Celebrate the true meaning of Christmas – On a Budget

/ simplywendi
Photo by Ylanite Koppens on Pexels.com

Raising a family of 6 on a budget, I understand the stress that Christmas can create, a time when we feel the urge to overdo everything: gifts, parties, meals, and decorations. Of course, all of these activities and preparations cost money and can distract everyone from the real reason for the season.

Last year I wrote a book that lists many of the ways that I celebrated the holiday season as I raised my children on a tight budget –  Frugal Seeds 101 Ways to Celebrate the Holiday Season on a Budget.  The book can be read FREE with KindleUnlimited and is available on Amazon in e-book and  paperback.

I would be humbled if you would take a moment to check it out, thank you.

42 thoughts on “Celebrate the true meaning of Christmas – On a Budget”

    • We have definitely have cut back over the years but I still have all 4 kiddos at home………I love that you have figured out what works in your family and keeping it low key is very, very important. Too many people lose their mind and are paying for Christmas for months, if not years. Thank you Cindi for taking time to comment, I really appreciate it.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  2. I apologize for taking forever to send you mail. My schedule is crazy and unpredictable. I plan to reply to your letter once I am done school (by then we might be moving). I too try to live frugally and this year, I am really not in the mood to make big Christmas purchases. Traditions get tiresome after a while and it’s hard to believe that Christmas time is right around the corner.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Hilary, I will be thrilled to receive a letter when the time is right for you……..even 6 months from now! 🙂
      Simple celebrations, in my humble opinion, are the best…….enjoy the moments as they come! Thank you so much for stopping by……it is SO Good to “see” you!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      • I plan on sending mail once I am done with school. School has been beyond stressful. It makes it impossible to relax or focus on anything productive, even during my days off. Like your daughter, I too am in nursing school and I keep getting kicked out of clinical practice due to COVID outbreaks. 🙁

        Liked by 1 person

      • Oh NO! I am so very sorry. I know that my daughter is stressed out of her mind with her school demands. She was doing COVID testing earlier this week and I just about freaked out. I am so sorry that you are having to deal with all of this…….sending you gentle hugs 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

      • I did a COVID-19 nose swab earlier this week and it was negative. Despite that, they still transferred me to a new unit. It’s only a matter of time until this unit is on outbreak. I feel like a ping-pong ball being tossed around from hospital to hospital and it makes it very challenging to get good at anything or get enough hours when I’m never in one place for very long. I’m worried about finding a job after I’m done school. I can’t get a letter of recommendation now so that really sucks. At this rate, I’m just hoping to finish this semester and pass.

        Liked by 1 person

  5. I’ll check out your book, Wendi and thank you for sharing it. I have always done simple Christmas’ as we were always on a tight budget but that’s not what that holiday should be about anyway. I always got my children something they needed for that occasion. Shoes, sheets, even a new bed once. All were needed and we made it pretty to receive. Everyone got books not toys. I’m not a Christian per se but a woman of deep faith. Kindness is my spiritual practice all year long and I try to amp it up during a holiday season when so many find themselves alone and lonely. I was the gathering place for orphaned adults and families. That was expensive but so worth the money and work. I can no longer do it as my health challenges me to stand long for cooking and cleaning. But there are small, inexpensive ways to send kindness out into the world. I bake and gift that when I’m able. I look forward to new ideas from you. My daughter is getting man pajamas like mine for Christmas this year. So comfortable to sit in bed and work in as covid is keeping her here. $10 a pair on sale made going out to find them early a blessing. We just wrap with gusto. 😉 Happy weekend, Wendi.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Every time I read your comments I become even more overwhelmed by the love and generosity of your spirit and soul. I can imagine all the love you poured into each person who walked through your door and what an amazing blessing you were and continue to be to all those you have come to know.
      I have to be honest, I am not sure my book will give you any new ideas as you are such a creative individual!
      Thank you for sharing part of your heart here with us. Many blessings.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  6. I checked out your book and loved the inclusion of verses. I am very sad this year that we won’t get the immersive Advent experience in church because of Covid. Celebrating Advent as a faith community always keeps my family focused on Christ, not presents.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  7. I need to check this out and with some of my followers at the end of the month. I used to work in retail for many years and Christmas was so stressful for my husband and I . When I left retail after I had my second child I decided not to go back and concentrated on my kids instead. Sometimes I would help a friend out with her shop but I never liked the rush and stress of a retail/commercial Christmas. Staying at home baking sweets, watching old movies, making ornaments and not going into debt was a much better way to celebrate the holidays. We would go to live nativity plays and make gifts for charity craft sales. So much fun when we celebrate the way it should be celebrated. I will have to borrow my daughter’s Kindle or have her set up an Amazon account so I can read your book. I know it will have all kinds of frugal ideas in it. Have a beautiful week and I will keep your daughter in my prayers, that is so scary about testing for the virus, I would be so scared.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • You are so very sweet, God bless you! I have worked retail and you are right, it is soooo darn stressful during the entire holiday season. It sounds as if your family had a beautiful holiday season…….I can’t imagine anything else in your household! 🙂
      Thank you for your prayers for my daughter, I am not happy about her doing COVID testing with such few weeks of nursing school under her belt……….and she is only 17! 🙂

      Like

      Reply

  9. Thank you for sharing!!… “It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.” (Mother Teresa)… 🙂

    Hope all is well in your part of the universe and each and every day is filled with love and happiness!… 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  11. Christmas is not celebrated here so it takes much out of the frantic celebrations…I continue on the cooking side but presents we just buy for the kiddies and unlike western countries, there are no continuous ads on the Tv’s which means if you ask a kiddie they will just tell you one thing they would like which is often quite small in comparison to my memories of Christmas in the UK…plus Christmas is not celebrated by Thais so a small gift is a bonus here for them. I wish your daughter well 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      • It is so different ..what do I like best ? Hard to say but I love the markets as there is always something new to find which is in season especially the small market traders as they just pick from the plants and trees on their land so sometimes just have a little of something I have not seen or tasted before…the weather as it has almost constant temp day and night no great drops or highs depending on the season and just the slower pace of life, the kindness and sharing..mmmmm …that’s more than one…lol

        Liked by 1 person

  12. I love that you have written a book Wendi…
    Christmas is always a stressful time of juggling to make ends meet..
    Thankfully we are comfortable now retired but we struggled alot as a young family to put food on the table and pay the bills… especially at Christmas..
    I may have told you the story before… But hubby’s place of work leading up to Christmas had called its members out on strike.. So no pay… We were struggling at it was..
    So that year while the children slept I made a dolls house for my daughter out of a cardboard box, painted it and got scraps of material made curtains, collected match boxes off of people and made furniture and the only outlay was a cheap look alike Cindy doll, whom I had to dress and make clothes for..
    My Son I made a cardboard fort covered in wall paper that was the brick kind in its day, turrets and draw bridge.. platforms and arrow slots… My only out lay was a bag of toy medieval soldiers and riders on horse..
    As adults when we gather around as a family out of all the expensive presents they got in subsequent years They both say… Remember when you made us the Dolls house and Fort…. They were the best Christmas present ever…

    So it just shows… It matters not what amount of money you spend.. But what does matter is the amount of Love you pour into giving..

    Lots of Love dear Wendi… Hugs and much love ❤

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    • No, you had not shared that story before but I am so glad you did! I know how creative and artistic you are so I can imagine your creations were way better than what you could have purchased in a store. What a beautiful story, in fact it brought a tear to my eye! Thank you for being so wonderful!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s