In past couple of years I have done “No Spend Month” Challenge where my family of 4 spent about 0 on daily expenses, not counting mortgage/rent, utility and phone bills. One year I did great and another I did not. This time, I am going to be out of town traveling during month of July, hence decided not to do “no spend month challenge” this time.
If you are curious about it check out past few years post to see weekly updates and how I fared below; If you decide to go through this challenge, let me know if you have any questions or concerns. It is always easy to do this with a friend or online friend support.
Learning from No Spend Month Challenge and Experiment:
I have learnt a few things from being stay at home, Zenguy being out of work for 22 months and doing this experiments for a few years;
Using cash made me aware what I was spending
Credit card usage made me spent more and did not realize where money went, until bill came
Writing down daily expenses, including small 50 cents expenses made me more frugal
Cooking at home is always cheaper, faster and healthier
Kids did not even know anything was a miss, they simply enjoyed it.
Money does not make life better, there are lot of simple things that makes us happy
Library has great resources for entertainment such as new books, movies and even music CDs to enjoy
Paying down bills made me more happy then spending it on luxury item at the end
It is not money but how we feel about money makes difference in our life
Knowing I spent less and was able to control my “I deserve it”, made me learn patience in life
Reading how to save money books surely gave me ideas on ways to save in my daily life without feeling the pinch.
Finding new ways to make money from home or start blogging to supplement income also helps.
“This series is about how those in power have used Freud’s theories to try and control the dangerous crowd in an age of mass democracy.” —Adam Curtis’ introduction to the first episode.
A little while ago, I happened to see a great documentary is called “Century of Self”, it is a great eye opener on how whole propaganda or little better sounding relationship managing works. One thing in life for me is that I am lifelong student, and here is something new to learn and be aware of it and how it effects on us even now.
The Century of the Self is an award winning British television documentary film. It focuses on how Sigmund Freud, Anna Freud, and Edward Bernays influenced the way corporations and governments have thought about,? dealt with, and controlled ?people to buy things, or do behavior modification during election time.
I studied and knew about father of pychology Sigmund Freud, but certainly was not aware of his daughter Anna Freud,and his nephew Edward Bernays, who was the first to use psychological techniques in public relations successfully even now.
Propaganda: How it has shaped America Today
One thing I like about the documentary is something close to my heart, as the documentary goes deep in to roots of today’s consumerism, elections, creating “me first” or “individuality” in a way you would never think of it.
One of the thing learned is how women in 30’s were not interested in smoking or using Betty C rocker’s Cake mixes. (Solution to Betty’s Cake Mix was simple enough when ad told women to add an egg to the cake mix, it worked then and it is working now too). To solve the first problem, attractive girls/women were paid to take a part in a parade, well let me not tell you, here is the part of the documentary that shows how that was achieved. Please note, it has some adult language words in there.
How long is the documentary Century of Self and where can I see it?
The whole documentary is about 4 hours long but it will change you will see advertisement, television and elections in new way. It is 100% worth it.
1. You can watch this documentary in parts or whole in you tube, you tube links to be not stable, as some disappearing with copyright issues. I am sure someone may post on you tube again.
2. You can borrow from your local library (if they have it) or borrow from friend. You can buy it here as well.
The one of the scariest thing said by Paul Mazer, a Wall Street banker working for Lehman Brothers in the 1930s, is cited as declaring “We must shift America from a needs- to a desires-culture. People must be trained to desire, to want new things, even before the old have been entirely consumed. […] Man’s desires must overshadow his needs.”
That is pretty profound and scary. Our desire are our wants and needs are basic needs. We (our generation and onwards) have somehow learned to mixed our desire as our needs. So, that is why we hear people or advertisement saying “need for speed” “need for retail therapy” or “I NEED this.. product”…
So, What do We Human “Need” :
An interpretation of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, represented as a pyramid with the more basic needs at the bottom.
For one of my friend, she has 9 credit cards and I do not know how she juggles all the bills. Credit cards use without control make your life topsy turvy.There are so many dangers of unwisely using credit or credit card. I have one credit card that I use and I try to pay in full every time I can.
If you spend without thinking, that practice can be very costly, financially as well losing mental piece. Here is a nice info-graphic that show you, how you can keep paying the credit card debt, and it will keep increasing instead of going down, thanks to compounding interest rate. Check it out below, and judge for your self.
What is scary thought is, if you paid minimum required on your average debt (current national average number) $10, 679, in 1000 years your remaining debt will be $212 million and you would have paid $5.1 billion dollars on your little over $10K debt. No wonder many of us keep paying debt and never see the light of the day. Danger of credit card debt is mind boggling and scary.
As no human has ever lived for 100 years, the debt can go in to next generation. Let’s be careful of what you buy today on Credit card, else our grand children and great great grandchildren might pay for our debt.
There is lot of things wrong with world today, one of them being people are hurting due to economy all over the world, in Asia, Europe such as Greece crisis. However, nothing is worse than in America, once land of American dream and an opportunities. Easy credit, and buy now and pay later culture has left many people, who are hard working, honest people in stressful financial situation.
I recently wrote about 5 ways to save money and 5 more ways to save money as many of us need to find ways to save money, reduce debt. Yahoo news has recently started a series called “Remake America” which talks about a few family’s stories on how their financial life has been affected by foreclosure, medical issues and layoffs. Stories are real and emotional, it is sure not reality Television where everything is exaggerated.
Take a look at each families story, see what you can learn from it. It is easy to judge someone else but be able to see how easy it could any of us. Unemployment rates are going down but it might be misleading number, as un-employment rates only comes for current number of people who are getting a benefits. Many people are not reported or do not qualify for the unemployment, making real number much higher and hard to quantify.
New Jersey Family: Unemployment, 3 Kids and Debt
John and Michele Kocotos family has 3 kids, father in law, 2 mortgages, 3 maxed out credit cards, children’s brace and glass, truck that needs repair and whole lot of stress. John has worked for Red Cross for 16 years, helping in many emergency crisis situation such as 911, Hurricane katrina and more. However he was let go due to budget cuts, and now he is working in supermarket at minimum wages. His wife also works but it is not enough to make enough money to pay bills and feed family of 6. You can click below to see their story in video and more details.
This is one of the heart wrenching story, Kyle who really wanted to serve his country and do something nice, so he enlisted for Marine corps while being high school. He served well and was proud of his contribution he made. In 2006, he humvee was exploded by roadside bomb, injuring him and losing one hand.
Now with wife and 2 kids, he is stay at home dad, while his wife works for subway, making little money and no support. This story probably hit hard many readers as seen by comments, many feeling that US should take care of its soldier so they do not have to be in this situation of financial mess.
Kirk and Latosha’s seem to have starting a good love story. She says, she was waiting for perfect man and she found Kirk to that man and married him. Now six kids, 2 dogs, mortgage and layoff of kirk 2 years ago, has made the couple’s relationship on edge. Kirk as a man has hits self esteem issue as he feels as a man he should be a provider, they have lost a house in foreclosure already but other problems with finance are still persistent.
Latosha works full time, helping low income families, the help that she needs very much herself is the irony of her life. Kirk is spending full time, focusing on finding job without much luck.
Bill and Donna’s Story: Health care and bad economy’s effect
Bill and Donna are older couple with adult kids, they thought everything was going well for them as they were working, had retirement plan set up. Then Bill had a health trouble, he had stroke, one side of body stopped working, when he was barely recovered, he started working at the same job before he had a stroke. Somehow, the company thought it was best time to layoff Bill then.
Bill was down but not out, he and his wife invested their savings to start a business Bill had passion for, a hardware store. Ace hardware store opened up close to his hardware store, failing his mom and pops business dream. Right now he is working hard again but barely making it. Worse part of the story, they had lost, job, business, health and most hope.
Like all above story, Leslie’s story is real. As a successful real estate agent Leslie did well for herself and her clients who bought houses. With real estate bubbles, she was struggling but still working hard, until she was laid off by her real estate company. She feels as a single woman and older age has not helped her get a job, as she feels she is discriminated against it. She feels alone in her flight, shame to tell her friends or kids that she has been using her IRA or retirement money to pay mortgage and bills, when that runs out she will be in even worse position.
American culture has been pushed towards instant gratification, buy now and pay later. I was born in India but living here in US for over 20 years, has also made me part of same mentality. I gradually started to change my ways when I quit and decided to be stay at home mom (on purpose). What a thing to do for these people and many others who are in similar situation? While, I am not a finance guru, here are a few suggestions that may help;
If you have 2 cars, sell one or both car. Even when you sell a car with loss, you will get rid of some payments and bills such as car payment, care insurance, gas and so on. If you think you need a one car for job interviews, keep older one or buy reliable old Honda or other smaller car.
If you have one or more mortgage, think of downsizing the house by re-selling it, renting it as whole and rent a room to make some income.
Sell stuff from home, such as jewelry, gadgets, coins, furniture. Even if you sell it cheaper, you will create some space and much needed income with it, specially if the stuff is just sitting in closet.
When you are unemployed, get rid of services or cut down to bare minimum. You will not need premium cable, magazine, netflix, or newspaper subscription. Make your cell phone and internet service from premium to bare minimum to reduce extra payment.
Eat at home, reduce take out from restaurants. Occasional take out may be okay but if you do it daily, it will add to your expense and your waist at the same time.
No matter how bleak situation maybe, there is a light at the end of tunnel. Think about it, when you have hit rock bottom, only place to go now is up.
Keep up your health and healthy routine. It is hard to find motivation when everything seems to be going against your way but keeping your health and wits about will make you get of the financial hole much quicker so eat healthy.
Think positive, go out in fresh air to walk. Pray to God or higher power. Let go of negative or “naysayer” thoughts from your mind.
Keep trying but if things do not work in some times, have an alternative career or job in mind.
Work odd job, do lawn care for neighbors, start a blog business or any business from home that requires little capitol to get started.
Most of all, do not lose hope. How do I know? I have been there. A few years ago, Zenguy was in between jobs and project and I was stay at home mom of 2 kids so I made zero money. We were in that situation for 22 months, while Zenguy is fortunataly working now, effect of past bills keeps us still little choice. I am not saying it is easy now, but it does get bit better and slowly so keep at it.
5 More tips to save money and be little bit richer
This is second in series of how to save money for daily expenses. As a stay at home mom for 2 kids, I have learned a few tricks that helps me keep within my budget and that too without feeling too much deprived. When I decided that I want to be home, leaving my cushy six figure job it was drastic change, one that I am happy to volunteer to leave my stressed job so I can be home with kids.
There are easy and simple ways we can save money for everyday savings. Once saving habits are ingrain in our mind, saving money or being frugal comes as easy as breathing and it will have so many benefits that your quality of life will be improved.
Start today, do not wait for special occasion or a new year to start a new habits. We can save money on everyday expenses such as phone services, insurance, groceries and travel and more. When we are starting, every penny will count. Do not think, what you will do with saving a few pennies here and there. Just imagine, saving a few pennies will make a dollar and few dollars savings will makes hundreds of dollar. Just imagine you putting this saving towards debt or in saving account, how much money you can save in interests.
If you have not read yet part 1 of this series, you can read it here: 5 Tips for saving money for everyone.Let is look at 5 more additional tips that save us money for everyday expenses which anyone can do and add to our savings account.
Tip 6: Do not carry too much debt:
I personally like to say no debt is always the best but it is not realistic for many of us. Buying a home or car without a loan is not possible for 80% people unless you are already rich, have rich parents or rich friends with benefits. If you are like me and majority of people, we carry some debt. But that does not mean we are doomed, we can be smart and pay off these loans faster by paying $10-$100 extra towards our loans and pay off credit card debt when bill comes.
The worse part of debt or any loan is excessive interest that we pay on each loan, so faster we pay off, better we will be. Use cash only for many small daily expenses and paying off debt faster is way to go. Make sure your debt to income ratio is reasonably manageable for your monthly income.
Tip 7: Save money for emergency:
Emergency expenses can happen to any of us, any time. Like Dave Ramsey says about Murphy’s law, expenses and problems comes when you are not expecting it. Until someone invents a 100% future predictions, best we can do is save money for it, just in case of such a emergency. If it happens you will be prepared for it, and if it does not happen you will be bit richer, either way it is a win-win situation.
Just make sure you do not count buying diamond for your girlfriend as an emergency.Best way to save some money without feeling deprived is to auto deduct from your paycheck or your checking account and in to your saving account that you can not touch.
Tip 8: Wise Buying Decisions:
What do I mean by wise buying decisions? I have done impulse buying based on emotions, hunger and sheer joy of showing off to someone and I bet some of you might have done it too. Simple thing is do is, do not go grocery shopping when hungry, the truth is I have bought more junk food when I have shopped when I have been famished. Don’t try to keep up with jones, they might have nice stuff but I bet some of them may have nice debt too. Be smart and do not compete with someone in buying cars, vacations and diamonds. Comparison shop, do bulk shopping to save money as mentioned in part 1 of this series.
Tip 9: Eat IN more often:
As a vegetarian person who loves to cook at home, this comes easier for me. Even if you are not like me, you can still cook a few simple things at home and eat out occasionally only. Check out tips to save money when eating out. Food outside is usually ten to twenty times more expensive than if you would have made it at home and sometimes you can have more healthier food when you make it yourself. Occasional eating is fine and keep you from feeling deprived, just do it sensibly so you can save money as well as your health.
Tip 10: Reduce, Recycle and Reuse:
In USA, where I live, we tend to throw away things and buy new in this consumerist society. Buying a new shoes or new Television is much cheaper compared to repairing it here so it makes sense to do so, but we are wasting resources and earth’s environment by dumping things in garbage. We can consume less, reduce our materialistic things, recycle whenever possible will save us money and live sustainable life.
We can make small changes such as using
Little less soap when doing dishes
Using less shampoo when washing hair,
Putting on sweater before turning on heater
Donating good used items and not throwing in trash
If you have child, supplementing with cloth diapers
Turn off light of Television or computer, when not in use
Conclusion:
If we saved money without feeling deprived, we will do it for long term. Only two ways to save money are earn more income and be frugal. We can do both and save our environment at the same time. Start today.
Right now with economy being down and jobs are far and few to find, life has been tough. While economy seems to be improving, I see many good and hard working people are struggling and hard to keep paying bills for mortgages, medical treatment and worst of all credit card payments.
While we can not help some bills such as medical and emergency situation but we can take precautions to make sure we are never in this uncomfortable situation where we may have to lose a house or lose credit ratings. Saving money has been practiced since early days of our great great grandparents to our parents.
There are easy and simple ways we can save money for everyday savings. Once saving habits are ingrain in our mind, saving money or being frugal comes as easy as breathing and it will have so many benefits that your quality of life will be improved.
Start today, do not wait for special occasion or a new year to start a new habits on our personal finance. We can save money on everyday expenses such as phone services, insurance, groceries and travel and more. When we are starting, every penny will count. Do not think, what you will do with saving a few pennies here and there. Just imagine, saving a few pennies will make a dollar and few dollars savings will makes hundreds of dollar. Just imagine you putting this saving towards debt or in saving account, how much money you can save in interests.
There are many ways to save money in our everyday life. Here are my to ways to save money for everyday expenses. Some tips may need getting used to in the beginning but, it is doable for any of us. Why wait, read on and start saving now.
1. Spend Less Then you Earn
Spend Less, period. This seems simple enough but sometimes hard to achieve, at first. This step is really important if you are serious about saving money for long term effect. Best way to do this is to write it down, each day what you spend money on; it could be gas for your car, or cookies from vending machine, a dollar for homeless guy, no matter what it is, write it down. Can you do without any of this expenses? When I looked at my expenses, I was spending on Latte a day, that saved me $4.50 a day and $135 a month when I stopped buying. And you know what is great about it? I had extra $1620 money which can be used towards traveling or paying off debt. See how every little things adds up?
Cooking at home also helps spending less money. One way you can start doing is by starting no spend money challenge to set a budget and spend only within that budget for the month.
2. Create a Budget and Stick to it
Budget is dreaded word. At least it was for me a few years ago. Now, I have have a budget and I like to call it as a spending plan instead. It sounds better but it is actually budget plan so I know how much money I am spending in various categories such as phone services, groceries, eating out and more. Establishing a personal budget and sticking to has helped me and it can help you too, whether you are a single student or large family with kids.
Just think of this way, if you do not know where your money is going, how can you know if you enough money coming in and going out? In order to know your own finance on piece of paper or a software spreadsheet, it will be much easier to stay motivated and stay on course.
3. Shopping Habits for Savvy Shoppers:
Many times buying bulk saves us bunch of money. Think of buying groceries such as dry staple, soap, and other necessities of daily expenses. If you plan you meals in advance you can do bulk buying and buy necessary ingredients when in sale and not at last minute. Sometimes buying food item in season and freezing or canning them for later also helps. You can buy not only food items but other needed items in bulk to save money, for example, printer paper, soaps, dish washing and laundry detergent, shampoo, diapers and so on in bulk when using a coupons or when in sale. If you are buying gifts for friends and family in advance, it will help you look out for sales and discount and can make you save money and plan things, so you are not buying things at last minute at retail price.
4. Do research before buying:
Before you buy an item, do a research online, ask friends and family before making a purchase, specially if it is a large ticket item such as flat screen Television or camera. Make sure the sale price is really a sale before making any large expense that cost $100 or more. What do I mean by that? Some product may it is 40% off retail price, while that many sounds good, not many product companies pay retail price, so check to see where is the best price comparisons such as similar stores, ebay or other online shops to make sure you are getting a best deal on item you want to buy.
Many time, “Buy one get one free”, “50% off”, and “Huge Discount” will make you think you are saving money, double check to make sure it is really a huge discount as they say as it is our hard earned money we are spending.
5. Buy used or generic when possible:
I have made a rule except a few items, everything can be bought used. I personally am fan of used items as it saves me tons of money. I have 2 years old car that is running fine and has saved money. I just make sure with a mechanic to make sure there are no hidden repairs and check car fax report before buying it. Cars loses 33% of value in its 1st year so if you wait a couple of years you can save a lot. You can buy used and good quality furniture, toys and so on. Other than diapers, medicines, food items, many of us can buy quality items from garage sale, craigslist and ebay.
How do you save money?
I am writing a series of 101 small changes that we can make to make the quality of our life better and build and lead a more happier life that is in tune with our heart and mind. These are small changes that I have made and am working on right now, so I know they are possible for anyone to do.
If you have not read previous posts, check out a few posts on the changes from the past:
I have written before benefit of going vegetarian and importance of healthy eating as we are what we eat and what we think. However, in life many of us busy, stressed and tend to eat “not so” healthy food and junk food. I am prime example for it, as I have strong liking to potato chips, I like specially Tim’s crunchy chips a lot. I am working on reducing that habit myself.
Zenguy and I are vegetarians but we used to eat out fast food places, specially when we were traveling or needed quick bite to eat at tiring weeknight meals. Now, it has been over 6 years that we have not eaten at most traditional fast food such as McDonald’s, Burger King, and to some extent Subways, Wendy’s too. What made us change our behavior?
As regular readers may know, I am a book worm and I love reading all types of books, including non fiction. Some 6 years ago, I first read a book called Fast Food Nation and it influenced me very much, even though I was already a vegetarian. It was interesting facts on animals being used for meat and fast food teenage workers plight made me want help with my small changes. As I was talking to another mommy friend, she told me she does not eat at fast food anymore. I was shocked, how can one do that as eating fast food was not only convenient, quick, cheap alternative to eat when one was traveling or was too tired too cook. It was specially hard for me as fast food places were everywhere to avoid it. Or so, I thought.
I never felt to eat meat, even when it was in menu, so why it bothered me to avoid fast food place when I saw one. With strong desire to overcome my issue, I came and told Zenguy no more fast food for us when I came home from my friend’s place, and he had to be helpful by not eating in front of me, until I gained confident enough to avoid it myself. Zenguy was not only supportive in front of me, but he too soon decided that he will no longer eat at fast food himself. Since then we have been 90% fast food free, as we occasionally eat at Quiznos, In and Out and other small mom and pops places. We mostly eat simple home cooked meals daily and leave eating out a few times only.
Biggest Fast Food Chain: McDonald’s
A few years prior to making this decision Zenguy and I both were addicted to McDonald’s thin french fries, as no one made it crunchy like them. Of course, we has stopped eating there as news about McDonald’s adding beef to their french fries, after reassuring (lying) to public that their fries was cooked in 100% vegetable oil. angering many Indians Hindus all over the world. (As Hindus do not eat Beef). After much outcry, McDonald’s decided to use 100% vegetable oil for “real” to win over the lost customers. Alas, it was too late for many people, who became weary to trust them again.
McDonald’s since then tried to make themselves as healthier alternative for moms and kids by offering salads and fruits. However, being the fast food giant, they are surely has many concerns and issues from many health watch groups.
Here is an image of McDonald’s food label, which clearly says chemical known to cause cancer, birth defects and other reproductive harm is present in food, why would any clear thinking person would eat that food is beyond me.
Of course, we all do what works for us at the time. Many of us are at our weakest point to healthy when we are famished, some other people may have little choice what they choose to eat. I personally think, one does not to stop eating at fast food place, but many of us can reduce it a fewer times in a month. Your health and body will thank you for it.
Need more proof; see below video on what in your fast food;
Here is a short video that shows that 4 year old burger looking as young as day one and 2 year old french fries looking good and not decomposing like normal, natural food will should. I am not sure, but many people would prefer them selves to look young and fresh and not their food after 4 years, what do you say?
McDonalad’s 4 years Burger
Many vegetarians and vegan will not eat this food anyways, but if you are meat eater this is must read for you. In addition, Jamie Oliver “Food Revolution” shows kids (see video here) what Chicken Nuggets are made of. This is food that is mechanical textured and processed to look like meat.McNuggets are really processed crap made to look like food. It’s all marketed for you to think your eating real chicken, but your not! Recently, McDonald’s Reps have said they no longer use pink slush to make Chicken Nugget, what is included was not mentioned as far as that news report I read.
Conclusion:
McDonald’s is not the only fast food chain that with health issues, but being fast food giant they seemed to be most watched by many critic and rightly so. There are many other fast food chain and gourmet restaurant that may serve unhealthy, deep fried food. The point is that we choose to put healthier stuff inside our body so we can be healthier. There will be always simple and quick cooked meal at home will be always more healthier and inexpensive. We have only one body this life, so let’s treat it right and eat well and there are many ways to say health is true wealth. If you must eat at fast food, pick healthiest choice available there and start carrying snack packs from Trader Joe when you need quick snack fill up. There are many quick ways to make quick gourmet meal at home in 30 minutes or less as well (before your Pizza order will come). Remember on January 1st, you may have made being healthy goal, do not forget it now, eat healthy, lose weight and save money at the same time. Sounds like win-win for me.
Christmas is just around the corner, and what if you are one of those people, who still have some shopping left to do? Not to mention, some one gave you gifts that you were not expecting and now you feel you ought to buy them something too. I forget sometimes, little something for my neighbors, or mail woman or our gardener and so on. So, now I have to go and get something that gets delivered in time before Christmas eve.
If you are in situation like this, do not panic. Okay, panic for 1 minute then take a deep breath. I think I figured out a few ways we can save the Christmas gift giving. Gift giving does not have to cost a fortune or cause a stress, with little planning and creativity, one can find out last minute frugal gifts that are good for you and recipient.
How to Get Last Minute Gifts Suggestions
Last minute gift ideas will not work for most traditional online shipping ideas, specially if you are short on time. We need gift right NOW, I mean in most day or two, we can not wait for order and wait for shipping to arrive, or can you? Here are some tips that I am exploring for getting last minute gift buying: Hopefully, these tips will help you as well, if you are in similar situation like me.
1. When you have 2-3 days left for shopping:
Buy Gifts from Local stores: If you have still few days left before Christmas, you can go to Walmart, Target, Kohls or ToysrUS and buy things and pay for it and give to person just in time.
If stores or online stores can do one day shipping for your out of state family and friends, you may want to take that option and pay bit extra for one day shipping.
2. When you have only 1 day or less for shopping:
You can go to local grocery store for buying gifts. Yes, grocery stores do sell other things besides groceries, so check it out such as cookware and kitchen gadgets to photo frames.
You can go to Gas station or drug store for last minute gifts shopping. Drug stores are sometimes open 24 hours and have perfume, toys, small kitchen gadgets, photo albums and more.
If nothing is open, you can go to your local airport, they are open even during Christmas eve as everyone seems to be flying around it. You can purchase books, candies or wine from airport stores last minute.
If you buy online gift cards, you can email the card numbers to your relatives who might be living far and they may get gifts right away to use it.
Give IOU card, if nothing else works, give them a promise to buy something as soon as possible. This may not work with small child but some adults, so know people’s emotions.
You can make something at home such as soup, cookies or jam and use it as a edible gifts.
Last Minute Gift Ideas under $20
Okay, so you decided to try buying a last minute gifts from grocery store, drug store, gas station or air port store, what can you buy there and how much usually it will cost you? While prices of stuff varies by locations, I have found these 20 items under $20 or so, that you can buy from these stores. Sounds like a good plan and last minute solution to many of us.
If you have time or chance, buy extra few generic gifts and store it on your garage or extra room for emergency last minute gifts. Otherwise, I hope these tips will be useful to any of you looking for last minute gift ideas.
The best way to not get in to this is either do not do gift giving or buy it now when you have time. Have a great shopping and even better holidays!
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