While the kids were fast asleep early Friday morning the Mr. was able to sneak out to get a digital camera for $50 at Best Buy for our daughter. After the girls were awake and helping put up the Christmas decorations I made my way to JoAnn's for some great deals on fabric and patterns. I was able to get a great deal on fabric by buying the remnants of the fabric on special. All remnants are 50% off the current price. Which make for a real steal!

Later in the day I finished my Christmas shopping at Target and online. I didn't get any real good deals at either, but I stayed within my budget and bought stuff on the kid's Christmas wish list. The only Christmas gifts left are the ones I have to make. I have everything but the time now!

Did any of you go shopping on Friday? What kind of deals did you get? I would love hear about your Black Friday! Feel free to either answer in the comments add a blog post link below.

Thanks to Joy at the Green Baby Guide and Valentine's Day I've been thinking about our date nights a little more lately. How frugal are our date nights? Well, I will admit that we do like to splurge on them from time to time. We are out of debt and do deserve a little "treat" every now and then. But for the most part we enjoy our cheap date nights as much as our expensive ones.

If you are struggling to come up with some frugal ideas for a date with your sweetheart here is a little help from the Not the Jet Set couple - 16 ideas for Valentine's Day.


What to do with your time together?

• Take a deck of cards and a picnic lunch to the local beach or park and enjoy a relaxing afternoon.
• After getting the kids to bed early get a fire started (in the fireplace), play some Sinatra on the stereo, enjoy some wine and cheese along with some slow dancing by the fire light.
• Go out for dessert and a movie at the discount theater.
• Spend the evening together in the hammock watching the sun set and the stars shine.
• Go shopping together (but stick to your budget!). Our favorites are estate sales and auctions.
• A long hot soak together in a deep tub (granted, we have good size tub, and we're both skinny, so your mileage may vary on this one).
  

• If you have family you trust close by you can let the kids have a sleep over at Grammy's house. Or Grammy could come over to play.
• Swap babysitting with a friend. I have several friends who I swap babysitting duties during the day for doctor's appointments and other non-child friendly events. You could do the same thing in the evening.
  
• Sometimes we just "fast forward" the night and bedtime comes early for the kids. This gives us the ability to have a date night without leaving our home. To do this you want to make sure that the kids burn lots of energy during the day and dinner is early so they don't notice the difference in bedtimes!

• Heart-shaped (homemade) cookies... or pancakes, or cupcakes, or......
  
• A mixed CD or mp3 playlist for their iPod
• I'd love a good back and shoulder massage (hint, hint...)
• The Mr. makes me creme brulee and it melts my heart every time.
  
• A love letter from the heart.
• Homemade gift certificates for helping with chores or for date nights (or other things.. hint, hint).
• Flowers are fine, but steer away from roses - far too cliche and over priced. 2 or 3 irises usually did the trick for me.
  

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?

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!

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.

Netflix brought us another gem this month. I'd placed this one in the queue a while ago, only to have it bumped down repeatedly. We both enjoy a good documentary, but' you've gotta space them out a bit - you can't be serious all the time.

What Would Jesus Buy follows the Reverend Billy and his Church of Stop Shopping on their crusade to get their message out - something Billy struggles with a bit. No, he's not really a Reverend, and no they are not really a church. But you wouldn't know it.

Billy preaches to his congregation, as well as to real churches, about the evils of shopping - the social, moral, and economic irresponsibilities of the current consumerism. Micky Mouse, for example, is his anti-Christ. Products produced by slave labor, they have drawn his ire.


His protests - part performance, part real - have a delightfully comedic element. They attempt to exercise the demons out of cash registers, go caroling door-to-door to sign their versions of Christmas songs, and torment retailers in choir robes, marching and singing all the while.ONe quite memorable scene showed the group protesting outside a strip mall. While being escorted (poorly) off the grounds, Billy calls out through his megephone, "What would Jesus buy?!", in full character. "I'm pretty sure he wouldn't buy anything at Staples!" Classic.

The movie itself gets a B. The message gets an A.

Morgan Spurlock's flick is good, but not great. It lacked... something. I'm not sure what, but it certainly wasn't there. This was also somewhat true of Super Size Me. Maybe just a bit anti-climactic. It dropped off at the end, and lacked closure.

Rev. Billy is spot on. Jesus wouldn't buy this crap and he wouldn't buy it from Wal-Mart. He wouldn't support these working conditions. He wouldn't pass buy the local merchants to shop at a super-store. Billy has taken extreme measures here for a noble cause. I'm just not sure how effective his methods are. I'm sure it has quite the impact if you were to see him in person. It also seems like his demonstrations are rather short lived as he is constantly being led away by security.

Have you seen this movie? What did you think?

• Rev. Billy & The Church of Stop Shopping
• video clips from google
  

The cheapest way to handle Halloween is to leave the porch light off and forget about it. BUT when you have little kids or enjoy the holiday it makes it hard to just ignore Halloween. I find most costumes at the store to be cheaply made and not able to hold up to my kids. Especially since they want to use the costume as dress-up clothes after the holiday. Because of this I always end up making my own costumes. Some years have been expensive, like the Snow White costume that I spent a fortune on fabric to get just the right colors. But other years have cost close to nothing like the Black Cat year. I'm no expert on cheap Halloweens but here are some tips that I have learned along the way.

• Plan ahead- Like most things in life, if you give yourself enough time to think and get good deals you will save money.
  
• Creative Costumes- Be creative and make your kid's (or your own) costumes. Instead of asking "What do you want to be this year?" ask, "Do you want to be a train engineer, a robot or a super hero?". By narrowing the choices down to options you know you can make cheaply or for free you and your child can both be happy about the decision.
  
• Rethink Treats- We all know that we can not give out homemade goodies on Halloween night or at the school parties. I try to be healthier and cheaper by shopping for the little snack packs of animal cracker or similar when they are on sale. I will sometimes find other smaller packaged items on sale to use also.
  
• After Holiday Sales- This good rule of thumb applies to all holidays not just Christmas. Last year I was able to get Halloween knee-hi socks for 90% off at Target. I bought all of them and made a boat load of Baby Legs for my kids to wear this year.
  
• Reuse Candy- This is not as gross as it sounds. If your kids get candy at school or daycare like mine do then you know how it feels to end up with candy no one in your house will eat. Why not turn around and give it out to the kids who come to your door that night? It's still wrapped and untouched so to speak.
  

They've been likened to alcohol, guns and all sorts of things - some condemning, some encouraging, some indifferent. But as the 4th of July approaches, we've taken a slightly different view of these little plastic devils. Here is our list of seven eight reasons why credit cards are like fireworks:

1. Anyone can get them - They aren't hard to get. Very little is required - no special certification, just a pulse (though they'll overlook that from time to time). A flash of an ID at most.
   
2. They seem harmless. - There is no shortage of folks telling you how great they are, how they do it all the time and never have any problems. When everything goes OK, they are great. But all it take is one mis-fire and everything turns sour fast.
3. What a great deal! - They sucker you in with a deal to good to pass up. Credit cards offering sweet, sweet rewards / Fireworks being sold as 'Buy one, Get 6 Free'. How could you go wrong?
4. They can go off unexpectedly in your hand! - Whether your in the back yard or waling through the mall, either one of these can get you in the blink of an eye. Maybe it was your fault, maybe not.
   
5. Parents shouldn't give them to kids. - Sure, they seem like fun for the whole family, but giving these to the kids and sending them out into the world is a recipe for disaster. More than likely, they will learn some lessons the very hard way.
   
6. Mistakes happen. - Even those who were being 'responsible' can slip up from time to time. Neither of these two are terribly forgiving. Will it harm your pocket book, or your vision?
7. They can be done safely. - Many people claim to be so careful as to never be in the line of fire - and I've seen it done. Yes, it is possible. Professionals put on extravagant displays year in and year out without incident. Then again, they are professionals -it's what they do. Maybe that's how you'd like to spend your time? Us? We've got better things to do.
8. BONUS: You don't need them! - Opting out does not diminish your stature or put you at any disadvantage. In fact, you'll likely find that your life is just that much more simple.