All we seem to hear about in the news lately is credit crunch, businesses failing, banks suffering, how to cope with the pressure of Christmas on a shoe string etc etc. It hits home when in one business 2 people are made redundant and everyone else must take a 10% pay cut from Jan 01 2009 (not where i work, but someone close to me.). I was chatting about this with a work colleague, who seems to think because we work in a Nursery we will all be ok. She cannot see that if parents are made redundant the first thing to go will be the childcare..so we lose the children and so on until we are over staffed and we all know what comes next. I have often wondered how my place of work has such a sharp turn around of staff. Having been there just over 2 years i have seen 20+ people come and go. I have questioned it privately. But only now am i glad that so many have left and moved on. It means that i am one of the longer serving workers and therefore i won't be one of the first out. Selfish, yes. Self preservating, yes. But no, it does not stop the worry.
Then i got to thinking about Christmas and coping with the family. So i have come up with a list of gift ideas that will work for me!!
1.My children will have their usual allowance spent on them.As we saved for that!
2.Rich and I are NOT buying for each other, not a thing..we want a new house
next year so we agreed on this!!
3.Nieces and Nephews..are all getting Books..3 for 2 offers everywhere.
Makes sense to me!!
4.Sisters / Brothers ect ect..The classic "photo in a frame!" and maybe some wine!
5.Parents - Photo in a frame and i am splurging getting books made for them!
6. Other children (friends of family) home made cards, gift vouchers for
sleepovers with the kids!
7.Friends - photo in a frame (so versatile!!) and vouchers for babysitting!So hopefully it wont break the bank this year and we can enter 2009 even if not in credit!! We have collected our store points (Nectar vouchers) all year so they will pay for the Christmas food, Turkey etc etc!
Some of the Christmas cards to put home made vouchers in for Christmas this year.
6 comments:
Good for you, getting your plans and finances together for the holiday season. We've been simplifying our Christmas over the past few years because of our moves and the challenge and expense of getting gifts to all the places they need to go--and in the doing, found that Christmas was far less stressful and expensive when we streamlined things--
Blessings!
Yes, it's so good to have a plan. We too are downsizing. I have bought with coupons over the last month so we're hoping to keep it simple. You have some great ideas there and yes I agree, can't go wrong with books!
Photos in frames, books, hand made cards, vouchers for babysitting are all fabulous ideas for gifts.
What I love about Christmas is I get to see/speak to friends and family that I don't connect with often enough during the year.
Peggy
Great ideas! We are planning a lot of homemade items this year, and each year instead of gifts for each other, hubs and I buy one item together for us or for the house.
Love your ideas... they are so appropriate in these times. My sister's hubby just lost his job. Things are tough. Those are perfect gifts.
Great plan and some great gift ideas! We are doing a lot of the same things. I have been saving my Discover card points and getting Shutterfly gift cards so most family members are getting photo items from there ;) And your cards looke WONDERFUL!!!
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