So after attending four different Christmas parties over the past two weekends, I am officially partied out. But on the bright side, our tree is finally up, the stockings are hung with care, and I’m writing this while listening to a Christmas cd I borrowed from the library to change it up a bit.
My favorite ornament on our tree. So Florida. And with feathers!
We get a real Christmas tree every year since I never one growing up, and I still think of it as the best luxury that $35 can buy once a year. Plus, there’s nothing like dressing Kitty PoP up in his santa outfit and watching him have a ball playing with the (plastic!) ornaments on the low branches.
After the holidays are all said and done, we’ll do a tally up on the blog of where the $1,098 in holiday money from our credit card rewards was spent, but so far I’m pretty pleased with how we’ve been spending it and matching it up with our values.
I hope your holiday preparations and parties are all going well, too. And if you need a gift idea for yourself this Christmas, consider a subscription to Planting Our Pennies. It’s absolutely free and will deliver joy to your inbox or RSS reader roughly 3-4 times per week. =)
Love From Others
- Mr CBB from Canadian Budget Binder and Jeremy from Modest Money both liked our post What To Include In Your Net Worth and included it in their weekly roundups.
- Another favorite post was our Wayne’s World inspired post on giving thoughtful gifts – What Am I Gonna Do With A Gun Rack? Catherine from Plunged In Debt and Liquid Independence from Freedom Thirty-Five added it to their weekly reading lists.
- Last on the list this week is our post Duplex Valuation: A DCF Example, which Pauline at Reach Financial Independence included in her Friday Recap. Nerd Wallet also included it in the Nerdy Finance Carnival #19, and Average Joe from The Free Financial Advisor heralded it as numbers porn. (Which I take to be a HUGE compliment.)
Thanks for all the mentions this week. And as always, if I missed any, please let me know.
Love For Others
And here are just a few of what I considered to be some of the best posts I read this week.
- Andrea at So Over This celebrated One Year of Self Employment and led her readers through the past, the present, and the future of her self employment. I loved the honest assessments of her experiences. All posts are definitely worth a read – and she’s got a giveaway associated with it, too!
- Emily at EvolvingPF asked Who Paid For Your Wedding? and I’ve really enjoyed reading the comments as they continue to come in. Mr. PoP and I paid for our wedding. Of course, our wedding cost less than $250, so it’s not that surprising that we footed the entire bill.
- Erika from Newlyweds On A Budget hosted a guest post by Cat at Budget Blonde – From the US to The Caribbean: Budget Blonde’s Debt Payoff Story. While Cat and her hubs are by no means done with debt entirely – his medical school loans will be a feat – they have made some excellent traction paying down consumer debt and building an emergency fund while following their dreams and living in a tropical paradise.
- KK at Student Debt Survivor wrote about her Holiday Time Budget. Basically she’s keeping a time card of all the time that she’s put into the holidays so far this year to see how much time value (hours x hourly rate) they are costing her. While I try to look at most holiday experiences as fun since I only get to do them once a year, after four Christmas parties, I definitely found myself thinking KK might be on to something in thinking about the cost of some of our holiday time.
- And closing up the holiday theme for the week, we have a guest post hosted by Canadian Budget Binder, authored by Derek form Free At 33 – The Celebrate Like Scrooge Christmas Gift Exchange. The basic idea, instead of a white elephant gift exchange like we participated in last night with store-bought gifts of a specified dollar value ($25!), the gifts being exchanged are required to be “crap from the basement”. Heck – gift exchanges are usually only fun because of the people you’re spending time with, so keep that and get rid of the swap out the “crap from a store” with something else.
How are all of your holiday parties and preparations going so far this year?
Thanks for including my post! I’ve really enjoyed the comments on that one as well.
Emily @ evolvingPF recently posted..Weekly Update 43
You’re welcome!
That is a cute ornament! $35 for a real tree is a pretty sweet deal in Florida! We pay about the same if we buy from a lot (which we willingly to and support the local tree farmers)..,We’re SURROUNDED but ‘Christmas trees’ here in NS so you’d think we’d pay less than you given that yours are imported for the most part!
Catherine recently posted..Weekly Reads 14.12.12
I have no idea why tree costs vary so much – I have friends in the city up north who can easily pay $70-$100 for a tree that probably only traveled 100 miles. Where ours no doubt travels much further. Weird, but I’ll take it. I don’t think I could stomach paying more than $35 or so for a tree every year.
Thank you so much for including my guest post on Erika’s blog this week.
) I hope you have a very Merry Christmas!
Best,
Cat @ BudgetBlonde
Cat Alford @ BudgetBlonde recently posted..Being Charitable This Christmas
Same to you! Safe travels =)
Thanks for including me. Your flamingo reminds me of a family friend who we used to exchange flamingos with (the plastic lawn ornaments). We’d take turns putting the flamingo in strange places. You never knew when it would make an appearance somewhere. It was pretty fun and really funny.
KK @ Student Debt Survivor recently posted..My Holiday “Time Budget”
I love that idea. We’ve got some neighbors that have pink flamingos in their yard and I always get a kick out of them. =)
Thanks for the shout out! I appreciate it.
Andrea recently posted..Happy Quit-o-versary to Me! Come Win Some Money!
You are very welcome! Happy quit-o-versary =)
Thanks for the include. I didn’t go to any Christmas parties this year because there was a time conflict with my work :0) I don’t decorate my home for the holidays because I live by myself so I see little point to set everything up. One of my friends has a good compromise at his house tho, he has a Christmas tree in his living room all year round, but he puts a sheet over it 11 months a year and just uncovers the tree during December lol, lazy but to each their own.
Liquid recently posted..Weekend Business and Blog Roundup – Dec 14th
Wow, I’ve known people who leave Christmas lights up all year, but a tree up all year covered with a sheet is something else!
That is a superior Christmas tree ornament!
Funny about Money recently posted..What Can Be Done?
Thanks!
Wow that’s pretty good all the rewards points you used! I’m going to track all of ours for 2013 because I want to know. I do document them but they all fall under coupon as I considered it the same. It all adds up either way that’s why we use our CC to pay for everything!! Thanks for the mention and Happy Holidays. Mr.CBB
Canadian Budget Binder recently posted..Mr.CBB’s Festive Coconut Balls
I never thought of he cash back rewards as coupons, but they are kindof, you’re right. Happy holidays to you, too!
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