Secret Santa ideas

We have drawn again on staff for Secret Santa. It's always a fun lil perk to those whirling days before Christmas. I have drawn a lady who is newer to staff. She joined us at the beginning of last year and works half time with us and half time with another school.

We have a $20 limit. You can give one larger item or you can give little things along the five days. I prefer the little gifts for each of the five days. More fun that way.chri

I have made arrangements with the secretary  of the other school to put the items in my Secret's mailbox on the 2 days she is with them. It will help her feel more connected  to it all.

I have found a great lil poem online with verses I can attach to each gift.

I am looking for ideas for the little gifts along the way.

Have you been a secret santa before??? or received???

Any suggestions???

A survey for the ladies

Gail Vaz-Oxlade has a survey out for ladies right now. If you wish to participate, please enter the following questions into an email to getgvo@gmail.com

If you are not a Gail follower and would like to include 'referred by jolie at shakingthmoneytree.blogspot.com' in the subject line of the email I would appreciate that as there is a lil competition of sorts.

The prize is a Gail book. If I win, I will buy another copy and run a contest for my readers and mail it to you.

Of course if you are a Gail follower I expect you'll pop your own name there.

1. Do you control the purse strings when it comes to making decisions about household spending?
2. Do you have the financial “last word” on spending in your family?
3. How often do you consult your partner before making fiscal decisions? (rank out of ten, ten being all the time, 1 being never)
4. Have you set a financial goal in the last year?
5. Do you have a financial plan to achieve your goal?
6. Are you in charge of your family’s financial education?
7. Have you actually taken steps to educate your kids?
8. Do you consistently encourage your children to save money?
9. How do you prefer to get your financial information?
Newspapers
TV
Online
Blogs
Other: (what?)

10. If you do not take advantage of “financial news” sources, why not?
Lack of interest in financial news
Not relevant to my life
Boring
Too theoretical
Other: (what?)

11. How confident are you in your financial know-how? (rank out of ten, ten being extremely confident, 1 being not at all confident)
12. How old are you:
Under 20
20-30
31-40
41-50
51-60
Over 60

13. Do you have an advisor that you trust?
14. How confident do you feel that you know who to turn to for financial advice? (rank out of ten, ten being extremely confident, 1 being not at all confident)
15. Where to you live?
Canada
U.S.
Other

Where the money stands

as of December 7th

Debts
Mortgage - $35 449.84
Vehicle Loan - $16 960.41

Total Debt - $52 410.25

Savings
Summer 2011 - $275
EF (TFSA)  - $2000

Total Savings - $2275

Planned Savings
RRSP Portfolio - $2500
RESP - $6140

A few changes then this month. Debt went down by $1300ish. I can't wait for it to go below $52 000. It will be nice to see a new and lower 'decade'.

The EF went into the TFSA. I am not sure if I will transfer money to it each month next year or if I will do it in chunks. New realm for me.

The RESP went up this month. I am guessing it is the government incentives that are going in. Tiny balance, but better than the $0 balance I started 2010 with.

The RRSP was added to this month as well. I took the  $1500 I had saved and put it in. I figured I might as well do it now rather than wait til after Christmas. The tax forms will be here sooner then and I will be ready to go when next tax season hits.

Sunday morning this and that

Yesterday was a busy day for me. After a week of neglect it felt like this were just piling up around me.

• Shopping - I went out (actually the husband came out too which is nearly a miracle) and I'd say 90% of my Christmas shopping is done. There are a couple more things on my list but the big stuff is done and just needs to be wrapped. I came home and tallied up the money. It goes so very very fast. I may have to reconsider my budget for xmas next year.
• Baking - I had some baking I needed to do for our staff party. Homemade butter tarts. mmmm addictive.
• Hockey - DS1 had hockey last night. I am working on curbing my concession spending at the games. It's just something in the air when you get to the rink that you just WANT to eat. The money goes fast though and let's be realistic, it's not all that good for you. I bought an herbal tea to sip. Hot, calorie free and $1
• Scouts - DS2 headed off to Service Scouter camp up north. Some outdoor fun. Some indoor fun. He's loving it. Absolutely loving it. He'll be home sometime today.
• Staff party - I have to say that I couldn't ask for better work colleague/friends. We get along so well. Work. play. teamwork. When you spend more waking hours in a day, in theory with your colleagues, than your family, a healthy relationship with them is so important. We had a progressive meal for our party. Cocktails at A's house, Appetizers at B, Entree at C, Dessert at D and ended up at house E. We rented a bus so that everyone could ride together and those who wanted to drink, could do so and know they had a safe ride.  Amazing group of people.
• Today my sister comes home home from Turkey. She spent a month there with a friend for her trip of a lifetime. She's been saving for this forever. I can't wait to hear all about it. My mom was sure she'd be killed travelling in such a different place. Mom's a bit of a  worrier LOL
• DS1 has another hockey game this afternoon and then we're off to mom's for supper.

AWOL - sorry

Sorry guys. The flu hit me shortly after my last post on Sunday and I've been down and out in a variety of ways since then. It's been going around so at least I wasn't alone in my misery.

Things are pulling up though and hopefully Monday will see me right as rain again. I hope the boys don't get it.

Thanks for all the good blog reading while I was down and out.