that I buy my kids has a rewards program! I attached links to all of those rewards programs. Enter your points, and every year before Christmas, cash them in for toys to put under the tree.

In my house, we alternate using cloth diapers and disposable, but we still have had enough points to get free rewards from Pampers and Huggies. We've gotten free potty seats from Huggies. I've used my Pampers codes to make free photo books and calendars on Shutterfly. All you do is enter in the codes onto their rewards website. If you follow them on Facebook, they also regularly post free rewards codes there.

As a Christmas gift for Joanna, I just ordered these bath tub crayons (with a rubber ducky eraser!) from Pampers. Redeeming points is entirely free!

I haven't ordered anything this year with my Huggies points yet, but I'm close to being able to afford this cute little bumble bee flashlight. Oliver and Jo both play with a little plastic flashlight that we have at home. I think this kids' one will be a hit.

I love Disney movies, but it's not in our budget to purchase movies at this stage in our life. I'm fortunate to have a dad who loves movies and buys DVDs a few times a month. So, I use his reward codes (He probably just found out as he read that. I love you, Dad!). I also use the free codes they post occasionally on their Facebook page. I once got a children's songs DVD with my rewards points. This year, for Christmas, I just ordered this 48-piece jigsaw puzzle for Oliver. Cashing in the rewards points is absolutely free (no shipping charges or fees). 

I just opened a rewards account with YoBaby yogurt today, so I won't be able to redeem our points for anything this year. It looks like a great program, though. They have some sing-a-long CDs and some kids' crafts.

If you're buying these products anyway, you might as well get some freebies for doing so! If you already participate in any of these rewards programs, start browsing and ordering items now to make sure to get them before Christmas.

Christmas Tip: Clean Up Old Toys

I like providing a festive, bountiful Christmas for my family, but I do not like going broke over it. While I tend to be a pretty modest person, I want to lay this out here: I'm good at making Christmas cheap.

It's only September, but I want to give you this tip now because, well, you need it now for it to work. If you have older kids, this probably won't work for them. This tip is aimed at children three and under.

If you're a typical parent like me, when a toy runs out of batteries, it takes you months to get around to replacing them. Well, take those toys, clean them up and replace their batteries. Get them looking as good as new. Then, put them out of sight.

If they haven't had batteries in months, and you hide them for a few months, your kids won't even really remember them. They're going to be like brand new toys for them at Christmas time.

So, this week, go out and pick up a few packs of batteries. One evening, when your kids are asleep, spend an hour or two scrubbing toys, replacing batteries, and getting them looking good as new. Stick them up in your closet behind some sweaters or something and know that you have a couple good gifts for Christmas that only cost you some batteries. Don't forget to dig at the bottom of your kids' toy boxes! It's probably been a while since they've seen anything down there ;-)

I cleaned a spinning alphabet wheel that had been Oliver's. That will be a gift for Jo. I replaced the batteries in a mailbox toy that Oliver had gotten for his first Christmas. That will also make a great gift for Jo. Let me just tell you: our baby won't care that Santa gave her hand-me-downs!