Have you ever felt the shock and horror at the checkout stand of a total that is much higher than what you had planned to spend? Yesterday I was at the grocery store picking up some presents for my husband to give to his co-workers. He has eighteen people on his team so I was looking for something that would be economical for us but cute enough to give as a gift. I found Cadbury’s giant candy bars on sale for a dollar each and some red and silver ribbon and a few grocery staples we needed (milk, bread, produce, sippy cup to replace the one that was thrown in the dark movie theater, etc.) and when I got up to the checkout stand the total was $69.99. What? I knew that was wrong so I pulled out my customer card and had them scan it and it went down to sixty. That was still wrong.
I have the habit of adding up what I put in my cart in my head so I know approximately how much my total will be. I do not use a calculator and I am not rain man so I round up. If something is $2.69, I round it to three dollars and so I am factoring in tax and giving myself leeway to stay within my budget. I knew my total should be in the forty dollar range. Sixty was too much. I asked the woman if my customer card took off the right amount and she said yes and then she showed me on the screen where it had taken off the discount. I asked her to scroll all the way to the bottom and it had only taken the eighty-nine cents off one of the candy bars and I was being charged full price on the rest. There is no way I would have caught this if I didn’t know for a fact what my total should be. She apologized and we laughed about it and my bill came down to forty-five dollars instead of sixty.
It is much harder to do this when doing a big shopping trip so I usually write out my shopping list ahead of time and then to the side of each item I estimate what that item costs so I know in advance about what my total will be. If you do the shopping at your house, you probably know about what each item costs and if you don’t know, start paying attention at the grocery store. You will find in no time you will know what things cost where you shop. I moonlight one evening a week as a cashier and I can tell you that even in the most organized store in the world not everything that is on sale always rings up that way.
Gifts for Co-Workers
This is such a rough financial time and although giving gifts was not a requirement, it was something that my husband chose to do for his co-workers. At my place of employment we had a sign up sheet for the ten days of Christmas. If you wanted to bring a gift for nine people on the day you signed up for then you would get a gift the other nine days. I thought this was a great idea because you could elect if you wanted to take part in it.
When I got home I started wrapping the candy bars in ribbon and realized that I didn’t have any Christmas tags so I pulled out a sheet a Christmas scrapbook paper and my 2 inch round craft punch and quickly made some holiday tags. I made 22 tags out of one sheet of paper. I don’t think I will ever buy gift tags again. It was so easy and cheap to make them and they turned out so cute. I recommend it to everyone. You can purchase craft punches at any craft store and many of them send out up to 50% off coupons each week.
If you don’t get the paper, start getting it. I get the weekend paper and it is great. I get coupons, but I also get the advertisements for many stores each week. A few weeks ago Walgreens had their box of turtles (chocolate) on sale for $1.25 each. This would be great for a co-worker gift or prize at a Christmas gathering. This week Kmart has a few Christmas movies on sale for $5.00 each. “Miracle on 34th Street” (the original one) and “The Christmas Story” are both included in this sale. It is a great last minute gift idea for a neighbor or stocking filler or even just to add to your movie collection.
If you are still rushing about trying to finish up shopping and need to stop for a bite, Red Robin has a great deal going until the end of the year. It is a cheeseburger and bottomless steak fries for five dollars. My family went there on Monday night for family night and it was nice to get out as a family and get a break from cooking and cleaning without spending a fortune.
Thrifty Decorating Tip
One thrifty decorating tip is to use your wrapped presents as décor. My daughter tore apart the first present I put under the tree so I wrapped my gifts and put them above the cabinets in my kitchen and up on my mantle so that she couldn’t get to them and they were not stuffed in a closet where the wrapping might rip. I love how festive it makes the house look. I was able to pick up shiny wired ribbon at the dollar store to make them look pretty and fancy.
Merry Christmas from my house to yours!
