Budgeting for the Holiday's - how to survive!

Every year as Christmas time approaches I think our stress level increases as we talk about the budget.  No one likes to have that discussion...how much is feasible to spend and how much is realistic to spend?

I have always been known to outdo it every year, because I want nothing but the best for my family and friends.  I have done the extreme where I don't really shop for sales and just get what I know they want, and I have done the frugal where I only buy something if it is on sale.

This  year, like every year, I went out on Black Friday.  Even starting at 6:00 a.m. it seemed as though every where I went I was too late to get that one thing that was on my list for each person.  It didn't matter what store I went to, the things on my list were never there.  By the end of the day I was tired, frustrated and concerned because this year, I knew I have to be frugal in my Christmas spending.

I had already spent close to half the budget and I only had items for six people on my list but only got everything for two of the people.  This set me into panic mode, so I turned to Excel to help me wrap my head around it all.

I created three different spreadsheets.  Excessive?  Maybe, but it actually is very helpful in showing me what I need to see.  These spreadsheets should not include your spouse and children, you will want a separate one for them, this is strictly for your family and friends that you shop for every year.  The examples I am using can be tailored to fit any family need.

The first spreadsheet what I did was made four different columns as follows:

Seems simple enough...right?  What you need to keep in mind is this; Who are you buying for and how much is your MAX amount you want to spend on each person.  We also added an area with what realistically we wanted to spend and I showed the Total Over that amount of our projection.  This put it into reality for me.  I needed to find some items on sale so that the retail price would hit where we wanted to spend for each person but my Total Spent was lower.  For example, one person we bought for wanted a appliance.  So I went on a hunt for the best deal for this appliance by searching Black Friday Ads.  The first two places I went to, they were out.  The third place, I get lucky and find one, original price $30 picked up for $14.99.  So when I add up what I spent I add up the retail value as well as my out of pocket cost.  So $30 goes towards say a $50 budget and I know I have $20 left to spend for this person.  But in reality I only spent $15, so I saved $15 which helps my total overage go down.  (note:  This is not an actual item I purchased, because I don't want to give it away to those I am buying for, but I did get a $30 item for $14.99 this year) :)

This spreadsheet shows me my overall budgeted and total spent, it doesn't break it down so I can't really see where the money went, but one of the next two spreadsheets will help with that.

To keep in mind, Column C you always start off with what you budgeted and as you spend, you adjust your totals from Spreadsheet 3 as you go.  My totals may look funny, but they are actually because the formula is set in place for what it will be like once all the receipts are added.

The second spreadsheet is where I wanted to see how much money was spent per card.  I broke it down by credit card and bank card.  This was so I could up on my budget and know where the money was taken from.  If you use credit cards at Christmas time, it is more helpful if you look at your bank account and figure out realistically what you can spend from your bank account.  You want to spend as much cash on hand as you can so that you don't go farther into debt.  If you simply don't have the cash on hand and have to use credit cards, I recommend that you pay off a big chunk (or all if you can) on the card you want to use so that it doesn't set you back any farther.

By going to this spreadsheet, I am able to take a quick glance and see my total spent in each area, and I will total the columns up every time I add to it.

This is what the second spreadsheet looks like:

Now on the meat and bones, where is your money going?  If you are like me and you see a good deal on something you need for the house, you tend to pick it up.  I did this all day Black Friday and got things that we needed for a lot less than I would have spent if I would have waited.  It's ok to do this only on necessities but try to keep it at a minimum and ask yourself, do we really NEED this item or can it wait?

This is what the third spreadsheet looks like, it is a bit more complex so I am going to try and break it down for you:

Column A - Start with the Store Name off of the first receipt in A-1 and in C-1 put what card was used at this store (CC=Credit Card; BC=Bank Card).
A-2 start with the first item on the receipt - who did you buy it for?  Put their name in column A and go down the receipt until all names are entered for each line on the receipt.

In C-2, start with the first item on the receipt - what was the price?  Put the price for each line down Column C next to the names you put in first.

Now this is where it gets a bit tricky.  I decided I needed to give everything a number, so starting in column F, I put numbers down row 1 and then in row 2 I put who each number was going to represent.  Be sure to include Tax, Total CC Spent, Total BC Spent and I also included a space for returns because I knew I already have something I wanted to return.

Once this is set up, in Column E, put what each line will represent, I chose Spent, Budgeted and Difference to show me how much I had already spent and what I still had left.  You will need these totals to input  your total spent on the first spreadsheet.

Once you have your numbering system figured out, you will want to go to Column B and input the number coordinating with each person.  Once that is complete, now the fun begins.

In the spent row (i.e. F-3); you will need a formula to calculate from everything in column C what was spent for each person.  You do this formula as follows:

Click on the down arrow next to the AutoSum function in the ribbon; Click on "More Functions"; Look for the function "SUMIF" and click on that and then click "OK"; You will see a box pop up with Range, Criteria and Sum_range.

For your Range,  you will want to click on Column B by clicking on the "B" in the grey box at the top of the spreadsheet.  This will put the marching ants on the whole column and you will see a "B:B" in the box.

Once you have made that selection active, press "TAB" this moves you to the Criteria box.  Now, you want to click on the number in the column your cursor is in, so for this example it would be column F, which is number 1 - Her Mom; Click on the number 1 (F-1); you will see the marching ants go around the cell indicating it's active.

Once this is done, press "TAB" to move to the Sum-Range box.  In this box you need your totals, what is it going to add up and put in the cell you started in?  You will want to click on Column C by clicking the "C" in the grey box at the top of the spreadsheet to select the whole column.  By doing it this way, you are automatically adding anything that you may put in this spreadsheet in the future.

Once all three boxes are populated, you should have the following in the boxes:
Range:  B:B
Criteria: F1
Sum_range: C:C

If the boxes match, click OK.  You should then see in F1 a total amount of all the amounts next to where you put the number 1.  If you want to double check that it added it up correctly, go through your list and add up the totals manually for that person to make sure it did it correctly.

Unfortunately, you cannot copy this formula to the next cell, so you will need to repeat the process for all of the cells in order for it to work properly.

Once all of the cells are complete for the "Spent" row, the next thing you do is add your Budget under each of those totals by manually typing in the amount.

For the final row, Difference, it's pretty simple.  You do a simple formula that looks like this:
=F4-F3

What this does is it takes the Budget and Subtracts what you spent and shows you what is left (or what you went over).

By using these three spreadsheets you can get a handle on where your money is going so that you don't over spend.  Once you reach a level where  you are comfortable for each person, then stop.  For sale items where  you are wanting to figure in the retail value instead of the sale price, you will want to keep this somewhere else.  If you were to put retail value then your total CC and total BC will be off and that will not show the real amount you spent.

What I have done with this is went back to Spreadsheet 1 and off to the side in the empty columns is added it up that way and then do a sum across the totals.

For example:
Say for Her Mom, you got an item that retailed at $30 for $15 on sale and you want to figure out what would be left for you to spend on Her Mom using the retail value instead of the sale price.

On Spreadsheet one in Column E you will put $30.  Lets say you also spent another $10.50 on her for a different item, so lets add $10.50 to Column F next to Her Mom.  You have at this point only bought two items but you want to see where you are at as far as your budget for Her Mom, in Column G, you will want to put a formula for the Sum of Column E and F which would look like this:  =E2+F2  Your total should now show $40.50, highlight G2 in yellow so you know this is a total amount spent and not part of a receipt.  In column H, you will now want to see what is left to spend on Her Mom, so the formula should be =D2-G2 which should give you $9.50.  If the item is in the good (meaning not a negative amount) make the type green to indicate you still have funds available.  If the item is in the negative, make the type red to show you went over.

Here is a sample of what it would look like with an overage and with available funds:

Remember, the key to not overspending, is to be organized, and know where every penny goes!  It's already helping us this year and I feel so much better about it and know that I will be very close to what we budgeted.  If you go over, make sure you don't go over excessively, and keep track of what you buy!  (THIS IS KEY!).

When out shopping, I like to carry an envelope in my purse.  I have everyone's names on the outside of the envelope with what is left of their budget and as I buy, I write next to the budget what I spent so when I go to the next store, I know what is left.  Inside the envelope goes the receipts.

As soon as I get home, I open my spreadsheet up and start on the first tab and move my way to the third until all receipts are added.  I then write the names of who the items bought were for along with a check mark in the upper right corner of the receipt indicating I have logged it.  All receipts get filed in a Christmas File Folder in our Filing Cabinet so that next year, I still have records of what I bought for each person and how much I spent so I can prepare the budget for that year.  It's very helpful to keep these receipts also in case someone needs to make a return and you didn't get a gift receipt!

How do you currently budget? Do you have something already in place? I'd love to hear from you, please leave a comment below and let me know!

Best of luck to you this Holiday Season with your budgets and your shopping.

May your Holiday's be Merry and Bright,
Shonda

Mystery Dinner - Halloween 2012

I LOVE PARTIES!  No matter when!  So since we have never had a Halloween Party, we decided it was time to try one.  As I started brainstorming on what to do, a little voice in the back of my head kept reminding me about Mystery Dinners.  I have always wanted to plan one and every year that went by that I didn't plan one made me wish I had.  So this year, I decided it was time.

A LOT of work goes into planning a Mystery Dinner, so if you are thinking of planning one some time here are a few tips to bear in mind that I wish I would have thought of before hand. (doesn't have to be Halloween, could be any time of year, just adjust your theme accordingly)

1.  Even with small groups, it is best to recruit help!  We had a total of 10 people (8 playing the game and 2 serving the food).  I really needed a 3rd person back in the kitchen helping prep and serve food, it would have gone a bit quicker with an extra set of hands, but we did good with the 2 of us serving.  Remember when choosing your servers they will know what the options are (and if they are helping you plan they will know well in advance) so pick someone who is good at keeping secrets :)

2.  Take pictures of everything...no matter how behind you get, because afterwards, you'll be sad you didn't capture all the foods (like me).

3.  Even as the planner and a server, have FUN! (we did, but I still wanted to put this out there!)

4.  Get as MUCH done well in advance as possible.  Prep food that can be prepped the day before, have all of the decorations, games and printouts done and set up two days in advance (if you can) to help you better manage your time.

5.  Try the complicated things before hand so you can be prepared for the disasters that could arise.  Our disaster was the curtain hanging to block the view into the kitchen.  I think we tried four times and it kept falling.  Allow enough time to do things like this before the day of the event so you can focus the day of the event on making the food.

6.  Minimal is better.  We tackled a HUGE menu...I say if I were to do it again, I'd have taken away one of the groupings.  It was a lot of food (a lot of leftovers, some waste, and a lot of time preparing).

Ok so now to the fun stuff...lets get planning shall we?

The very first thing you need to do is come up with your theme.  This took a lot of thought and effort and bouncing ideas off of friends to try to figure out.  I finally settled on three different choices, Skeleton Crew, Witches Trio and Vampire Slayers.  These three names were based on the utensils they would choose to eat with.  Only I knew what each one held inside the bags and as the RSVPs came in, it was clear that Vampire Slayers was a favorite among our group.  Skeleton Crew didn't get any votes and Witches Trio had three picks.  I'll reveal later what the utensils were...but for now, know that these three themes were carried over into the menu.  I decided on 2 appetizers, 1 entree and 2 desserts as my guide.

Next thing you need are your invitations.  If you missed my previous blog on the invitations I made for this event, feel free to stop over HERE to check those out.  You will also see one of the prizes we did, the "Food Pass".  This was an awesome addition and they were used, so be sure to put at least one of these at each table.  The way we did it was since I was the planner, I numbered all of the seats (you'll see these numbers in the photos I'll share later).  I had my server and assistant planner choose a number from each grouping (so table one was 1-6 and table two was 7-10).  She picked 3 and 7 so I put the passes on the bottoms of those two chairs and then set the name cards out.  It was neat to see who she picked.

Plan the Menu!  This can be overwhelming!  I scoured the internet in search of ideas to go with my theme and had a hard time finding something for everything so I had to get creative.  I want to first share with you the menu:

I planned both an adult menu and a kids menu (kids tend to be pickier and I wanted to tailor it to be something I knew they'd enjoy eating).

Kids Menu (sorry I didn't get any pictures of their food :( so sad I know)

Appetizers (they got one of each)

Skeleton Bones - Turkey Bites on the ends of a pretzel stick to look like bones

Broomsticks - cocktail hot dogs cut on one end to look like a broom head and then wrapped on top with crescent roll cut to fit

Vampire Smile - Apple wedge with peanut butter smeared on top and mini marshmallows to look like teeth with candy corn as the fangs

Entrees (they chose one)

Skulls - Mini Pizzas made out of biscuits with the pepperoni in the shape of a smiley face

Zesty Witches and Wands and Bloody Guts & Slayers Armor are both adult menu items as well as the Desserts so I'll break those down for you next.

Adult Menu (I failed to get photos of all the foods due to time, so I'll try to describe everything best I can)

Appetizers (they picked three from the list)

Spicy Humerus - Hot Chicken Wing Dip with Tortillas

Funny Bones - Bread sticks in the shape of bones, we cut the ends and curled them down prior to baking

Broomsticks & Potions - Celery and Carrots in a cup with ranch on the bottom

Spicy Eye of Newt & Spotted Toad - Chicken Tortilla Soup and Tortillas

Dracula Fangs - Deviled eggs with red peppers cut out to resemble fangs and stuck on top

Bat Bits - Ham and Cheese sandwich (these were tricky, we cut one slice of break using a bat shaped cookie cutter but it was really small, so we ended up cutting the bread in half and using one half slice for the bottom and then put the bat bread on top of the ham and cheese)

Entrees (they picked one from the list)

Severed Hand & Goo - This was to go for the Halloween WOW factor and boy did it.  This was really easy to make and delicious to eat!  Use a hand gelatin mold, spray the mold with Pam  add your meatloaf mixture (use your own recipe here) dump out onto a cookie sheet lined with foil (easy clean up) and add white onion cut to resemble nails and I even cut one to look like a bone in the wrist.  Add catsup mixture on top (again your recipe will work here) and halfway through I threw some cheese on top and broiled it at the end.

Before baking:

After baking, I added mashed potatoes around and in between the fingers using a plastic bag with the corner snipped off.

Zesty Witches and Wands - Italian Sandwich and Cheesesticks
Italian Sandwich Recipe: Bread is made using two tubes of French Bread Dough (refrigerated section), form to look like a ring, bake according to package.  Cut open the dough so you have a top and bottom for sandwiches and then cut to desired length.  Add zesty Italian Dressing to the bread, and put on your lunch meat and cheeses you want.

*One thing we forgot to put on this were the really neat witch feet toothpicks I had made up prior.  We were pretty hectic trying to get the food out (again a third set of hands would have been helpful here)

Bloody Guts and Slayers Armor - Spaghetti and Garlic Bread

Desserts (they got to pick three from the list)

Bony Fingers - Chocolate covered pretzel rods using a Wilton Finger Mold

Eyeballs - Red velvet cake pops decorated to look like eyes

Witches Hats - this recipe was a hard one...it didn't turn out quite like we had hoped, but was still ok to eat. This is a ice cream cone covered in chocolate and rolled in sprinkles.  There is a chocolate cookie wafer on the bottom and the inside should have been chocolate mousse but it didn't turn out.  I probably should have just done chocolate pudding, it would have been way easier!  :)

Witches Goup (no photo sorry) - This was mint oreo ice cream and I made a cookie witch hat to go on top. We put the ice cream in these really neat clear cups that were small and then put that hat on top to make it look like a green witch :)  The hat was easy to do it was a fudge stripe cookie with icing around the center opening and then a hershey kiss on top.

Blood Suckers - Jello poke cupcakes with a pudding/coolwhip icing and then use a straw dipped in food coloring to get the blood effect on top.

Coffins - sugar cookies decorated to look like coffins.  NOTE:  I cheated here and bought the refrigerated sugar cookie dough to save time...I did not anticipate on them to spread as much as they did so they ended up not quite looking like coffins.  I say next time, use your sugar cookie dough recipe to get the true shape!

Drinks (no photos)
Bone Marrow - Lemonaid (yellow)
Witches Brew - 2 things of frozen apple concentrate, 2-liters of club soda, 1 red apple sliced and put inside the drink
Vampire Nectar - Cherry Limeade

 And while this is not food, these are the Vampire Slayers drinking glasses.  I got plastic champagne flutes and we made a hard tack candy and rolled these in the hard tack before it hardened and let it drip down.  *NOTE* hard tack gets very hot, depending on the thickness of your plastic drinking glass, it could melt it so be careful and always test prior to doing them all.  These were thick enough that they didn't melt.  I got these at the Dollar Tree they were in packs of 2 for $1.

The witches had a plastic wine glass that was black and had "Witches Brew" printed on the front.  I picked them up at the dollar tree for $1 each.

Utensils:

Skeleton Crew (no one picked it, so no photos) - Toothpick, Straw and Chop Sticks

Witches Trio - Fork, Spoon, Knife

Vampire Slayer - Wooden Spoon Set and Vampire Teeth

Kids Utensils - since kids are still learning motor skills, it is best to make sure they get utensils they can use, so we gave them a fork and spoon and a really cool straw that they could use as well.

Water Bottles were essential.  Because each person is different, and I don't really know how picky people are as far as food is concerned, I wanted to have a water bottle set at each place setting for them to use in between to kind of rinse out their mouths. This also served as a double if their drinking glass was empty and we were running behind in the kitchen they still had something to drink as well.  I made labels out of photoshop and am including photos of those for you to see how I did them.  The trick I have found when making water bottle labels (ran across this many years ago when passing out water bottles with customized labels for Church) this helps the label print to not sweat and smear and run, you use packing tape and put the label on the tape and then secure it on the water bottle using the tape...the trick, make the tape longer than the label and make the label width a little smaller than the width of your tape.

Step one - make the labels in photoshop.  I typed out the sizes I used below.

Print out labels, and then cut.

Grab your water bottles and remove the outer label 

Using packing tape, add the labels to your bottles and enjoy!  EASY!

Time to Decorate!

Please know that I am a frugal holiday decorator, as in, I don't like spending money on things I probably am only going to use once.  So, get creative is what I told myself!  I made what I could and what I couldn't I refused to spend more than $2 on unless it was a unique item that I had to have to make the space work.  I think the most expensive item I purchased for decorations were on the vampire table and it was the candle sticks.  They were LED lights and looked like it had dripping blood.  Had to have those :)  Other than that, I got everything either at the Dollar Tree or Walmart and searched for cheap things.

Witches Themed Table - 

I grabbed basically anything that went along with witches here and put them together best I could.

There are tiny witch hats and glitter pieces that say boo and have cats cut out of them on the table as well.  The center piece is a witch hat that I stuffed so it would sit up.  Two cauldrons are on the table with spider webbing to look like foam coming out of them.  You can't see the salt/pepper shakers but they were eye balls.

I took the below shot from a different angle to show you the curtain I hung up to block the entry into the kitchen so they couldn't' see what we were doing :)

Vampire Slayers Themed Table - Rubber bats all over the table, vampire teeth, coffin, vampire cutout, LED candles with blood drips and the salt and papper shakers are eye balls.

Skeleton Crew - Voting Table
The Skeleton themed table was the home of our trophies for the costume contest and had a voting center.  Decorations on here are a skeleton cutout, skulls and skeletons in different colors.

Too see the blog on how to make the skeleton awards, goo HERE

Every party should have games!  This was no exception!

We had a costume contest - winners got trophies (as shown above)
During Dinner we played:  Bingo, Halloween Movie Trivia and had an icebreaker where they passed around questions with different scenarios they had to talk about how they would handle the situation.  These were based on thrillers.
After dinner, we played survivor.

The kids played some games too, they played Bingo and we had one kid winner and one adult winner.  The kids also got to search the house for hidden eyeball eggs (kind of like an easter egg hunt) and then we played freeze dance where they danced to spooky music and had to freeze when it stopped!

Bingo:
 I decided to make a Bingo Card using Photoshop and called them throughout the appetizer round to help pass time while we prepared the plates.

Survivor (sorry, no photos, we were really busy!)

First thing I did was split them into two teams we did boys vs girls

Before we started Round 1, I read a riddle that would lead them to find a hidden immunity idol.  The person who found it could use it to stay in the game.

Round 1 - Card Houses - each team had to build a card house and keep it standing.  The one with the highest at the end of five minutes won.  I put both teams on the same table (probably a big mistake!) The girls bumped the table when the guys got too high and resulted in the girls taking the immunity idol for this round.  (sorry guys!)

Tribal Council - I used a deck of cards as tribal council votes to keep it fair.  If you drew a Jack you were eliminated.  Round one eliminated 2 players on the guys team.

Round 2 - Eating Contest - black licorice, sour worms and saltines.  The guys pulled a win on this one!

Tribal Council - I used a deck of cards as tribal council votes to keep it fair.  If you drew a Jack you were eliminated.  Round two eliminated 2 players on the girls team.  The idol was used on this round saving one of the girls from elimination.

Before starting Round 3, we did another drawing to bring back one player using their seat numbers.  One of the girls was put back into the game!

Round 3 - Blind Folded Trust Challenge - contestants had to navigate one player who was blind folded around the house using only words.  The blind folded player had to also carry a spoon with a feather on top and if the feather fell, the guide had to instruct them on where it was to pick it up.  This game was really interesting, with the guys falling behind early on due to dropping the feather and not being able to find it.  The girls were taking the slow and steady route and had a big lead on the guys but they caught up to the girls at the end and as paybacks, blew off the girls' feather causing them to lose and gaining the idol.

Tribal Council - I used a deck of cards as tribal council votes to keep it fair.  If you drew a Jack you were eliminated.  Round three eliminated 2 players on the girls team.

Round 4 - Puzzles - one player from each team had to race to put together a puzzle.  The girls took the win for this one.

Tribal Council - I used a deck of cards as tribal council votes to keep it fair.  If you drew a Jack you were eliminated.  Round four eliminated 1 player on the guys team.  This left our group with only two players left.

Final Round - Memory Tray - I put together a tray of items that you may use while camping.  I gave each player two minutes to study the tray and try to memorize what was on it.  After the tray was removed I gave them two minutes to write down everything they could remember.  The girls took the win and won the game overall.

Prizes:  I did give out prizes for all the games, this can be adapted for your group of attendees.  We had mostly girls at our party so the prizes were geared more towards the girls (candles).  I also had bags of candy made up for some of the other prizes and for the kids I had stickers and candy prizes as well.

I also put together goody bags for everyone in attendance with gender appropriate gifts.  I had a small tool and a 20 ounce of soda in the guys bags and the girls got beauty products like hand sanitizer from Bath and Body Works!

I hope you enjoyed my breakdown of the Mystery Dinner!  Enjoy planning your own and if you have any questions feel free to comment below!

Happy Halloween,
Shonda