If you haven’t noticed already I
LOVE Christmas!!!! LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE!!! I get a lot of joy from buying
Christmas presents for my friends and family, I love getting the Christmas
decorations out and making the house look pretty and festive, I own a large
number of Christmas t-shirts (I live in Australia so it’s summer right now! No
white Christmas’s for us!) and I regularly collect santa hats, reindeer ears
and other amusing Christmas accessories! Mr Katie does get a little frustrated with
me, but he gets over it!
This Christmas Mr K and I decided to put a limit on our Christmas spending on each other, we are a little strapped for cash and are currently trying our hardest to slowly save to buy our own house. So we agreed on a $25 limit – and a theme! We had to buy a present that reminds us of the other person, so it could be funny, silly, practical, whatever really! But it had to mean something to us. I’m pretty happy with what I got Mr K, a spicks and specs trivia game (he is pretty obsessed with the show!) and then some practical things like a toiletry bag and some bath products. Mr K is always having a bath - so getting bath stuff just reminded me of him so much.
This year was the first year that
I set myself a Christmas budget. Usually I just spend away until I’ve gotten
everything and I don’t bother really keeping track of anything. I will be the
first to admit I’m hopeless with money! I rarely budget at all and when I do I usually don't stick to it!!! This year though we were a little strapped for cash and I have a few large expenses coming up in January that I need to ensure I have money for! My solution this year was simple, and certainly not rocket science! I merely wrote everyone down that I had to buy a present for. Set myself a $$ limit for each person and wrote down exactly what I bought and how much it cost. And this year, believe it or not, I actually stuck to my budget!
It is without a doubt extremely difficult to manage Christmas cheaply, and I applaud anyone who can do it, and those who have no choice. I know it's not about money, gifts or food, it's about family and faith (if you are that way inclined). Nevertheless Christmas always seem to creep up on me and leaves me with an empty bank account!!! I wish everyone all the best over the Christmas period, I know it can be hard for some people but try to focus on the positives!
I thought I'd show you all a photo of my tree and my nicely wrapped Christmas presents, you'll notice they are on a shelf up high, right near the top of the Christmas tree! This is so our two beautiful puppies (ok they're not really puppies, one is 5 the other is 3!) can't get their sneaky little paws (or teeth!) into the presents!
For me I think this Christmas was a huge success! I love spending time with family and friends during this time. I forgot to take a photo of the food I cooked for Christmas Eve dinner with my family - the pudding was a huge hit (I still have over half of it that I'm making my way through!) and I also cooked roast pork and a variety of veggies to go with it. It was a lovely night with my family and one of my closest friends (whose family live in NZ so she has had Christmas Eve dinner with my family for the last 5 years!). I did remember to take a photo of the table... so you can see how I decorated!
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. I look forward to getting stuck more into my blog this year... (now that it's 2014 after all). Stay tuned for my goals for 2014 and my favourite things of 2014.
I thought I'd show you all a photo of my tree and my nicely wrapped Christmas presents, you'll notice they are on a shelf up high, right near the top of the Christmas tree! This is so our two beautiful puppies (ok they're not really puppies, one is 5 the other is 3!) can't get their sneaky little paws (or teeth!) into the presents!
For me I think this Christmas was a huge success! I love spending time with family and friends during this time. I forgot to take a photo of the food I cooked for Christmas Eve dinner with my family - the pudding was a huge hit (I still have over half of it that I'm making my way through!) and I also cooked roast pork and a variety of veggies to go with it. It was a lovely night with my family and one of my closest friends (whose family live in NZ so she has had Christmas Eve dinner with my family for the last 5 years!). I did remember to take a photo of the table... so you can see how I decorated!
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. I look forward to getting stuck more into my blog this year... (now that it's 2014 after all). Stay tuned for my goals for 2014 and my favourite things of 2014.
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