Holidays

Shopping Online for Christmas Gifts

December 23, 2010 by Painter Mommy Leave a Comment

I did most of my Christmas shopping online this year. It beats having to drag all the kids out of the house in the cold and deal with the crowds. But there are both positives and negatives to Online Shopping.

Positives:

Ability to price-compare on various stores
Avoid the hassle of going out, finding parking, and dealing with crowded stores
Less chance of other impulsive purchases
Shipping right to your door
Access to unique items that others may not have or buy already

Negatives:

Items may get back-ordered and you may be scrambling for a gift last minute
Sales may be better in the stores and not reflected online
You don’t get to physically see or touch the product
Product may arrive damaged during shipping and leave you in a hurry to replace it
If you get gift-wrapping option you don’t even get to see the product as it will already be wrapped when it’s delivered to you
Can be more costly on delivery charges, especially if you buy from many online stores

Yes, Online Shopping is definitely easier in a lot of ways, but you have to realize that you may need to deal with the above list of negatives as well.

I ordered a few things for myself and for my husband, but never received what I ordered. One of the orders was from Amazon (my husband’s Christmas gift – a nice wallet – shhhhh don’t tell him… I am hoping to still get it eventually 🙂 ) well, they contacted me a few days ago to let me know that the order was never processed. They instructed me to respond to the email that they sent and it would go to the vendor. I did that and never got a response. So, I am up a creek with that one.

I also ordered a couple pairs of shoes for myself. I did a lot of research to find the perfect pair of grey birkenstocks. They are usually around $100, but I found a company who had them for only $49. They had my exact size and I placed my order. I realized today that I never got any email from them letting me know that the order was being shipped. I checked back into my email and went on their site to track the package. And I saw a little note that said “Out of Stock” UGH! They could’ve emailed me or something, right?

I also ordered a pair of crocs from Amazon for a great deal and they were shipped ON TIME. I opened the box very excited to put my new shoes on…. and guess what? THEY WERE TOO SMALL! I ordered a size 8 (even though I am a 7 1/2). The shoes were obviously defective because how could an 8 be too small? Craziness! So now I have to ship them back within 30 days – another THING to add to my to do list. Yuk!

I wound up having to do my online shoe shopping research all over again! See? I went back for more! Thank God I did find a couple alternatives for an even cheaper price, but now I have to wait even longer to get them.

But even with all of that I still enjoy being able to hop on my computer and shop without having to leave my house. I can research ideas and compare prices. And in spite of not always getting what I want, when I want – I still prefer shopping online instead of shopping in stores.

I am the type of person who gets overwhelmed in crowds of people. And I wind up over-buying somehow. Does that ever happen to you? What do you think about shopping online? Which do you prefer and why? Would love to hear from you!

The Importance of Sending Christmas Cards

December 5, 2010 by Painter Mommy 7 Comments

I have always enjoyed sending and receiving Christmas cards. I feel like it is something special that I can do to be able to connect with friends, family, and even those who I am acquainted with in business. I have connections in all different parts of the world and I don’t always get to stay connected throughout the year. But when it comes to Christmas, I always like to keep everyone up to date by sending a photo Christmas card of me and my family.

A photo card is great because everyone can see what we look like and how much our children have grown, especially those who don’t get to see us in person on a regular basis.

This year I ordered from Shutterfly.com. They had a sale going on over the Black friday weekend for discounts up to 30% plus free shipping. I was able to order 125 photo Christmas cards for only $65.00. Each card wound up being .52 cents each and they come with envelopes with is a plus.

I got my cards in the mail the other day and they came out great! I adress my envelopes by hand, but I am really beginning to think that I need to come up with a labels list next year to make things easier on me.

What do you think about Christmas cards? Do you send them? How many do you send? Do you use photo cards? Do you hand write the addresses or use labels?

Saving Time and Money During the Busy Holiday Season

November 30, 2009 by Painter Mommy 2 Comments

Twittermoms and Staples are having a contest. They want us Bloggers to post about our Savvy Shopping Tips, Money Saving Ideas, Top Gift Ideas and Time Saving Tips. I decided to join in and so can you! You might just win some great prizes!

I decided to write about “Saving Time and Money during the Busy Holiday Season”. Here are a few tips that have helped make things a little easier for me concerning the Christmas holiday.

1. Christmas Gift List. Asking your friends and family for a list of what they might want for Christmas will help take the guess work out of shopping. Some people are more difficult to buy for than others. So, a list to refer to can help so you are not walking around the store or surfing the web aimlessly.

2. Shop Online. This is a great way to save time. You do have to pay for shipping, but if you are like me and most stores take about 20 or 30 minutes to get to – you still wind up having to pay for gas, so the shipping may not be as big of deal. I also like to find online coupon codes for the different stores I am shopping at. You can often find coupons for free shipping or 10% off. I actually posted recently on this very subject – check it out: Save Money by using Coupon Codes when Ordering Online.

3. Order Photo Christmas Cards Online. This is a great gift which I always do each year. We try to take a really nice family picture and then I upload it online to whatever company has the best deal at the time. I have a large list of people that usually is around 100. I used to do all the cards by hand – shopping for the perfect card, printing the pictures, writing inside the card, hand writing each address, putting the postal stamp, and licking the envelope. This was a LOT of work and extremely time consuming. So, a few years back, I decided to save myself time and money and go with the cards that could be ordered online. Another great way to save time is to create a labels list for all of your addresses so that instead of hand writing them, you just print them out and stick them on. I really need to stop procrastinating and do that!

4. Watch the Christmas Movies on TV. I am not sure if you would consider this saving money, but in my home, we are big movie renters. We also LOVE Christmas movies. But the great thing about the holidays is that most of the great Christmas movies will show on TV at some time or another. I was thinking how neat it would be to use our new recorder device to actually record some of the movies and put them on cd. I would have to edit out the annoying commercials of course, but it is something that would be great so that we could watch the movies anytime. (No we don’t have Tivo yet). 🙂 Oh, and we still need to go to Radio Shack and pick up this adapter cord to even use out video recorder machine. Will have to get on hubby about that. 🙂

Well, those are just a few things that I can think of that might help someone time and money during this Christmas season. Be sure to stop by Twitter Moms to check out more great ideas and even enter a post of your own!

Deals for Busy Moms This Holiday Season

Check out This Week’s Deals!

About this TwitterMoms Blogging Program

Being Thankful Everyday, not just on Thanksgiving

November 25, 2009 by Painter Mommy Leave a Comment

happy-thanksgiving

Being thankful and grateful is something that I try to practice on a daily basis. It is so easy to lose focus especially when life throws those curve balls at us at the most inopportune times. There will always be something that we can complain about. But in spit of life’s ups and downs, it is important to turn our focus from the negative over to the positive. Yes, we have had a rough week, but thank God we still have food to eat. Yes, our car broke down, but thank God we are still healthy.

We have to remember that our children are always watching us. They soak in every little word we say and every attitude that we show. If we are speaking negatively in front of them about the things that we are going through, then they may unconsciously take on that negative spirit. It is hard work sometimes choosing to be positive when that is the last thing you FEEL like doing. But it will have a tremendous impact on our kids. I am not saying that we should hide the difficult things from them and pretend that our lives are all peachy. But we can express our struggles open and honestly without getting angry and without complaining.

So, on this Thanksgiving, even though it has been a tough few weeks – I still have so much to be thankful for. Check out my video blog to see exactly what those things are!

What are your thankful for?

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful day!

What are your 5 Favorite Family Holiday Activities?

November 24, 2009 by Painter Mommy 1 Comment

To celebrate the premiere of Dora’s Christmas Carol, Nickelodeon and TwitterMoms want to hear your favorite holiday activities that you like to do with your kids! For your chance to win a $100 gift card go Here and check it out.

Here is my list of Fun Holiday Activities that I enjoy doing with my kids:

1. Thanksgiving Day – This really depends on whether or not we go anywhere. Sometimes we travel to spend the day with family in NJ. But for the past few years, we have been sticking close to home due to me being pregnant. When we stay home, I do the cooking – turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, corn, and usually a store bought pie (I am not much of a baker). And since my husband is home for the holiday we spend the rest of the day getting all the Christmas stuff out and together as a family we start decorating.

2. Christmas Music – We hardly listen to music in our home for some reason (probably because of all the chaos with the kids, etc) but after Thanksgiving we always have the radio station playing that has 24 hour Christmas music. My husband LOVES Christmas music and it makes me happy to see him humming and singing along.

3. Christmas Movies – We have a nice collection of Christmas movies and we spend the month before Christmas watching them over and over. We have lots of different Christmas shows for the kids like Barney Christmas, Bob the Builder Christmas, Mickey Christmas. It is special because this is the only time we watch them and then they get put away again once Christmas is over.

4. Christmas Eve – My parents started a tradition for my brother and I when we were kids that we could open one present the night before Christmas. Now we do the same with our kids. So, after we get home from our church’s special Christmas Eve Service, we allow them all to open one small gift.

5. Christmas Day – I like to keep things very organized and in order as far as gift opening goes. I don’t allow my children to go and open their gifts right when they wake up. We actually have breakfast first and then read the Christmas story together. And since we don’t keep the gifts under the tree, we then take all the gifts out of the closets and put them under the tree. Each child has their own pile of gifts. We then pass them out one at a time so we can all watch each other opening a gift.

So, there ya have it! Those are some of my familiy’s holiday traditions. Be sure to stop by Here at Twitter Moms and enter YOUR 5 Favorite Holiday Activities for your chance to win some great prizes!

Watch Dora’s Christmas Carol Adventure Dec. 6 on Nickelodeon

Favorite Holiday Activities with Kids