January Rudolph Club
I must admit that this month has gone rather fast and so I'm not quite sure that I've managed to actually do anything for Christmas 2018 other than acknowledge that it will happen and that at some point in 2017, I thought it would be useful to document my progress each month.
Actually, that isn't true. I started working with my Swagbucks account again, and will hopefully with just doing the bare minimum for the next few months (until the end of September/start of October) to have a couple of hundred pounds to spend on Christmas bits and pieces either as cash (via Paypal) or in the form of Amazon vouchers. I've already cashed out £25 in Amazon vouchers since the start of the month as I wanted to buy a gift for a friend.
I've also signed up for a couple of other small earning opportunities, which might add nicely to the pot, although I'm yet to see if they are any good so I won't share them here until I know that they are worth it.
I've spent a lot of time reflecting on what made Christmas 2017 good for me and my family, what made it not so good, and what made it... well, what made it Christmas. I've come to realise that we were far too busy in previous Christmas periods and having had to take it slow because of feeling ill and taking ages to recover and Top Ender being so ill that she just had to stay in bed, was actually a good thing.
Hopefully, we can recreate it again this December, just without the whole "I'm so sick I can not possibly get out of bed or even contemplate getting dressed" thing!
The other thing I did is make a huge master list of all the people that I like to buy or make gifts for. Friends from Church, Friends from School, Family, Neighbours, Random Strangers I meet on the tube... I now need to work out what I would like to get those not in my immediate family. There are a few gifts that I'm intending to make, which hopefully I will be able to share parts of next month.
Please tell me I'm not the only one thinking about Christmas though, tell me you're planning ahead too, even if it's just putting some money away!
Actually, that isn't true. I started working with my Swagbucks account again, and will hopefully with just doing the bare minimum for the next few months (until the end of September/start of October) to have a couple of hundred pounds to spend on Christmas bits and pieces either as cash (via Paypal) or in the form of Amazon vouchers. I've already cashed out £25 in Amazon vouchers since the start of the month as I wanted to buy a gift for a friend.
I've also signed up for a couple of other small earning opportunities, which might add nicely to the pot, although I'm yet to see if they are any good so I won't share them here until I know that they are worth it.
I've spent a lot of time reflecting on what made Christmas 2017 good for me and my family, what made it not so good, and what made it... well, what made it Christmas. I've come to realise that we were far too busy in previous Christmas periods and having had to take it slow because of feeling ill and taking ages to recover and Top Ender being so ill that she just had to stay in bed, was actually a good thing.
Hopefully, we can recreate it again this December, just without the whole "I'm so sick I can not possibly get out of bed or even contemplate getting dressed" thing!
The other thing I did is make a huge master list of all the people that I like to buy or make gifts for. Friends from Church, Friends from School, Family, Neighbours, Random Strangers I meet on the tube... I now need to work out what I would like to get those not in my immediate family. There are a few gifts that I'm intending to make, which hopefully I will be able to share parts of next month.
Please tell me I'm not the only one thinking about Christmas though, tell me you're planning ahead too, even if it's just putting some money away!