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The Mrs. and I took advantage of an opportunity and got away for our wedding anniversary this year. Destination: Chicago. We had a great time, despite missing the kids. While there, I began to ponder, "just how 'not the jet set' is this vacation?"

In some ways, it easily qualified. Other had me feeling decidedly jet-set. I thought it best to do a rundown of our vacation and decide it point by point.



((Mind the giant gap, not sure what happened))

Everyone always talks about the fringe benefits of dieting like extra energy, sleep better, etc. Well what about the fringe benefits of a debt diet? After having our own debt diet and helping lots of other family does the same we have found that there are lots of fringe benefits.

Some are easy to assume others came as a surprise. Here are some of those great fringe benefits you can expect to see:

• Lose Weight- If you first thought is that I'm saying to starve yourself you are wrong. We found that by not eating out we saved more then money, we saved on calories as well.
• Better Marriage- There is something magical about agreeing on a budget it. It some how makes life with your spouse so much easier. Maybe it's magic, maybe it has to do with agreeing to your spending in advance. You can make your own decision.
• Peace- There is a peace that you feel when you take control of your own life. There is nothing peaceful about uncontrolled spending. In fact, it steals your peace and sense of security.
• More Time- With less stress, less fighting, less eating you, less time shopping something else wonderful happens. You get your life back! You manage to find the time to do the things that are important to you.
• Give More- It's a great feeling to give. To give your time, your talent, and your treasure. It's a lot easier to do that without the extra weight of debt.
• Cleaner House- After you get done selling everything you don't need to help pay off your debt you have a whole lot less to clean. And trust me, you will not miss the mess!

That is what I'm afraid some houses will look like thanks to the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA). A quick summary of this act is that it will force all items made for children 12 years and younger to be sold in the USA to meet a set of standards. This is a good thing, except that they are making the makers pay for all the testing. This will likely put all small and medium sized companies out of business, except for the large companies that make cheap plastic stuff in countries like China. Why? They have a larger profit margin to work with and produce mass quanities of the same toys and disposible diapers.

For people like us it means we will not have a Christmas tree with wooden toys underneath. Our kids will not have the safe toys made by a dad in Texas in his own little "Santa's workshop". It means that I can no longer buy my favorite cloth diapers made by a stay a home mom in her sewing room. This is not the world I want to raise my kids in.

I've signed the petition and sent the letters. I'm asking you to do the same. Please help to save future Christmas for the next generation. For more information please visit the Homemade Toy Alliance's website. They have great details, sample letter, and the petition to sign.

Once you've done your part post here!

Today I'm posting the last of our Thrifty Christmas series. I have been having a lot of fun writing these posts and revisiting some of my fondest memories. I've also seen lots of great ideas on the web. That is why I've decided to make this last post a round up post.

What were my favorite online finds?

• The Toby Show had a wonderful post on Stocking Stuffers. These ideas didn't break the bank and were good for the environment.


• Paula's Ponderings has a great post on how to make a Christmas ornament out shaped like a tree out of paper. These look like a fun project!


• Green Mesh had a neat short video clip about showing a govern's mansion being decorated for Christmas on a budget. I liked the idea of using natural items to decorate.


• MaryAnne from Thrifty Crafty Mama posted a great idea for a kid's craft project. What grandma wouldn't love to have this tree hanging on their fridge?
  

These were just four of my favorite Christmas posts from this year. What are your favorites? Feel free to leave links to your favorite posts.

Earlier today I was thinking about all the fun things we did in our family for Christmas. Some of them were thrifty some of them not so much. But either way, we did have a lot of fun during the Christmas season.

Here are some of the fun things I remember doing as a child that did not cost a lot of money.

• We would sting popcorn for our tree.
• We would all help with making and decorating the cookies.
• Christmas Eve we would watch holiday movies, play games and eat lots of homemade goodies until it was time to leave for Midnight Mass.
• Play in the snow (a lot) with our cousins.
• Help wrap gifts.
• Go ice skating.
• Read lots of Christmas themed books while eating popcorn.
• Cuddling by the fire.

I hope that some of these ideas help to give your family the same warm memories I have from my childhood.

What are some of the traditions that you hope to carry on with your own kids, grandchildren or nieces/nephews?

Did you like the last tip but don't have the time or the money? If that's the case then this next thrifty Christmas idea might be for you!

The best gift I have ever received was the cutest homemade gift certificates from my husband and daughter. This is a great idea for a cheap gift for your spouse. It can be as practical or romantic as you would like it to be. There is nothing better then redeeming a gift card for a foot massage or a week free of laundry duty.

What are your favorite free gifts?

I have a bright idea to share today! Everyone loves to share the Christmas cheer. Some people, like my husband, love to share the cheer through outside Christmas lights. While that might not sound to frugal to some we do try to make it as frugal as possible.

Mr. NtJS uses outside timers to help save on the electric bill. He sets the timer so that the lights kick on at 6pm and then turn off at 10pm. Having the lights on for 4 hours a night will not break the bank while spreading a little holiday cheer.

Do you do anything special with your lights?

Christmas is less then 2 weeks away! Where has all the time gone? It feels like just yesterday we were enjoying summer weather. If you need a kids gift fast but don't have a lot of money to spend I've come up with a great gift idea that seems to be a hit every time no mater the age. The best part is they are made in the USA!

I came up with this idea earlier this year when my daughter was invited to a last minute birthday party for a boy in her class. I'd did not have any of my usual premade gifts stashed away so I was trying to find something quick.

What I came up with was a personalized art kit. I was able to find art supplies at local stores that were made here in the USA. They were Crayola, Kodak, and other brands. HOWEVER, you have to read the packaging because each brand only carries a few items made here. I was even able to find small spiral bound skitch pad diaries made in the USA using wind power.

I put crayons, colored pencils and paint dotters in a pencil pouch or pencil hard case. Then I took the skitch pad and added a sheet of colored paper to it and add their name using left over foam letters from another project. You instantly have a nice sized traveling art kit with the child's name on it for under $15.

Do you have any other in a pinch premade gift ideas that are good for the enviroment and/or made in the USA?

Do you have your stocking hung by the fire with care? We do! As a child I think that one of my favorite thing were our stockings. I remember always rushing downstairs on Christmas morning to see what little goodies had been tucked into my stocking.

As a child my stocking was machine knitted and had our names on them in a very early 80's style. As an adult I wanted to have a more timeless look to our stockings. I also wanted them to look a little more upscale. Of course, I didn't really have any money to spend on this picky project.

Want to know what I did? I'm sure you have lots of great guess but you will have to keep reading to find out.


I was lucky enough to score several boxes of home decor fabric samples from freecycle. I made a lot of different items from the fabric but hands down my favorite is our stockings. I used the fabric samples to quilt together very elegant looking stockings. I also embroidered our names on them for that personal touch. This project cost me nothing since I had all the stuff to make them already.

In fact, I would say that they made me money! I had lots of people comment on how nice they were. Some of them even asked me to sew them stockings. So I did make about a dozen of them some extra Christmas cash one year.

This is an easy project and you can use any fabric you already own. I think that it would be great to take some of your daughter's past Christmas dresses and make them into the stockings. It would have so much meaning.

Did you make your family's stockings? How did you do it?

It seems like when it rains, it pours. At least at house that is always the case. In fact, at this very moment I'm really paranoid that the other shoe (or in this case the 4th shoe) will drop. Let me explain.



We started a major remodeling project in our only full bathroom over Labor Day weekend that was not planned but forced on us by the house (ie. a bad leak). It's still not complete because everything that could go wrong has. Everything in the bathroom has been complicated by the custom everything in it from the 60's. The Mr. has been putting in some very long days and even weekends at work because of deadlines and less staff after the layoff. And every time we turn around something else is happening. For example in the last 7 days we found water in the basement because of our sump pump breaking. Of course that happened on the weekend so we had to pay extra for that job. Then on Tuesday night, actually make that Wednesday morning 1 am when the Mr. got home from working late, the only toilet we have in our house broke. Of yes, 1am. In the morning with a about 3 hours of sleep we realized that it could not be fixed because it was the "guts" of the toilet that broke and it is the orginal toilet to the house. So we were forced into buying a new toilet and installing it ourselves that night as soon as the Mr. came home. All these unexpected expenses are adding up fast.

Am I writing this to complain? I'm only partially venting. I'm really writting this for another reason. To remind everyone why it is important to have an emergancy fund that is easily accessible. Just last night I told the Mr. that I was really sad about blowing $645 on emergancy house repairs this week because I was going to have to not buy the kids some of the things I was planning on buying for Christmas and I was also going to wipe clean my new deep freezer fund to pay for these bills. He just looked at me and said "Don't do that. You shouldn't have to start over we can just use our emergancy funds for this stuff". As sweet as the statement was (and it really was). In my mind I could not justify dipping into the EF with the uncertain future of the job market. However, if we didn't have the extra savings for other items I would have been transferring funds from our EF savings account into our checking account yesterday afternoon so that I could buy that new toilet.

Do you have an emergancy fund in place? Have you talked to your spouse about what you would consider an emergancy? If not, start today! If you are dragging your feet just watch the news tonight and maybe that will motivate you to start saving for that rainy day.

And one last question for you. Is it raining at your house? If so tell us about. I'd love to have others join me in this little pitty party today!

I'm glad to see you have braved the snow today! Come on in and make yourself at home. Are you having problems finding gifts for some of your family and friends? It is so hard to shop for someone who has everything they need. Well, over the past few years we have come up with a couple ideas that seem to be working.

Have a seat while I get you some hot chocolate. Then we can visit.



Every year it seems to be getting hard to find gifts for our siblings, parents and grandparents. We ended up finding solutions for all of them but it was NOT one size fits all. My mom worked for Headstart as a teacher until she retired. Before that she worked at a daycare for mentally and physically disabled children (4-5 yr. old room). My sister works for a county agency in what is kind of a social worker/ educator position. She helps families who have or are expecting a baby with a disabilty or premature baby to a teen. During my college years I work for the local Salvation Army in their office but spent my holiday breaks volunteering to help them hand out or deliver items to those in need while crashing on the Caption and his wife's couch at night (dorms were closed over break). I also went on a couple missonary trips to Haiti during those same years. For my family we have seen people in try need first hand. The best gift we could give each, is NOTHING. We just want to enjoy our time together.

So what do we do? We decided as family that we would adopt a family in the county we grew up in for Christmas. My mom is still friend's with the local social worker. She always has a family that has fallen through the cracks and was not able to get help through the normal channels. She gives us the needed info (age, sex, clothing size, etc). We intern find a day we can all go shopping together as family. We make it a fun outing and spend the amount of money we would have other wise spent on ourselves. By the end of the day we have a car load of gifts for the kids and food for the pantry. All of us wish we could be a fly on the wall when those kids open their gifts to see their expressions. But just knowing that we made what could have been a very sad Christmas into a day of joy and thanksgiving is priceless. For our family we look forward to doing this every year.

On Christmas morning at my parent's house there are only a few presents for each of the grandkids. And that is it. Everyone is happy and know one misses the gifts that could have been. We just greatful for the opportunity to spent time together and give to those in need.

Do you give the gift of giving? Have you ever given to a charity in a friend or family's name for Christmas? How did they like or dislike the gift?

Well, it's getting late and baby needs to go to bed. I'll have to visit with you tomorrow about what we do for my husband's side of the family. Be safe on your way home!

Can you believe how fast time flies? Saturday was the feast day of Saint Nicholas! I'm sure most of you are scratching your heads right now going "huh?". Well, for those of you who have not figured it out yet, we are Catholic. I don't want to spend to much time explaining our faith and the Churches doctorine so if you have questions feel free to email us or do a google search (but please only read creditable sources). But the world's beloved Santa Claus is actually a true saint, Saint Nicholas.

The Church celebrates the feast day of St. Nicholas on December 6th. St. Nicholas was a wonderful man who did countless good deeds. Two of the things he was most know for was giving the poor money and protecting children. Centries later we have spinned the truth so much that we have ended up with a Santa who seems to have different motives on a different day.

Our house is different.



We have started a new tradition to combate the comercialization and greediness surrounding gift giving. Every year we celebrate St. Nick's feast day in a big way. We start be reading the kids stories of the saint's good deads. We have a few activities like coloring pictures. Then we bake our Christmas cookies for the year. And we bake a lot of them! What do we do with them? Do we keep them all for ourselves? No way, in fact we barely keep any of them. I usually keep one or two dozen, but the rest we give away.

Where do they all go? To the people that St. Nicholas would want to have them. We take them to our elderly neighbors (5 couples) who are basically shut-ins during the winter because of all the snow and ice we get. Then we take the rest of them to true shut-ins. I call our Church office in advance (or that morning) and get a list of people along with addresses and phone numbers. Everyone is so excited to see to see a young kids at their day with fresh baked cookies. Of course they are more excited to have companionship during the cold months. If you do this, please allow enough time at each stop. Most people would like for you to stay 30 minutes or more. They really are lonely and love to watch the kids play.

This is a great chance for kids to see what the true meaning of Christmas is. Our goal is for our children to understand that it is okay to only get a few small gifts. It's really about what you GIVE not recieve. Last year our daughter meet a lady who was excited to see us and was talking about how lonely she was since her husband died. She didn't have any family left in the area and could not get out because it was to cold. After we left my daughter had a lot of questions about the lady and her husband. Even though some of those questions I would rather avoid, it was a great learning experience for her. She felt good that she made the lady happy that day.

This is one the most important days of the holiday in our home. It is a tradition that our children will remember. It is also a tradition that only takes some flour, a little gas, and your time. The spiritual and emotional benefits are countless and down playing of recieving gifts is priceless.

Some of you might be thinking that this is a great idea, if I was Catholic. You don't have to be Catholic to explain the real Santa to your kids. If you would rather not, that is okay to. Just pick a day before Christmas to explain the giving part of the season and then do just that with your kids, grandkids, neices or nephews, or even the neighbor kids.

Did you celebrate St. Nicholas's feast day on Saturday? If so what did you do?

Are you ready for some more hot chocolate? I sure am! Just looking out the window at the snow this evening is making me cold.

What have you been up to today? I've been busy working on putting together Christmas present's while my oldest was at school. Why don't you sit right there and I want to show you how I reused some of my Christmas cards from last year. Hold on while I go grab the box...




Being the thrifty green mom that I am, I save every card, gift bag, box, tissue paper, and sometimes even wrapping paper. This project is one of my favorites. I took a nice shirt box that came from a store and I cover the advertising on it with a reused Christmas card. Here is one that I made for a friend.

Wonder what is going in the box? Some homemade T-shirt bags from Relay for Life shirts I found at a garage sale. My friend's dad had cancer and she is a big supporter of Relay for Life (and a fellow green mom) so I thought that she would enjoy the message while saving the planet one shopping bag at a time.

I have so many other crafty ways to reuse Christmas cards! I just wish it was not getting so late. Why don't you come on back tomorrow to visit some more.

See you soon!

So glad to see you again! Of course you can have hot chocolate. Doesn't the fire smell good tonight? We have to make sure not to start the fire until after the baby's in bed. Now that she is crawling and trying to walk we can not keep her out of anything! That reminds me of another thrifty thing we are doing this year...



With the baby getting into everything this year we made a tough decision. We are NOT putting up our big Christmas tree. This could have been a devastating blow to our 5 yr. old daughter, but we had another plan up our sleeve. In stead of the normal Christmas tree we are doing a traditional Jesse Tree that sits up high out of the baby's reach. Our daughter colored and cut out all the ornaments for the tree herself. Every night we read from the bible as a family and discuss what we read before she hangs the ornament that goes with that day's reading. It's a great way for us to teach her biblical heritage that leads up to Jesus. It's also a frugal way to avoid the big tree. All's you need is a tree limb and some paper really.

With the current financial crunch some families are feeling this year I'm sure that an expensive real tree is going to be a budget buster. There is nothing wrong with going this route instead. The point of Christmas is not the big fancy tree with high electric bill to go with it. Christmas can still be celebrated with traditions that go back farther then the "traditional" Christmas tree.

I'm glad you liked my daughter's ornaments. She worked really hard on them and is proud to put them on the tree ever night. She really does look forward to it. Do you have a tradition tree? If not what do you do instead? Have you ever used a Jesse tree?

I've enjoyed our visit this evening. I just hope I didn't keep you up to late!

It's official, I guess.... kinda. The National Bureau of Economic Research says that we've been in a recession all year. Finally, someone backs up our alarmist news media. Now would you people finally panic so we can get some really juicy news bites!?

Did you panic when you heard this news? Wall Street did. Then again, the Dow plunges 100 point whenever someone on the trading floor rips a loud fart. No, don't be fooled by their name - there is nothing official about the NBER. No magic powers. Nope. Just a bunch of guys.

In fact, a recession, by definition, still cannot be declared.

Why I'm smarter than this group of award-winning economists after the jump.


Maybe they fell asleep during Econ 101, or maybe they think that they get to write their own definition for the word. They can call it a downturn. A slowdown. Markers for a possible recession. But a recession it is not.

A recession, as defined in economic terms, is:

a period of two quarters of negative GDP growth.

"a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP growth, real personal income, employment (non-farm payrolls), industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales."

As we count down the days to Christmas let's not lose count of our budget. May the only red we see be joyful and not on our bank statements.

The Not the Jet Set family would like to give you a special gift this year. One of creativity, thriftiness and green. We will be starting our Thrifty Christmas series starting today and will go through the season. During the coming weeks we invite you to follow along with our family and see the way we celebrate Christ's birth while being good Stewards.

Come on in and take off your boots. Have a seat and get comfy while I get you a cup of hot chocolate to warm you up. It's cold outside today isn't it? While you sip your hot chocolate and get warmed up let's talk about our first Thrifty Christmas idea.


Homemade Advent Wreath

For to many years I tried to buy an Advent Wreath after Advent had started hoping for a good deal. Every year I found the same thing. They had sold out of the wreathes before the season even started. After my daughter gave me a wonderful gift last year the search is over! Her teacher helped them make the advent wreathes using their hand prints and construction paper. Then she cut sticky backed circle velcro tabs in half for the flames to be added. She also laminated them so that they will last longer. I love it and we will continue to use it every year. If you are going to make one for your family trying adding everyone's hand print to make it a true family project.

This project will help save you some green while staying focused on the true meaning of Christmas. It saved our family around $40 and gave this mom an extra warm fuzzy feeling.

What does your family use for an Advent wreath?

Well, it was nice chatting! You should come back soon and we can talk about some of our other Thrifty Christmas ideas while you enjoy some more hot chocolate. I was wanting to talk to you about our Christmas tree and show you some of the wrapped presents.

Honestly, the month of November was a blur! It has not been the easiest month personally because my grandfather has cancer and any day will be his last. I've been making lots of trips back and forth to "home" with the baby in tow. It's a three hour drive each way but worth every minute of it to see my grandfather and be there for my mom and grandma as they live through this experience on a daily basis taking care of him in his own house.

On to the budget... November's funds were kind of crazy. We started out by blowing through all but a couple hundred in the first week and half! But then we had almost one hundred left at the end of the month. Weird huh?


November's Budget Recap:

• Food - bulk food and meat for two months bought at the beginning of the month meant we had about $20-$25 to fill in the gaps for the month (ie. milk and yogurt)
  
• Cell Phone Bill- We always have lots of extra minutes at the end of the month, but this month with all the calls to home (and received from home) we blew through the minutes and then some. We were WAY over budget on that bill.
  
• We were under budget on gas because we planned for prices to go up.
• Had to cut Mr's new jeans out of the budget.
  
• Used the date night funds and beer funds as intended. It was a nice treat!
  

• Add line item for daughter's commissions (aka, chore money)
  
• Added extra for the gifts for the 5 family member's with birthday's this month
  
• Adding some extra towards Christmas gifts
• Surprise Doctor Bill- Why a surprise? Because we maxed out our out of pocket expense portion back in March. One of the three doctors our baby saw last month at the special clinic doesn't take our insurance so it was considered out-of-network. We were not expecting this since all the other doctors were covered by insurance. That ate up just shy of $100 of this month's funds.

• Fully fund retirement- partially funded via work 401k, not adding to Roth until after the new roof funds are fully saved
• Fund college savings again. - adding this month
• Save for new roof- continuing and should be have enough funds by spring

Do you ever play the what if game? Sometimes there will be an event that triggers those what if thoughts for me. Last week my mom told me that a guy from the small town I grew up in won $250k from a lotto ticket. Right away I had thoughts of what he would do with it. Things that would waste the money and be bad for one's health. All things that made me cringe.

So then I thought what would I do if it was me. Of course I don't play the lotto or gamble in any form so I would never actually have that kind of a windfall. But it is fun to pretend!


$100k to taxes (this is just a rough guess as to what the taxes would actually be)
$25k tithe (10% off the top for our tithe, God ALWAYS comes first)
$20k metal roof (our roof is 30+ years old and is starting to leak)
$5k house repairs (our old house has lots of little repairs that are needed)
$95k pay off house (nothing like the security of a paid off house in a bad economy)
$5k car fund (both are vehicles have over 83k miles and we need to start saving for new ones)

WOW!!!! That money went fast. I can see why so many people who win large sums of lotto money file bankruptcy. When you hear quarter million dollars it sounds like a lot. But as you see, it really doesn't go that far once you take out for taxes. In fact, after taxes and tithing half the money was gone. You actually only have $125k to spend. The one nice thing would be the paid off house which would add an additional $875 a month to our budget.

Do you want to play along? Tell us what you would do with the money!

Black Friday has come and gone. Cyber Monday is upon us. The shopping frenzy continues. At Thanksgiving, my aunt was talking about catching a couple of hours of sleep and then packing up at midnight to head to the mall. A little crazy? Sure. But it's all in good fun.

The real question is: