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The Holidays Should and Can be Fun |
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Today we launch our new eBook, Thriving During the Holidays: http://holiday.budgetsavvymag.com/.
The book is filled with easy to implement, time and money saving ideas. The ultimate goal of the book is to help you turn the holidays from something you dread, to something you get excited about and look forward to.
This morning I was thinking about how much I'm looking forward to this year's Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations. Then I got to thinking about the inspiration for the eBook which was my own experience with past holidays and how too often they were more stressful than fun.
* They were more stressful because trying to buy meaningful gifts for a laundry list of people, without a lot of cash was depressing.
* They were more stressful because there were 1,000 things that needed to be done and no time to do them in.
* They were more stressful because I wanted to buy additional decorations, but always ran out of money before I could make it happen.
As I looked around at my friends, family and coworkers, I realized that they were just as stressed as I was. There were a few of my coworkers kid's who I actually felt sorry for. Their parents were so negative about preparing for and paying for the holidays, that the kids picked up on the stress and were visibly burdened by it. In fact, it was watching one particular coworker complain about the holidays in front of her daughters that woke me up and made me realize that I don't want to be that way. I decided at that moment to change my thought process about the holidays and to plan and organize for them appropriately.
As I started to publish Budget Savvy, I saw particular tips and techniques that I could apply to the holidays.
* I planned ahead which gave me the time I needed to save appropriately and to keep an eye out for sales.
* I decided what activities were important to me. I said no to the things that were not important to me freeing up time for the activities that I really wanted to do.
* Planning ahead allowed me to set aside money to purchase new decorations. I also got creative and was able to use items I already own, such as mittens and stuffed animals, to add to my traditional holiday decorations.
I love the idea of seasonal celebrations. I want to enjoy every aspect of them. Now that I am a mother, it is even more important for me to create a positive holiday atmosphere. I'm not talking about a Norman Rockwell scene. In fact, sometimes it's the imperfections of the holidays that make for the best memories. A perfect example would be the time my mom couldn't find red food coloring for the Red Velvet Cake she bakes every Christmas. Being the inventive person my mom is, she used green food coloring instead. The cake looked like it came straight out of a Dr. Seuss book and is talked about to this day.
We could have been frustrated and upset that the Red Velvet Cake wasn't the traditional red. Instead, we embraced the green cake and how it was just a little disturbing to eat. The Green Velvet Cake is now a treasured holiday memory.
I wish you all a stress free and fun filled holiday season!
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