{GUEST POST} Have Yourself a Debt-Free Holiday!

List in hand and holiday cheer filling your adorable, overflowing heart, you head off to your favorite boutiques for some shopping. 

via

With the best of intentions, you get a bit distracted by all the cute things that you know no one will buy for YOU. Maybe you could add just a few items for you to your purchases... 

via

And then there is the immediate discount that can be had if you just open a charge card at this cute shop. Wouldn’t that help? After all, there really isn’t any money in the dreaded BUDGET for all the gifts you want to get…

STOP this craziness! 

The holidays are definitely not about is who can buy the biggest present or who shows the most extravagance. You will never be able to demonstrate how much you care about someone by how much money you spend. And if it’s real love, all anyone wants is your presence, not your presents.

So my best advice for your money, and for your general happiness, is for you to have a joyous holiday season with many happy and wonderful memories and to have January 1^st not stink when you open your credit card bills.   

via

How can you shop and not have regret? Don’t add debt, and then you’ll have no regret! 

Here are some tips:

#1. Prioritize your spending. There are cute dresses to buy for parties, gifts for friends and family, and money to set aside for evenings out. Friends around you may be spending like crazy, but you don’t know the scary, underbelly of their bills. Break it down into manageable bits!

via

Outfits: Is there anything in your closet that, combined with the purchase of an adorable scarf or sweater, can be refreshed so money can be spent elsewhere this season? That adorable pencil skirt or those wool pants that make your butt look so cute, could certainly work for Christmas, yes?

Gifts: Start the necessary conversation to select only one person in your clan to share a gift exchange at the family party, instead of everyone having to buy for all. 

via

#2. Make something. Can homemade or more simple, less expensive gifts — sometimes more thoughtful — be given instead of the more expensive alternatives? 

#3. Rethink the pressure. What difference does it make what ‘everybody’ else is doing? Take control of your life and simplify your world, baby girl.

via

Evenings out: Have some really fun and stylish holiday dinners at home and ask everyone to bring a dish.  One can bring the margarita mix, another that fabulous, chocolatey confection, and another can bring the fondue pot, and another friend all the fixings! You’re not the only one of your friends balancing the many demands of their money at this time of year. Lead the way with your clever and oh, so classy dinner party by candlelight in your beautiful home and on the cheap. Be proud to be frugal! 

Have a strategy for next year: Make 2012 even more awesome because you planned. Begin a Christmas club at your local financial institution in which you deposit a certain amount of money each week for next year’s gift-giving. You can even save enough for a few new outfits, dinners out and gifts. (Figure out the amount you generally spend on everything holiday related. Divide that amount by the number of weeks you’ll be saving. That is the amount of money per week you need to set aside for maximum coziness.)

Take your holiday shopping season firmly in hand and focus on what’s really important.  You’ve got what it takes to squeeze the most out of a dollar and the style to make this season stunning and debt-free!

Marion  Syversen, MBA, owns Norumbega Financial. She appears every Tuesday on WABI-TV5, Bangor, Maine’s CBS affiliate. She is the author of Real Deal: Making Big Changes with Small Change available on Amazon.com. Read her weekly blog atFinanceWithChocolateSauce.com. Send questions or feedback toMarion@norumbegafinancial.com or visit her website at www.NorumbegaFinancial.com. 

Only securities and advisory services offered through Wall Street Financial Group, Inc. Registered Investment Advisor. Member FINRA/SIPC. Wall Street Financial Group, Inc., Norumbega Financial and all other entities listed herein are separate entities, independently owned and operated. Information herein is the opinion of the author and not that of Wall Street Financial Group, Inc. 

{GUEST POST} Upcycled Medicine Bottles

Hello, I'm Stephanie, 1/2 of the sister team over at 4Eighteen. I'm so excited to be a guest here today! Let me tell you a little about 4Eighteen and what we're about. Kristi and I are two sisters who love to love. When we love something, we put everything into it, that is why we started our blog. We LOVE projects, decorating, cooking fun new meals, being Mommy's (to humans and doggies), and using our imaginations. While most of the time we seem to have the same sense of style, we also each have a little something that sets us apart from one another.

Today I would like to share with you one way to recycle/re-purpose medicine bottles.

________________________________________________

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle — Medicine Bottles

Where I live we don't have recycling, I mean, NO recycling.  I think it is just crazy, and it is bugging me, so I decided that I was going to come up with uses for some of the things that we have been throwing away.

I have been going through children's Advil for the past 8 months or so while our girl has been teething.  Of course, we only give it to her when she really needs it, but in that many months we have gone through a few of these little bottles.

First I took off the label, it came off a lot easier then I thought it would.

I chose some paper that I thought would cut out into a strip nice.  A lot of the paper I have has big designs, for such a little bottle I needed something that was going to look nice and be small enough.  I found this paper that was going to be easy to cut because it was already a stripe design.

I cut the paper to fit the bottle.

Next, I made my own mod podge out of water and Elmer's School Glue.  I did about 1 part glue to 2 parts water and mixed well.

Using a paint brush I painted my mod podge onto the back of the paper...

then wrapped it around the bottle.

After I wrapped the paper around the outside I coated that in mod podge too.

I really like the way it turned out!

Next I followed the same process for a pill bottle.

Here is the paper I chose.

The top of this lid is flat unlike the other one, so I decided to cover it with left over paper from the strip I had already cut to cover the bottle.

Tada, it is complete!

I'm going to keep diaper rash cream in the smaller bottle.  I don't like carrying tubes of it in my purse because I'm always afraid that it is going to come open and get all over the place, this will solve that problem!

The larger bottle I will use when I travel, or in the car to keep things like, Q-Tips, tweezers, a few earring backs, a couple toothpicks, and a band aid or two for "just in case" moments.

*Update - I have decided I don't really like my home made Mod Podge, I think I'll stick with the real stuff in the future.*

_________________________________________________

We would love for you to come visit us over at 4Eighteen. Not sure where to start? You could start by checking out Toddler Tuesday where we have a new post every week about things to do with your toddler. Maybe you would prefer to see how Kristi has used an extra room as her closet, or how I have transformed our master closet into my new craft room.  We also have some great crafts that you can check out here or if you are into some fun DIY projects you'll want to click here. We have so much more, I'm sure there's something for just about everyone to enjoy.

Thank you so much for having me here today Suz!  We're so glad we found your site and we can't wait to come back for more!