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Keeping the Costs Low

Oh, the dilemma again over sending Christmas cards. Every year I try to knock down the number that I send out. I keep it down to family and really close friends. If I send a card to a family member 10 years in a row and I don’t get a response, then I feel that they don’t want contact and I take them off my list. I don’t send cards to anyone who I will see over the holiday season.

I would actually like to send e-mails instead but I don’t have most people’s e-mail address or they don’t use email. I know that is hard to believe but not in my generation.

So I sat down this morning and wrote them out. I ended up with 27 cards that are already in the mailbox. 

A few years ago, I caught a great after Christmas deal of $1.00 per box for very nice Christmas cards. So I purchased 10 assorted boxes. I am still using them so they were purchased and paid for long ago. The only other costs were my time and stamps. I am still working on forever stamps that I purchased before the last price increase. So they cost me $ .47 each instead of the $.49 they are today. Also when I purchase my stamps, I buy them in bulk at BJ’s and get a small discount. So mailing these 27 cards cost me less than $12.69 plus about $1.50 for the cards. So it is not an extreme expense.

A few things that I have been doing around here is cashing in 10 Coke code caps for $5.00 Amazon gift cards. I didn’t know that they were running this deal until my sister mentioned it. Fortunately, I still had some caps from Hubby drinking it.

All of my Christmas shopping is done. I have one more package coming today and when that is wrapped, I am all done. One of the last purchases I made was a Black Friday deal that I did online on Thanksgiving. Our Keurig is still running however I am afraid that it is on it’s last leg. It makes terrible noises. So when I found a Keurig on sale for $ 59.99 that included 40 K-cups and a bonus in the coffeepot box of 4 more plus  some iced tea ones, I jumped on it. I defrayed the cost of this by paying with some Amazon credit card points. I had been keeping my eye out for a deal like this since I did not want to wake up one morning and not be able to make coffee. I know that a Keurig is a luxury but it is one of the luxuries that we are willing to pay for but not at full price. We only drink one cup of coffee in the morning so it works perfectly for us. 

The only grocery deal I purchased this week was yesterday. Top’s had large roasting chickens on sale for $ .77 a lb. That is a really low price for my area so I purchased two for the freezer. One day when I am feeling better, I will take them out and roast them so that we will have lots of chicken already prepared. I will then freeze it until it is needed.


Not much else going on around here. We are just trying to stay warm. Anything new frugally with any of you?  

2 replies on “Keeping the Costs Low”

Hi Liz, this is Chris. Today I shopped at Meijer for some of the baking things that are always on sale around this time of the year and I am stocked on sugar, flour, cocoa, evaporated and Eagle milk, etc. for the next year. I went with DD to Costco earlier in the week and got the pecans I make every year for Christmas. This year the pecan prices here were $15.xx for 2 lb. I got 6 bags, and every year I plan for the cost in our Christmas budget. Last week I went to the bank and took the money out I had been saving all year. I am almost done with Christmas shopping, just have a couple of gifts to buy our parents. It seems they are always kind of hard to buy for, but we like to at least get a little something. My hubby got an extra paycheck for Dec. and so I was able to put some extra in our savings this month.

Hi Chris,

That was a terrific price on pecans. I bought some recently and they cost more than that. I eat a few every day because they are on my diet. Good job on stocking up on baking supplies for a year.

Yeah on having your Christmas shopping almost done. It is wonderful that you were able to save so much this month.

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