Things I’m digging lately:
The $100 Christmas Challenge – Bill McKibben and members of his church began a challenge back in the 1990s to not spend more than $100 on Christmas Gifts each year. Sticklers among you may want to account for inflation (ha!), but this is a fantastic challenge that I’m thinking of trying next year. We’ve spent about two and half times that this year, which I realize is less than many people, so I’m thinking that we can forget inflation and try to only spend $100 next year. The key for us is hand-making many of our presents, which means that while the dollar figure may be low, the time (and love) factor is quite high.
40 Reasons to Avoid Shopping on Black Friday – Black Friday has come and gone, but the reasons to avoid the malls persist through the entire holiday season.
Online Deals For Holiday Shopping: Buyer Beware – And if you need one more reason to think carefully about so-called sales and great deals, this article is an eye-opener.
Contrary to the impression these articles may give, I am not anti-shopping or anti-gift. Instead of chasing deals, I’d rather think about what a loved one wants or needs and shop or make accordingly. I’ve also begun to look much more critically at sales and instead purchase items based on quality rather than based on the supposed savings that I’m getting. For folks like my husband, this is obvious, but for someone like me who used to be seduced by the savings off of the MSRP for just about everything that I bought, this is a liberating awakening.
Bottling Moonlight 