budgetsRsexy

I love my Shark vacuum. It has done a great job dealing with the massive amount my Akita sheds. Mine came with a hard surface floor attachment that I use a lot and I love that I can lift the canister away with the removable wand/hose that fits under way more furniture than those stupid Dyson balls do (my sister has a Dyson and I did not like the experience).

Last year was the first year I didn’t go out on BF in over 2 decades. It was the first time I was in a major city for Thanksgiving (I was visiting family in Boston) where I found the idea of BF shopping crowds a bit more intimidating and it was the first holiday with my nieces who I love but are exhausting bundles of energy so I just decided not to go since most of my shopping was done already anyway. I sincerely regretted not going out as I missed the traditional terribly. I don’t care if I don’t even have anything to shop for I’m going out no matter what. I just missed the excitement and time with my dad (my normal BF shopping partner in crime).

I’m am what you would call technology illiterate. I get very overwhelmed by all the choices and specs and different jargon that I can’t quite wrap my head around it all. I need a smart TV, 50-55 inches and from a reliable brand to watch tv shows, movies and football on. I would like to stay $600 or less but I’m not sure if that is a reasonable budget or not. I have no idea what I should be looking for in the sale ads to even try to figure out what is a good deal. Any suggestions/advice? Have you seen any in ads that have made you excited to wait in line (virtually or in person) for it?

Honestly the only thing I consistently get from Kohl’s are bras when they are steeply discounted for Black Friday. I have had good luck with one of the bath towel brands there too, but honestly because they have held up well I don’t need them that often. I’ll use their kohl’s cash on the brands that their coupons won’t work on.

Thank you so much for the lovely gifts ilikefree! I was thrilled to get the Muppets movie and already watched it with my niece. The card game will get lots of use when I get together with my friends in 2 weeks (we all decided to avoid getting together until we were sure no one picked up any germs from family holiday travels). I also got a really good laugh out of the oven mitts, what are the odds you would find a theme so perfectly geared to me? They will definitely get a home in our future RV life I hope you had a wonderful holiday and a very happy new year!

I’m curious, did people actually run into a lot of supply issues or shipping issues this year? I wasn’t shopping for much but I was able to find everything I wanted relatively easily and my package delivery times were faster than they have been all year. It made all the hype about scarcity and shopping early seem over the top and unnecessary and I was wondering if I was just really lucky or if other people had similar experiences. As we are all wrapping things up I’d love to hear about everyone else’s take on this now that we can look back on it with 20/20 hindsight. Thanks!

My husband’s family are polish and have fish and homemade pierogi on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day they have leftover pierogi and their homemade kielbasa. The side dishes to each meal varies depending on who is attending as different people have different favorites and specialties that they bring to share. They only do the homemade pierogi and kielbasa for Christmas and Easter so it’s something everyone looks forward to and stuffs themselves silly with.

I got my tree decorated on Sunday. My last gift shipment arrived on Sunday too. The gifts for my bosses were delivered on Tuesday and I have safely made the 9+ hour drive to my in-laws in Virginia where I will be celebrating Christmas. I will wrap the kid/pet gifts tomorrow and then I’m officially done. Now I’m just stressing about our rescue dog and doing my best to insure that she doesn’t eat my mother-in-law’s cat, though the cat might be suicidal considering the amount of taunting it does to try to aggravate the dog [emoji849]

Just finished decorating my tree. We used our old bulbs instead of our sentimental ornaments as we adopted a new dog a few months back and we have no idea how she will be with the tree. I will sweep up the needles and put the tree skirt on tomorrow. One more thing off the to do list!

Well I came up with a gift idea for my second boss and ordered it off Amazon Friday. Now my fingers are crossed that it will be delivered by Monday (my last day in the office is Tuesday). Grabbed the wine for my other boss this morning. Assembled and fluffed the tree but one of the strands of lights is not working. My husband promised he would fix that for me tomorrow morning before he goes out for his run before I wake up so I hope to get it decorated first thing

Presents - I need to pick up a nice bottle of wine for my one boss and I’m still trying to figure out something for the other boss. I have one package I’m waiting for but it’s just for me and not a gift so if it doesn’t arrive before we head out of town it’s no bid deal. I do have to return 2 items to Kohl’s but it can wait until after the holidays if need be. Wrapping - I will do all my wrapping once we get to my in-laws so it doesn’t get damaged/ruined in the trunk of the car. It should be easy as I’m only doing gift bags this year. And I’ll bring them with me so I don’t have to run any errands while out of town. Baking - if I feel ambitious then I’ll make a loaf of pumpkin break when I get to Virginia but other than that all the baking will be done by my mother-in-law. Decorating - I still need to decorate my tree. That’s on the agenda for Saturday.

My mom always made a big deal about doing an act of charity/giving together as a family. We rang bells for Salvation Army kettles for years. A few years we coordinated with a local nursing home and wrote Christmas cards to each of the residents. These take some pre-planning/coordinating so are not an option this year, but you could take them out to select and buy a gift to donate to a Toys for Tots or similar charity. If you drop off the donation as a family you could then go out for hot chocolate or ice cream together afterward.

My secret Santa package arrived. My husband brought it in yesterday but didn’t mention it until I was walking out the door for work this morning. At least now I have something to look forward to when I get home tonight!

Somewhere on here there was a discussion about post shopping rituals in which I mentioned that my dad and I would play BF Bingo and the loser had to pay for breakfast after we were done shopping. It’s essentially a mix of treasure hunt/I Spy on a bingo board that we change up every year. Some of you seemed interested so here is a picture of my 2021 bingo sheet (the other sheet uses the exact same subjects, they are just moved to different tiles to keep things even/fair).

Low of 25, high of 35 and a 40% chance of snow, though minimal snow accumulation of around an inch so that’s not too bad all things considered.