Holiday values for an outdoor country Christmas

After losing our home to a fire, this Christmas we have had to start over with everything for holiday decorations.  Since most of our budget has gone to replacing essentials for everyday living, I couldn't just go out and spend a lot for decorations that only come out once a year.  However, where there is a will, there is a way... and I was not going to sit around with no holiday spirit!  The wreaths you see on the front of the house I found last weekend at a yard sale. A lovely woman had a huge box of 15 with all the ribbons and I was able to get them for $10. This gathering basket I found for $2 and I look forward to collecting more little natural treasures to fill it with.  It sits by the steps, ready to pick up and use.  I really enjoy my Saturday morning rounds of the yardsales with my friend Maria.  We have a good time together and it's good to have a buddy to bargin hunt with.  We almost always find some great treasures.

So far the only thing I've bought for the outside of the house are some cute little snowmen climbing their ladder to decorate for the holidays.  I say "bought" because it came from CVS but I really didn't pay anything for it. Actually I made money at the store that day.  DONT call the cops. I didn't rob the store! *lol*  I used my reward dollars for part of the transaction.  I also bought some other things that we needed (body wash, toothpaste, etc.) that they had on sale and deals for.  One of the deals were that when you bought cetain items you received $10 gift cards.  I ended up with 3 gift cards that I still have that I can spend on other things.  You can see the snowmen and the basket in this picture of the front steps. So for all of our outdoor decorations this year I spent $12 out of pocket but really I made $18.



In a few days I hope to post some pictures of what we've been able to do so far with the rest of the house for the holidays.  Also, I've always used coupons to some extent.  Since the fire it has become a renewed passion of mine and I hope to blog some about my adventures in that area.  I'm not an "extreme coupon" queen.  I doubt I'll ever have a hundred coupons of one thing and we don't have too many stores that double coupons on a regular basis, but I still save a significant amount at times and will share some of that in the future.  I dont believe in picking up items that we don't need or aren't good value, even if they are cheap... but I also don't like to pay more for things that we do need than we have to.