It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

And PF bloggers everywhere gear up for the season of madness. Here are some great Christmas articles from the PF blogging community. The first is from one of my favorite bloggers, Single Ma's Fabulous Financials:

Every single year, my mom is the hardest to shop for and I'm stumped yet again. She doesn't like me to buy things for the house. "Gifts are supposed to be for ME, the house is for everyone!" She doesn't like me to buy clothes and shoes. "SM you want me to dress like an old lady and THAT I'm not!" She's not into perfume, makeup, jewelry, or other girlie stuff. The collection inside her armoire proves it. Money is tricky because it never feels like the right amount, no matter how much I give. And she doesn't NEED anything. So what is a daughter to do?

We're in Debt talks about one Christmas ritual that doesn't cost money -- anymore, anyway. We, too, decorated our tree again last night, with my four $1 ornament additions (including a new snapshot of the two ninos) and my one splurge -- a $2.99 ornament. Our tree looks a little less bare every year...

Decorating our Christmas tree is always a fun time for the two of us. The best part is that our tree grows at about the same rate as we buy new ornaments. This means that our tree always looks full, without us having to spend more money.

Don't Mess With Texas writes about children and play credit cards. I know a friend of mine actually lets her kids play with the "fake" credit cards companies send with pre-approved offers, but I've always shredded ours. I love piggy banks but I know the new rage is an ATM machine for allowance money. Teaching kids they can withdraw without any deposits (the deposits come from mom and dad) is a little disturbing to me...

And the use of plastic by young (and younger) people is now being reinforced by some popular board games. The trend started a couple of years ago, but it's really taking off this holiday season, according to a report this week on the CBS Early Show.

Financial expert Dave Ramsey and program host Harry Smith took a look at all the toys that are not-so-subtly teaching kids to pay with plastic.

Among the games that now supply kids with fake plastic instead of toy money are Monopoly, Life, Barbie (not surprisingly; look at the clothes she buys!) and even Dora the Explorer. Can SpongeBob SquarePants be far behind?

My Open Wallet recommends a good antidote for all the consumerism this holiday season: giving to charity.

It's that time of year: all the fuss over Black Friday and holiday gift guides can lead to a certain level of disgust with rampant consumerism and greed. The story that did it for me was a mention of a woman who hurled her entire body onto a pile of $50 digital photo frames at WalMart to make sure she'd be able to buy one.

So what's a good antidote? Thinking about ways to help people whose needs are more basic, or organizations that do valuable work.

PF Advice talks about the phenomenon of Christmas in December November October and how parents eventually can just get by with one fall Turkey dinner:

As the Christmas juggernaut rolls on, it consumes and assimilates all Holidays in its path. Soon Santa Claus will get credit for Thanksgiving and that tradition will die off on its own. Jolly ole St. Nick will come down your chimney with a sack of presents and a turkey. The presents will be left under the tree and the turkey dinner will be left on the dining room table.

This will mean two things for parents. First, they will have to sneak the presents under the tree while preparing Christmas dinner, and giving the credit for the wonderful meal formally known as Thanksgiving to the fictitious reverse burglar as well. Second, they will only have to have one major Holiday meal. No more turkeys and hams and double doses of mashed potatoes and candied yams. Just one Turkey dinner that will satisfy all.

From Millionaire Mommy, a thousand words:

And with that, a Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good...avoidance of the holiday crowds.

Fiscal Responsibility?

I am deep into negotiations with my loan provider, also my alma mater, on the student loan that mysteriously went up by $318.73 last month (5% interest on $5200 can hardly explain that; the interest should have been $24). Here's a quick recap of this journey that is quickly turning into quagmire:

1. The loan handler, mycampusloan.com, does not have ANY RECORDS of anything except the amount I paid every month. They don't have an amortization chart (the rep couldn't even pronounce it, called it an "immunization chart," which I may find humorous later but don't now) and they don't have a record of how much the loan is or how much it is reduced every month.

2. The financial officer at my university, someone whom I know personally (in a removed, business sort of way) also has NO RECORDS OF ANY KIND. She shows my payments being made every month, and how much goes to interest or principal, but that's it. She offered to send that information to me, "for me to figure out," and I said I could get it online. It still doesn't tell me anything; I can add it up but cannot calculate capitalized interest and such without some serious software.

3. When I expressed my disbelief, she said, and I quote, "But I don't need that information. I just subtract your payment every month from the total." So I said, "What was my total at time of payment last month?" and she said, "I don't have that information." So I said, "Why?" She replied, "Well, because it depends on what day you make your payment what your total should be." So I said, "But you know what day I made my payment last month! Shouldn't you have a record of the total that day?" And she said, "This isn't helping. We're just going around in circles."

I'm going to have to conclude at this point that some kind of fraud is happening. I mean, my payments aren't going where they are supposed to be going, or there is some kind of rerouting. I requested 12 months of statements and my payment schedule going back to 1998. Part of the problem is that I have not received any statements since I started paying my bills online. Apparently, the loan handlers should have been sending me statements, and when I hung up with the school loan officer, she was sounding rather panicked.

It is everyone's worst enemy, the idea that your loans would not be going down as much as they should, but you know, when I was overseas, it seemed like my loans should have been going down faster (although I didn't track them closely like I do now) and I actually accused my mother of forgetting to send the payments for me. I started sending them personally via cashier's checks from overseas, telling her it just made me "feel better."

But maybe it was the cashier's checks that were more trackable; maybe I was right and the money wasn't going where it should, but my mother wasn't at fault at all. I am feeling a little panicked and overwhelmed at the moment, and wondering what to do about all this. I do have prepaid legal services. Is $300 worth calling a lawyer? What should I do?

December Net Worth

Here's a *big sigh* for the month of November. What went right, what went wrong.

1. Consumer debt -- up. This is primarily because we bought a new stove and dishwasher. Our old ones just didn't cut it anymore -- oven did not work and dishwasher did not wash. We spent $1600 on new, energy-efficient versions, but we won't see the savings from that anytime soon. We put it on our Sears card in order to take advantage of a 15% off deal, and our rebate check just came two days ago. We should have this paid off by January. As for the others...I used my credit card for a few Christmas gifts. It was very bad of me, but it put me about $75 over what I paid on it this month. So, one good choice, one bad choice.

2. House value -- down. I finally and officially dropped our house value from $218K to $205K. I don't know how accurate this is, but I do know this -- our house was worth $235K in 2005 and dropping any further is really going to start hurting. I had dropped the worth of the house on NetWorthIQ last month, so the net worth totals are different; I didn't do it on the spreadsheet until this month. The spreadsheet hurt more, for some reason.

3. Student loans...up? I'm glad I'm tracking these things, because I noticed an unexplained $200 increase on my Perkins' Loan (actually $318, but my $120 payment hasn't gone through, so I am giving them the benefit of the doubt). Whaaaa? I have auto-debit on this and there should be no problems whatsoever. So why am I $200 in the red all of a sudden? I was close to breaking the $5000 mark and should do it in February or so, so this was a real blow. Add to that the fact that I don't get physical mail from this loan, and there was no amortization schedule available online, and all my red flags are waving. $200 isn't an enormous sum, but hey -- it's still $200!!

4. Investments -- down. I lost heavily on my investments, with a slightly shaky recovery just before I ran this spreadsheet. Had I done it two days ago, it would have been worse. So, my investments were down by quite a bit, which is disheartening.

So around $13,400 of our losses this month were completely out of my control. $1398 of the decrease to our net worth is explained by our appliance purchase; that leaves the last $2.00 to me. So at most we treaded water. We had a lot of expenses come up in November, and I kind of feel that, particularly around the holidays, treading water is a good thing. We bought most of our gifts with cash. We had a flood disaster in our house, and the insurance money from that went to cleanup but there was enough left over to finish sealing our floor and help pay for holiday expenses. I had to have new glasses and contacts, and my son has grown out of nearly every article of clothing he owns.

Side note: For some reason, I had miscalculated investments on NetWorthIQ, so our networth seems to go up (and it does, really; what shows is accurate). This, too, is no fault of ours, and doesn't show the kind of fiscal discipline I am striving for.

Right now we are getting ready for a vacation, and I doubt we will save more in December. In a way, I wish I could just call it off, stay home and save money, except that I really, really want to see everyone we are visiting. So, we are making some financial decisions that are emotional right now -- I want to see my friends and family, even if we can't afford it, for example -- but, as we learned while trying to sell our house, some decisions about money are not just about the numbers. My children need to see their grandparents. We need a break from Tucson. I can never get my husband to take a vacation, so I've got to take the opportunity while I can.

Hopefully we can sell the Volvo to come up with extra cash and to cut expenses. After Christmas, I am keeping my fingers crossed we will be able to rent the guesthouse weekly as planned without a lot of vacancy. Mostly I am just hoping that we can have our financial house in order by summer, when the GI bill money is gone.

I am taking some financial risks; I just hope I don't get burned.

Old-fashioned values...wrapped in a franchise known for its lack of them

I'm always interested in old-fashioned business values. I guess it is a bit of nostalgia on my part; on the one hand, I wish all businesses had Jimmy Stewart as the manager. On the other hand, I am aware that Silent Spring was written during that "Golden Era," and that it was a time of child labor, unfair wages and pitiful working conditions. It's easy to look back and see either the good or the bad, but every age is mixed.

Today McDonald's is known for its poor employee benefits, lack of available health insurance, union-busting and environmental destruction from buying cheap South American beef. So it seems odd to feature a McDonald's franchisee as the epitome of the best of old-fashioned values, but it's true. I heard of the Canchola family and their incredible success with a McDonald's store on the U.S./Mexico border shortly after moving here; just mention the name to any long-time Tucsonan and they will probably nod. Rumor is that their first year, every child (there were six) worked to keep the store going. The family contributed to the community and became the stopover for those going shopping over the border (we've been there multiple times). I'm not a big fan of McDonald's, but I am a big fan of the Cancholas and their compassionate business ethics. For this reason, I am sad that the store is being handed over to someone outside of the family, and I also give the family my best wishes. I only wish everyone could be as amazing in their community; it would be a different world.

End of era at Golden Arches in Southern Arizona
"...'You have to give back.' "
That attitude is something Canchola credits others for instilling in him.
"A lot of people helped me in my life. I learned from them, and I learned that you don't pay those people back. You can't; you pay forward," he said in an interview with the Star in 1988. "You help somebody else that's coming along."
From that mind-set grew the idea of a Christmas Day celebration for children living in dilapidated, hillside shacks on "el otro lado" — the other side of the border.
What began as a family-sized event grew to involve thousands of children, coordination with immigration officials and volunteers from all over Southern Arizona who were drawn to the Canchola family fiesta.
This year, the burger joint will stand dark on Dec. 25, although the new owners hope to host the party again starting next year.
Dr. Richard Carmona, who volunteered at the Christmas party for 20 years, called the news the "end of an era."
"The Cancholas are a wonderful family who have done so much for this community," he said. "The situation is very sad."
Carmona, president of Canyon Ranch Institute in Tucson, would travel to Nogales from Washington, D.C., for the annual event when he was U.S. surgeon general.
"I always remember this one little girl who wouldn't eat her hamburger because she wanted to take it home and share it with her family," he said. "The event brought so much happiness — at least for a little while — to so many." (picture from www.azstarnet.com)

A minor remodel...for the rest of us

One of my major frustrations in house remodeling, house decorating or anything that has to do with the appearances of our private or semi-private lives, is that magazines frequently feature only the upper middle-class. By this I mean people who think they are middle class, but really are upper middle class. Anyone who makes over, oh, $85,000/year is, in my opinion, out of the middle class bracket. So I'm always amused by the statement, "middle-class couple Jane and Jack made $250,000 last year..." I mean, I'm sorry, maybe I grew up a little too poor, but my dad made $20,000/year in the '80s and there were 5 of us and we were not on any government assistance.

My husband makes $54,000/year for our family of four. We currently supplement that with a combination of free school (my husband is a university employee) and the GI bill, as well as $350/month from our tenant. We are not rolling in dough; soon we will be a one-car family again. But I think we're fine. Sure, it would be great if I worked full-time, bumping our income up to $87,000/year, but we've made our choices.

This summer we did a lot of remodeling. We redid our guest house, refaced the kitchen, tore out and redid the hall bath, put in new flooring in the entire house and knocked out a wall in the kitchen. We also had the house painted and the landscape redone, all new appliances put in and we purchased a new dining room table, office desk and bedroom set. Our total? Around $42,000, including rent on another place while we did it.

So when I see people earmark $54,000 for a kitchen redo, all I can do is roll my eyes and wonder, who the hell spends that kind of money? I mean, we might replace our cupboards in the spring, but only if we can make it happen for under $5K. I have a word for stories about expensive remodeling...sponsored.

According to Remodeling magazine's "2006 Cost vs. Value Report," a "minor," midrange kitchen remodel averaged $17,928, and 85% of the money was recouped at sale. A "major," midrange remodel averaged $54,241 and returned 80% of the cost. Both projects include replacing the sink, faucet, countertop, flooring, oven and cooktop.

How's your gift-giving etiquette?

Here's a great little self-test from Kiplinger on gift-giving etiquette.

Test Your Gift-Giving Etiquette
When giving or receiving this holiday season, there's a right -- and wrong -- way to go about it. For example, is it okay to re-gift? Do you know how to handle an unexpected present? Is an e-mail thank-you note acceptable?

I regret to say I only received a 60%, which in most schools means failure. However, I don't mind re-gifting -- it wouldn't bother me if someone re-gifted to me, and I think it's fine to send unusable things on, so long as they are still in their original packaging -- and I always gift my boss a gift. I give the same thing to my boss and co-workers (when I'm working), which is usually just a tiny box of chocolates, or a card for a free latte with a card. Regardless, it was fun to see what was there and how others scored. Enjoy!

Making a list, and really checking it twice

So I caved and went to the mall and and a few other select stores yesterday and today to pick up some deals. A dear, dear friend of mine, whom I recently visited, has three children aged 7, 9 and 13. While I was there, I noticed the state of their bedding was horrible, and there were hardly any towels in the bathroom that were a single piece. So, this year, even though I am not buying gifts for any other friends, I decided to buy each child a bed-in-a-bag and to buy my friend some complete sets of towels. I budgeted around $150 for the family, knowing that I could buy super-cheap items for that but hoping I could find some nicer deals this weekend. After all, the problem with super-cheap stuff is that it just doesn't hold up, and clearly, THIS STUFF NEEDS TO HOLD UP.

I hit multiple stores looking for deals. I shopped Linens-n-Things late Friday night. I cruised Target at 10:45 p.m., noting the gaunt and exhausted faces of those poor Black Friday workers. I found one bedding package at Linens-N-Things for $49.99, and two towels sets (each with bath towels, hand towels and washcloths) for a mere $15 a piece. I had a 20% off coupon for the bedding, but I could hardly buy 3 without exceeding my budget. I soldiered on.

I haunted the basement of JCPenney's at 10 a.m. I dragged screaming family members into Sears. After an hour of picking through a few hundred comforters, I finally found two amazing comforters for just $18 each. Bingo! They were soft. They were warm. They were blue. They were perfect!

Then I found two sets of 300-thread-count sheets on clearance -- not only were they a decent thread count, but they matched the comforters. They were marked down to $16.97, with an additional 20% off. I took my haul to customer service to listen to them try to sign me up for a Sears card and to finally ring up my merchandise.

They forgot the 20% off. So okay, that's fine, I go back and show them the sign and they nod and then take my 20% off the sheets, saving me another $6.00. This would seem unremarkable, except...

I then found some really nice Skechers for my 5-year-old for Christmas. He really wanted a pair (purely due to t.v. advertising, I'll admit) but since I've only just gotten him out of plastic Spiderman sandals, I was actually happy he wanted nice shoes. I found a pair at Sears later that day marked down from $44.99 to $19.99. This is only a few dollars more than a regular pair at Target or Walmart. I seized the box (they had his size!) and took it to the register.

It rang up at regular price.

I took yet another saleslady to the sign, she checked the numbers, and then we proceed to wait nearly 20 minutes (I am serious) for a manager to show up to clear the transaction. My savings? $25.00 But this is getting a bit old...

Except for the fact that, earlier in the day at JCPenney's, I picked up a pair of jeans for my son (he's also grown out of everything the past month) that were marked down to $10.00. There was another, nearly identical pair next to it. When they rang it up...the second pair was $17.99. I had them take it back. My savings: $7.99 (actually $17.99, since I didn't go search for another pair).

So...the total mistakes for today totaled $39.00. That's nearly 40 bucks! It's hard to believe that these are all honest mistakes, and not retailers' deliberate sloppiness. This sloppiness means money in their pocket. How many people would weather the embarrassment of waiting 20 minutes for a manager to show up (who was, incidentally, completely unapologetic for the wait)?

It has only been recently that I've started really scrutinizing my receipts. My mother used to do this, but I never acquired the habit. Then I saw this article on Get Rich Slowly, and I decided to start checking and see what would happen. In addition to my $39.00 savings today (or $49.00, depending on how you see it), I have also noticed mistakes on my grocery receipts three times. For two of them it was an incorrect price, for a savings of $7.39 (the third was an item under the wrong sign, and I opted to pay the higher price for it).

If you add up the grocery mistakes, I made $46.93 this month, just by spending the time to check the receipts.

So for everyone joining the rat-race we call Holiday shopping, here's a tip: don't just check your gift list, check your receipts -- and recheck. The money I saved today meant that I came under budget for my shopping this weekend.

(On a side note: By using my coupon and insisting on the advertised discounts, I managed to buy the two towel sets and 3 complete bed sets for my friend for the low, low price of $143.79, tax included. I came under budget by $6.21 while still buying really nice, good quality items. I am very proud of my shopping this year, and glad that my good friend will have nice, warm blankets for all her kids!)