Are You Ready for Christmas Update

Christmas is approaching rapidly. According to http://www.xmasclock.com/, there are 68 days until Christmas! Eek!

The last time I posted on this topic was near the end of August. If you want to refresh your memory or you didn't see the post, you can go to it here-http://thewhollyholly.blogspot.com/2013/08/are-you-ready-for-christmas.html.

My main focus was earning money that I would be earmarking just for Christmas spending. I do not have credit cards to fall back on when I have a budget shortfall so planning ahead is the key to success for me. ; )

A short while ago, I got an email from Amazon.com that I was given a $10.00 gift card. I received it by doing a survey for Math-U-See and being entered for a gift card drawing. Just a bit before that I traded in a book to Amazon and earned $10.44 on my gift card balance. So, with this recent gift card, I am now up to $20.00 in my account. This is enough to purchase at least one nice gift for someone on my list or a few gifts if I find really great deals! I also have an Amazon shopping portal right here on my blog. Folks can buy through Amazon just as they always do but enter through the "door" on my site and I earn a little bit of money. I have loaded my store with items I recommend but those are not the only items someone can buy through that portal.

I am also listing items on Listia to earn credits. I can use the Listia credits I earn to get all kinds of items later on. I will save my credits until closer to Christmas to use for Christmas shopping. You can sign up to trade/give away items there too. If you sign up using my link  (https://www.listia.com/signup/4087751) , both you and I will earn FREE credits that we can use to get items for those folks on our gift lists. Recently, my husband used 55,000 credits he had amassed giving away seeds from our garden plants to get me some much needed and desired skin care products. Christmas came early for me!

I participate in another cool website called Moolala where I can purchase very cool deals and refer these deals to other folks. Everyone on Moolala has the opportunity to build a paymatrix when people sign up under them. I have earned $21.00 so far from my group. Give it a try and see if it is worthwhile for you too. Just cut and paste this code (http://whollyholly.moolala.com?pid=M7TVP75&cid=VND5J9J) into your web browser and give it a try!

These various ventures do not take an expenditure of money on my part but they do require some of my time. I have a little Acer netbook that I take everywhere I go, so that when I am waiting for one of my sons somewhere that has free wifi, I can be productive on these different earning ventures. If I can do this without having an Internet connection at home, just think what those of you with the Internet can do to earn needed funds.

Another thing I do to get ready for Christmas is to begin to purchase holiday food items a little bit at a time the last three or four months of the year and right after the holidays if they have a long enough shelf life. I have several bags of brown sugar in stock that I purchased at $1.00 per bag on clearance. The brown sugar is good through the middle of 2014. I also have gingerbread mix that I purchased for $1.00 a box that is good until January 2014. I have cans of mandarin oranges and pineapple chunks also stored for holiday Ambrosia salad. I can look forward confidently to my Thanksgiving and Christmas cooking and baking with a stocked pantry.

And finally, I purchase nifty gifts all year that I see at good prices. A couple years ago, my local grocery superstore had women's fashion scarves marked down to $1.00 each from the original $8.00! I bought 15 scarves and was able to give seven gifts of two pretty scarves. Another time I went into a Walgreen's and found really nice scented candles in jars marked down to $2.00 each (originally $9.99). Such gifts are great for many gift giving occasions and do not break my limited budget. A little advance planning and watchfulness gives such peace of mind!

How are you doing at getting ready for Christmas giving or other gift giving seasons?