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December 2006 - Posts
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Back when I was a kid, I pretty much took it for granted that I would be attending at least one church service each week, whether on a Wednesday night, a Saturday evening, or on Sunday morning. I knew that there would also be some things that I would be required to do regarding church throughout the week, like youth group meetings or choir practice. These things were just a given, and they were part of my schedule, plan, and expectations while I was growing up. I'm sure that many of you can relate to this weekly church-going plan. Somewhere along the way though, it becomes a little bit more difficult to keep up such a seemingly simple schedule of churchgoing. It all the sudden seems to become a lot more vigorous and intense of a commitment. For me, that occurred when I moved away from home to start my undergraduate work. The one church of my denomination that was within walking distance (since I didn't have a car my first year) just did not feel like home. There was no sense of a real community, but rather a bunch of overzealous people who were so anxious to get students in the seats that they end up pushing people away. Rather than just trying to deal with being pressured every time I walked in the door, I just stopped going. It wasn't that I stepped away from my faith or living a Christian lifestyle, but rather that I wanted to practice my religion on my own terms in the comfortable way that I had known growing up. The lack of a church community that I felt while at school made me all the more excited to visit my own church when I got the chance to return home. The sense of family and togetherness was a welcome change compared to the pressure that I felt at my school church. I actually talked for a while to my pastor at home about this very thing, and he assured me that it's a very common thing for people to feel when branching out to attend a new church in a new place that isn't exactly one of "their choosing". He also assured me that as long as I had my faith in my heart, that it didn't really matter where or when I attended church. That surely made me feel a whole lot better about the situation. I had started to feel guilty that I wasn't attended church on a regular basis...thinking that it meant that I was being a bad Christian. Looking back on it, I think that it only made me a stronger Christian by allowing me to practice the ideals and morals of Christianity without all those weekly reminders of actually being at church. I do admit that it would have been nice to keep up my practice of attending church services on a weekly basis and maybe even get involved with choir or something extra like that. However, I just can not stand the practice of having people force their traditions on me like I experienced when I went down to school. It's not even forcing religion on a person, it's forcing all the extra stuff. I can understand individuals who are really "into" their religion and they want to talk about it and study it and all that...but it's the people who are forcing the other parts of going to church that really irk me. So what if I don't want to run the youth group barbeque, play organ for the church services, and mow the pastor's lawn...maybe I just want to come and worship and learn. I guess that that is just not a possibility in some places...but people in those places need to know that their overzealousness is turning more people away than it is bringing them in.
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Is it just me, or is it a little bit strange that at some places it is no longer required that we sign receipts for our credit card purchases? I think the thing that really gets me is that you don't have to sign at some places or for some purchases, but then you do have to sign for others. What's the deal with that? Who makes that determination, and if it's possible for there to be no-sign credit card receipts, why aren't all businesses taking advantage of it? I can totally understand a distinction that I recall some store clerk explaining to me at a local chain restaurant that serves relatively fast-food-ish type of fare. The clerk explained that it is not necessary to sign credit card receipts (at least at that store) unless the total purchase exceeds twenty-five dollars. OK, that sounds reasonable...but I would just like to know, as a paying customer, what the system is all about. I wonder if it's the fact that when we sign our credit card receipts, we're technically signing our name to some agreement that says that we have to pay for what we're buying. I mean, that's pretty common sense, but have you ever taken the time to look up exactly what the "cardholder payment agreement" says? I sure haven't. It's just one of those things that has always been there, and we just have known to sign it. I've heard of cases where servers have gotten into tremendous trouble at restaurants if they don't make sure that their customers sign the cardholder payment agreement. I wonder if that means that the customer can't actually be charged?...which doesn't make much sense since they've already technically run the card right? Hmmm...life's little credit card mysteries keep getting shadier and shadier. So yeah, I'm digressing a little bit, so back to the question at hand. Who makes the rules about if and for how much of a purchase we have to sign the credit card receipts. It almost feels a little bit awkward not to have to sign a credit card receipt. I mean, I suppose that when I am handed a receipt to sign, that means that I am only being charged for that amount...the amount that I am "agreeing" to pay by signing that agreement. If I don't get a credit card draft receipt, how do I know that that is the amount. I mean sure, we can always have a regular receipt, but in a vast number of places, the machine that runs the credit cards for purchases is a separate entity from the cash register or computer. I guess that I would feel a little bit better signing my receipt, no matter how small the purchase is. It may seem like a hassle to sign a credit card receipt for that can of soda that you bought with your card since you didn't have any cash on you. But, at least you know that that dollar and change is what you're being charged. Ahh, there I go again, sounding old fashioned and conservative, and we all know that I'm really not. I guess that deep down, I actually enjoy the fact that I don't have to sign. It's one less thing to do, and it's environmentally conscious too. I hadn't really thought about that either. Well then, I guess I should stop overthinking and pondering too long and hard on the problem, since it is saving me a few seconds for my transactions, and it's saving a tree. That just makes me think of those advertisements that come up all over the place explaining how all the little things add up to make something big. So, OK, how much time in a year do you think we save by not signing credit card receipts, and also how many trees are we saving as well. Yes, these are the kinds of questions that keep me occupied during the day. I'd love to hear your thoughts, just for fun!
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Yeah, speaking of motivation...I seem to have very little of it the past few days. Having just returned from my longest Christmas holiday break in six years, I'm finding it hard to get back into the swing of things. Being productive has not been my strongest suit since I've gotten back home, and it's making me a little anxious. Why is that, you ask? Because I'm always productive...usually so productive that I get things done about a week in advance. I think though that the problem with my productivity right now is that I don't exactly have anything pressing that I'm supposed to be doing. The Spring semester does not start up again for over a week, there is a holiday coming along here in a few days, and I have a nice quiet town and house to sit in all by myself. The internet and the television are really the ones getting the majority of my attention since I've returned home. What about all of you out there? Are you having the same type of problems rebounding in productivity after the Christmas holiday? I guess that back when I was working full time, rather than going to school, I didn't really have much of a problem with this rebound period. Rather than taking a full ten days off to visit home, and having a week ahead and a week afterwards flanking my trip, the Christmas holiday was just something that got thrown into my calendar where I left town for the weekend or perhaps four days at the most. It felt just like an extra day off rather than a month-long period where I can do whatever I want to, whenever I want to. Such a strange change to get accustomed to. I would imagine that any of you reading this who are students are probably feeling the same way that I am. Well, let me rephrase...those of you out there who have a problem sitting back and relaxing like I do are probably getting that little pang of anxiety about sitting around for another week (or more) before classes and all the craziness that surround them get started back up again. The others of you who aren't in school and have your normal daily routine that you have already returned to are probably thinking that I'm a little bit crazy. I'm sure that an extended vacation period to sit around and do nothing sounds like a fabulous idea to all of you. It's true...we always seem to want what we don't have, right? During the semester I keep thinking how nice it would be to have a vacation, but then during my vacation I can't wait to get back to the semester to start new classes. It's nice though for those of you who are working full time or at least have a holiday job. You can spend your vacation leisurely in the evenings and on the weekends while still keeping yourself occupied and making some good money during the day at your job. Good ole making money...and a good thing too after the holidays. Of course, I don't need to go into my feelings on turning over the new leaf of saving after the holidays since you can just click back to my last post to read about it. It's funny how no matter what is going on, money can always manage to weasle itself into every situation and every conversation. I guess that's because it's something that we all need and we all have to think about on a regular basis. Ah well, here's to hoping that I can find something to motivate myself for the rest of the day...and the rest of my holiday break. Call me crazy, but I'll be excited for classes to get started on January the 8th!
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With the Christmas holiday officially done and over with, how is it that we can possibly manage to rebound from months of spending (probably overspending) into the New Year where we need to start saving our money again? My guess is that it will not be an easy task to undertake. I know from my own personal experience that when you get into that pesky habit of just whipping out the credit card or debit card multiple times a day for various purchases, it just starts to become like second nature. It almost seems like that is what we are supposed to be doing all the time. Of course we know that this isn't true at all, but like all habits (good ones or bad ones) spending too much money is a difficult one to break. Yes, it may seem a whole lot more simple to just be able to walk through the mall or head to the shops downtown and spot something perfect to buy, whether for ourselves or for those on our Christmas shopping lists, and then just go ahead and buy it. That's all well and good at Christmas time or even to splurge a little bit for our loved ones' birthdays, but let's face it...most of the rest of the year we need to be very careful about how much spending we're doing from month to month, or even in some cases week to week. I've personally never been one to make a budget. Heck, I've had a checking account since the day I turned sixteen years old, and I've never even made a single entry into the register. That's ten whole years of successful finances without really monitoring day to day what I've got in the account. I suppose that the only way that I was really able to handle my finances in such a way has been with the help of automated banking services and the internet. Rather than saving every single receipt that I get when I use my debit card and forcing myself to sit down and write all my one and two dollar purchases for a can of soda here and an iced coffee there, I just make sure that I check in to my online banking account to see where I stand a few times a week. If you haven't yet taken advantage of your bank's online savings and checking account capabilities, you should really look into it. Just like with everything else, banking is moving in (or has been moving in) the direction of technology. You can really miss out if you're one of the few people who has been left behind. So, I guess that I should get back to my point. What is it that is going to motivate us to switch to "saving mode" now that the holiday season has ended? I suppose that if we really want to look past the immediate future, we can use the next year's holiday season for motivation. In order for us to have the financial means to make it through next year's holiday (air travel, gifts, donations, etc.) we need to start thinking about saving up now. I apologize if the non-procrastinator in me is coming out, but I really do fall into this category of planning way ahead...ya know, since I really have never procrastinated a day in my life. But, if you're not into looking ahead by 365 days, what then? I suppose that we need to find motivation for saving in all the little unplanned (or unbudgeted) expenses that we encounter throughout the year. We know that we have the lease/mortgage payment, the car payment, utilities, cell phone, and various types of insurance payments that we need to account for in our monthly spending, but things like food, entertainment, household upkeep, etc. are more difficult to budget out. Of course, if you have children to care for, it's a whole other ballgame. I'm all about children, and I can't wait to have a few of my own...but gosh, they are expensive! The expenses that your children will rack up over the next year should be a very strong motivator to start saving again if you ask me. Who knows how many times you'll have to head up to the mall or the department store for new clothes alone, since it's very true that kids grow like weeds. Why not drop me a comment and let me know if you have any special motivators that help get you back into the spirit of saving rather than spending. Your input, as always, is greatly appreciated and very welcome.
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After having just recently completed my Christmas holiday traveling for the year, I have to admit that I was extremely appalled at the amount of money that the whole flying to and from travel really takes. Not only are we being bled dry in order to pay for our round trip flights, but we are also forced to spent a whole heap of money in order to make the rest of the trip bearable. Right down to every minute detail, the airlines and the airports have us paying dearly for every single minute convenience that we probably didn't even realize that we were taking for granted in the past. It starts right when we pull into the airport. Now that we can no longer park our cars for a few moments to unload our belongings before our flights, it has become necessary for whoever it is that volunteered to bring us to the airport to go and park the car in the garage at ever-increasing prices per hour. Long gone are the days when the first twenty minutes in a garage are free. Now, at least at the airport I was flying out of, the first twenty minutes can cost around two dollars. Things only go downhill from there of course. If you are one of the brave few who decides to brave the curbside "jump and run", you've next got to deal with skycaps. Skycaps, I have learned, are now rarely employed by the airline with which they are associated. At many airports across the United States, skycaps are now employed by outside agencies, and thus operate on a payment scheme much akin to waiters and waitresses. They work for some abhorent hourly amount, and the remainder of their pay is what they make in tips. Therefore, it's only necessary that we have to tip them, or else we're stuck waiting in the ticket line with all our baggage...not a fun thing at holiday time. There are the usual "extras" involved with traveling, such as paying extra for overweight baggage and the fees associated with upgraded your status to a first-class seat from coach, but recently additional expenses have begun to creep in. We all know that the airline industry has been suffering terribly since the 9/11 tragedies, and as a result, we're feeling the brunt of their financial difficulties. Complimentary in-flight cabin services have been reduced to a minimum, and I've heard that some airlines only offer small warm bottles of water on some flights. Still other airlines offer a "limited" beverage service that consists of cola, diet cola, water, and a bag of mysterious trail mix. On longer flights where you might feel a twinge of hunger along the way, you can now purchase a meal, whereas they had previously been supplied. There is truly nothing like paying eight dollars for a half sandwich, a stale cookie, and a small block of cheese with a name that you've never heard of. If you're lucky enough to be on a cross continental domestic flight on an aircraft that has satellite television, you are more than welcome to watch shows and movies or listen to music at your heart's content...but first, you need to fork over five dollars for a pair of low-quality uncomfortable earbuds to plug into your armrest. The airlines like to justify this charge by suggesting that you hold onto those easily broken plastic earbuds for your next flight...yeah right! The final and probably most annoying new way that the airlines are sticking it to the general public is with the new restrictions on bringing certain foods, liquids, and other gels and lotions on planes. Sure, we're allowed to bring on any liquid and lotion that we want...as long as we haven't brought it from home. That has surely not deterred the airports from opening countless boutiques and supplying tons of beverage machines in each terminal that charge skyrocketing prices for things that would cost one-third of the price in any local grocery store. Alas, air travel has its ups and downs...no pun intended, of course. It is still the fastest and most convenient way to get from here to there the majority of the time. Although the airline industry has suffered significantly in recent years, we still keep coming back for more, since it's a much better alternative to driving ourselves across the country or wherever it is that we're heading. So, I guess my point here is that we need to make sure we're saving our hard-earned money for all those little air travels extras that come along with paying for our already way-too-overpriced plane tickets.
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Most of the time during our childhood, when we need something that costs some money, we can usually count on mom and dad (or probably grandma and grandpa) to get what we need without too much fuss. Sure, they can't really spoil us too badly, so they have to monitor what it is that they buy for us, because after all, we are spending their extra money, right? Eventually, when we finally reach our teenage years, we become tired of running to our parents every time we want something, and besides, it seems like the answer "no" is coming more frequently anyways. We start feeling that nagging bite that tells us that we need to have a way to make money of our own and begin to exercise some degree of financial freedom. Lucky for us, there are plenty of little jobs available in this day and age for junior high school and high school students who are looking to make some extra money after school lets out in the afternoon and on the weekends. I thought about writing this post just this morning after my father and I went out to a little "mom and pop" diner for breakfast. With the day after Christmas rush in full swing, the diner was packed to capacity, with the waitresses trying to serve quickly all the folks who were cramming into the booths and tables. I happened to notice two young kids, probably just sixteen who were floating around from the dining area to the kitchen bussing tables. It just made me think of the many different places where kids of that age can get a job and make a few extra bucks so they can do things like buy their video games, go out to see a movie with friends, or even buy their little boyfriend or girlfriend something nice for Christmas. I remember that when I turned sixteen, I got a job for a short time working in a family-owned store as well. I was a piano player, and a friend of the family owned a piano and organ store in one of our local malls. I would drive up to the mall on Friday evenings and Sundays all day and work at the piano store. As you can probably imagine, a piano store isn't that busy, so I would have the opportunity to either sit behind the counter and do homework or play the piano to my heart's content. I usually chose to do the latter, and it was a great deal. Eventually, I got a little bit annoyed with the lack of hours when the summertime approached, so I decided to apply for a job working at our Old Navy. I ended up working there for quite some time, and the job was great. I had great hours, the people were nice, I got a great discount, and I learned a lot. I worked their for the remainder of high school, and then ended up working at another retail store during my first two years of college. The best part about working though, was that I finally was able to have a regular paycheck rolling in each week, and that meant that I actually had some cash flowing into the checking account that my father made me open when I turned sixteen. I guess that I could have spent the money, but I'm more of a "saver". I prefer to save up my money to buy one really nice thing, rather than piddle away my savings on a bunch of little insignificant stuff. I guess that I'm still pretty much like this today. So yes, the moral of my story (if you can call it that), is that encouraging your children to seek employment, if only something one day a week for a few hours, is going to do wonders for both of you. It will probably do more good for your son or daughter than it will for you, because they will begin to learn about financial freedom and what getting a paycheck, and then what it's like to save and/or spend their money. And maybe...just maybe...they will have some more respect for all the money that you have shelled out to them for various things over the years. They won't admit that respect of course, until many years later, but I promise that it will sink in eventually.
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I know that we spend a lot of time in my blog talking about financial things and especially about Christian businesses, but I think that it's probably appropriate that we take a post to talk about what's important today...our celebration of Christmas. Christmas means a lot of things to a lot of different people, although underlyingly we're all celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ and all the amazing things that surrounded this occurrence. Come to think of it, there were even some financial things happening on Christmas day, right? Those three wise men didn't come bearing just any old gifts. Frankensence, gold, and myhrr...sounds like money to me! All that financial stuff aside, Christmas is one of my favorite holidays of the year, because I get to spend it at home with my family. Sure, families change over time with births, deaths, marriages, divorces, etc., but most things tend to stay the same. In my family in particular, there have been a lot of changes over the past few years, but we still have managed to plan our Christmas celebration around the same activities and traditions as in years past. I usually tend to arrive back in my hometown just as the real hubbub of the approaching holiday is beginning. I end up getting thrown into a flurry of last minute giftwrapping, frosting of Christmas cookies, trips to the mall for those last few gifts, and even some final decorating of the house. I really do enjoy the hustle and bustle of things, especially when we can all sit down on Christmas eve and Christmas day and relax while enjoying everyone else's company. The continuity of seeing most of the same family and friends each year, sitting on our same spots at dinner and while opening gifts, and eating the same foods that each person in the family is "famous" for making is really very comforting. I know that my grandmother will always make baked ziti, meatballs, and chicken soup, and my one aunt will make brownies, while the other will bring lots of Italian Christmas cookies. My brother and I will always have a "rusty nail", scotch and drambuie, in honor of my grandfather. These are only a few of the traditions and regular happenings that I can count on occurring each year when I return home for Christmas break. The great thing about traditions though, is that they can change slightly from year to year, altered by changes that may occur within the family in any given year. With all that said, I hope that you are all warm and cozy at home enjoying your Christmas celebration with your families and other loved ones. And while all the presents and hubbub at Christmas time is great, don't forget why we celebrate Christmas as we do. Each part of our Christmas celebration comes to us from some variation on one of the historical happenings surrounding Jesus's birth. It's easy to overlook these happenings when we get into our Christmas routines...but it's increasingly important for us to count our blessings and remember the true meaning of Christmas and pass on what it means to each of us to others. Merry Christmas everyone!
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What ever happened to the toys that we used to get when we were children? I remember Christmases where I would get some He-Man action figures, Voltrons, Legos, and maybe a Nintendo game. Nowadays, kids are getting some pretty crazy things that I could never have imagined receiving as a gift when I was in elementary or middle school. Sure, there are still plenty of videos games and computer games. There are also countless actions figures, dolls, and even toy guns...although the toys were far better quality when we were kids. What about those special kind of "grown up" presents that we used to receive when we were kids. All the little girls wanted an easy-bake oven and a play kitchen, whereas most of the little boys wanted one of those toy cars that you plug in and charge and then you can actually get in and drive them around the yard. You'd be pretty surprised at what some of these "grown up" toys are for kids these days. I happen to have eight little children in my family, all between the ages of two and seven. My second cousins on my mom's side just had a bunch of kids all at once, so there are plenty of little ones running around at Christmas time with their new toys delivered by Santa Claus. I happened to notice that there was a really interesting and very grown up present among those sitting in their grandparent's living room...a make-believe automatic teller machine...that's right, these kids have their very own ATM. I'm all about teaching children about financial responsibility, but an ATM at age five is overdoing it a little bit...at least in my opinion. So these play ATM machines comes with money, credit and debit cards, and even receipts. The kids learn how to go up to the machine, insert their play credit card, type in their pin number, and finally receive their cash. That's pretty high-tech for a five year old. I think that I might have had a toy cash register with big fat toy coins when I was a kid...but nothing as fancy as an ATM. What exactly is a make believe ATM for Christmas teaching today's generation of kids though? Is it teaching them financial responsibility, or is it teaching them to be spending freaks at a young age? I mean, I guess I might be a little bit old fashioned at my ripe age of 26, but the sooner these kids get used to having a "pretend" debit card of their own, the sooner they will want a real one. Well, I suppose that to put it in perspective, we can take the presence of cellular phones these days. I didn't have a cell phone until I was twenty years old and could afford the monthly payment and related fees on my own. I was in my sophomore year of college by then. Take today, where all my first cousins, the youngest of whom is eleven years old has her very own cell phone. Talk about growing up quickly! Do kids at that age really have the responsibility and the financial know-how to grasp having such things at a young age? Sure, the ATM machine is a toy, but a cell phone is a real thing. Real overages, real text messages, and real weirdos making wrong number phone calls. I really have never thought of myself as old-fashioned, but I don't know how comfortable I'd feel with letting my kids have such things before they can really understand "how" they work.
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Since I've come home to a relatively big city for the Christmas break, I've had the opportunity to venture into the city to a real shopping mall to do some of my final Christmas gift shopping before it's time to wrap things up and give gifts to my friends and family on Christmas eve. Each year, I am amazed at how many people are storming the malls within the last few days before Christmas, not to finish up their gift shopping, but to begin it. Call me crazy, but Christmas gift shopping is not one of those things that I could ever amazing procrastinating about. If you don't start early, how can you even be sure that you will find something appropriate and perfect for each person on your holiday shopping list? Heaven-forbid that we run out of time or effort and end up getting almost everyone on our list a mall gift certificate. That isn't exactly a gift that comes from the heart. Personally, I usually start my Christmas gift shopping before Thanksgiving. I know that typically the really great sales tend to start on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. Then, however, the malls are packed by 6 o'clock in the morning, and by the time noon rolls around, all the good items have been picked over. I prefer to take advantage of the other great sales that happen throughout typical shopping months. There are always great coupon offers that you can find on the internet, as well as a host of other semi-annual sales at any given department store, outlet, or boutique. By taking advantage of these sales, you get things done ahead of time so that you don't have to brave the malls in the crazy shopping month between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I tend to avoid the mall like the plague during the last few days before Christmas. I would much rather spend my holiday break hanging out with my friends and family, than sitting stuck in traffic outside the mall or following people trying to find a parking spot within a half mile of the mall entrance. I suppose that there will always be last minute shoppers, but if people would space out their shopping over a few months rather than a few days, I think that we would all benefit from a little bit more holiday cheer and a lot less holiday stress. I actually ended going to the mall today in hopes of buying one final gift. I always like to get a little extra something special for my mother, depending on the hints that she might have dropped about what she would like for Christmas since the time that I actually get back home. I got a few ideas from talking with her the past few days, and I decided to brave our city's largest mall and see what I could find. I took a good friend of mine along with me, just to help me share the burden of busy streets, cranky shoppers, and elbow-to-elbow crowds. I ended up finding the perfect little "extra" gift pretty quickly and with minimal hassle. A quick swipe of the credit card and thirty minutes in traffic later, and I was home and ready to wrap my final gift and put it under the Christmas tree with the others. I glad to have all my shopping finished, and I'm even excited to see when the wrapping paper comes off of the gifts that I've purchased to see how everyone likes what I've gotten for them. I'll be doing my best to keep posting over the new few busy busy busy days of the Christmas holiday. I hope that you will have a chance to have a few relaxing moments to visit Biblekeeper and check out my blog while you're in your respective places celebrating the Christmas holiday with your friends and loved ones. Have a safe and happy Christmas weekend!
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A few days back, I suggested a great way to save some holiday money by looking into getting some new family cellular phone plans. As I was sitting around later that day, I was trying to come up with some other great holiday money-saving ideas. I happened to think of something that I was doing myself in order to save money on my graduate student budget. This year, I decided to take advantage of some of my creativity and come up with some semi-homemade gifts for my many cousins. A friend of mine works at a local fabric store, and she makes her own handbags of pretty nice quality. She and I were talking, and I asked her about how much effort, time, and money goes into making a single handbag like the ones that she makes. As it turns out, it is a fairly inexpensive venture, and one that just takes a little bit of time, effort, and know-how. She suggested that if I wanted to go about and make some bags for my cousins, that she would use her discount to buy the fabric and then assist me in making the gifts. Not a bad idea! I was able to go to the store and pick out personalized fabric combinations for each individual bag that I thought that each of my cousins would like. My friend showed me how to cut the patterns and fabric and pin, and then she sewed everything for me. We made an afternoon out of it and it was a lot of fun...most importantly it was inexpensive! As you can see, with a little bit of creativity and effort on your part, you can come up with fun and interesting holiday gifts without going out of your way and spending a whole ton of money. It's also a rewarding experience to really get in there and make something by hand so that you can appreciate the process. It's also pretty impressive to the gift-receiver to know that you put in that extra personal touch to make each of their gift's special in it's own way. If you don't have some kind of "discount" connection for something that you would like to give as a gift, you can always go a little bit more simple. My aunt, being the creative person that she is, decided that she would add a little bit of extra Christmas fun to our gift bags by making personalized Christmas ornaments. For just a few dollars, she went out to our local craft store and purchased a box of shiny red Christmas tree ornaments, some holiday-colored ribbon, and a glitter pen. Total cost, under ten dollars. She took each Christmas tree ornament, removed the metal hook, and then tied on a piece of the holiday ribbon in a bow. She then used the silver glitter pen to write each person's name on the ornament in a calligraphy script. The end product...a fancy, holiday-inspire, inexpensive gift that is personalized for each gift-receiver. Yet another great way to save time and money while still including a personal touch on the gift for each person on your Christmas list. These are, of course, only a few ideas for creative yet fun ways to make Christmas gifts without breaking the bank. The possibilities are pretty much endless, and they are only bounded by your own personality and time. I've shared my holiday gift-giving ideas with you, and I think it would be great if you wanted to leave some comments or suggestions about the types of personalized gifts that you like to give at the holidays. It's always fun to hear from others all over the country about great ways to save money while still filling those on your Christmas gifts with plenty of holiday cheer.
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It seems that just about every business establishment that you walk into this time of year has made some effort to put up some festive decorations, some twinkling Christmas lights, and even maybe a Christmas tree. Business owners know that the majority of their customer base (and the majority of people in America) identify themselves with Christianity and therefore celebrate the Christmas holiday to some extent. Because Christians make up such a large proportion of the customers in most businesses, the business owners are drawing in their Christian customers and making them feel like the holiday spirit is alive and thriving in that particular business. I mean seriously, say that you're walking down the street and you come to two stores right across the street from one another who can offer you essentially the exact same product or service that you are looking for. You glance from one to the other and see that the one on your right hand side is decorated with festive Christmas garland and lights. Glancing to the left hand side, you notice the other business with the regular old facade, with no evidence of holiday preparations. Which business are you going to choose? Christian or not, I would place my bet that anyone would head off to the right and visit the more festive-looking business. Curbside appeal is what it's all about, whether you're trying to sell your product or trying to sell real estate. I suppose that these decorations show potential customers that you are taking an extra effort to win their business...so why not give it to them?! Sometimes though, in an effort to be politically correct, businesses tend to go a little bit overboard with the holiday decorations. Rather than putting up a few lights or other holiday decorations, they start to merge religions and cultures and end up setting up decorations for Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, and who knows what else. Believe me that I'm surely one for religious acceptance, and I think that it's great to remember that there are other individuals out there who don't celebrate the Christmas holiday, but there ends up being a very fine line between being politically correct and being a little obsessive compulsive. A simple Christmas tree display shares the holiday spirit, as does a single menorah sitting on display. Decking out half the office in red, white, and green...and the other half in blue and gold just ends up screaming overkill. Even more amusing is a situation that I ran into just today as I was out running some final Christmas shopping errands with my grandmother. She was off to buy manicure gift certificates for my three young female cousins at our local strip mall nail salon. It was completely obvious that the owners and employees of the salon were all of southeast Asian descent, and my best guess was that they were Vietnamese. They had a display of idols from their chosen religion displayed, but off to the side. Out in the front, and draping the walls, the small salon was replete with Christmas decorations. There were wreaths, garlands, lights, and several small Christmas trees. All the employees even wore Santa Claus hats. This is a great example of overdoing it at the holidays. This business totally outdid the necessary holiday decorations and even denied their own cultural heritage in order to play to their customer base. I suppose that this might have potentially made them some extra money, but I wonder if it was really worth the effort of placing one's own beliefs to the side. I wonder how many Christian businesses take the effort to find out when the holidays of other cultural groups fall and then find the appropriate decorations to adorn their offices. My guess is that you won't find a single one.
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I'm sure that you've all noticed that just about everyone and their grandmother has a cellular phone these days. Most people seem to have their phones permanently glued to their ear, whether walking down the street, sitting at home, standing in line, or driving the car. Can you imagine the business killing that the cellular phone companies make each and every day in order to support such a nationwide demand for instant communication? I know that I'm surely guilty of having my cell phone with me at all times, but I am not one of the types of people who is constantly talking or text messaging all day long. You may not have noticed though, that some of the cellular companies have been slowly reworking their respective cell phone plans in order to provide more minutes, better coverage, and slightly better prices for accounts that carry more than one phone number. These plans allow families, friends, and other relatives to subscribe to the same service on the same monthly plan. That way, people who are members of the "in-group" can place free calls to one another, as well as free mobile to mobile calls to other individuals who use the same service. This is a great way to save money and minutes on your cell phone plan by taking advantage of these opportunities to call those people who you talk to the most for free. I can speak from personal experience that these new family talk plans can end up saving you a whole lot of money, even right off the bat. When I moved across the country from Florida to Indiana, my roommate and I decided to save ourselves a little bit (but actually a lot) of money each month by combining our cellular phone plans into one single plan. We went from paying over one hundred dollars each month combined for two different plans from two different cellular providers, to paying just under sixty dollars each month with a family talk plan. Just for a nice round number, we are saving about fifty dollars each month just for having this particular plan. What is more, the new plan offers us both more minutes, we can call each other and anyone else who uses our same provider for free. If you are in the market for saving fifty dollars a month, I would suggest that you take a drive down to your local cell phone store and find out what kinds of deals they can offer you. I know that I can think of plenty of great things to spend and extra fifty dollars a month on...that's for sure. That's a week's worth of groceries, a great night out with friends, or even a very generous donation to your favorite charitable organization. Goodness knows that chartiable organizations can find plenty of ways to stretch a fifty dollar donation, especially during the holiday season. Fifty dollars can probably go towards feeding thirty or forty people at your local food pantry or homeless shelter. Why not do yourself a favor and look for a great cell phone deal to save some money, and then take the spoils and donate it to those less fortunate during the holiday season. I'll bet you end up feeling like that fifty dollars was a million dollars when you see all the good that it can do for others.
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