Beginning on January 1, 2012 there was a change to my healthcare plan at work. Plan participants who used tobacco 5 or more times in the 90 days leading up to the first of the year are now subject to an additional health insurance premium cost of between $30 to $90 per month. The amount is dependent upon how many covered family members use tobacco. Declaring if we are smokers was conducted voluntarily through filling out some paperwork.

My employer is certainly not the first to institute higher premiums for poor health habits. According to a study by eHealth, smokers pay 14% higher premiums than the average premium paid by non-smoker employees, and employees in the ‘Obese’ BMI category pay an average monthly premium 22.6% higher than employees with ‘Normal’ BMI. Wal-mart, the nation’s largest employer, also made headlines recently when they began to charge smoking employees an extra $260 to $2,340 per year in healthcare premiums than non-smoking employees.

This is not an unexpected trend considering the times. The connection between ill health and smoking, being overweight, high cholesterol, etc. has been quantified. Smokers cost employers between $3,000-$4,000 more per year in health insurance than non-smokers (though some stats around the web say it is $1,000 per year more—I am sure the truth is somewhere in the middle).  Obese employees can cost employers between $1,143 and $6,694 per person depending upon BMI, gender, etc. Since the economy has been in a recession, companies and government employers alike have been finding ways to cut expenses and keep their ships afloat. It only seems natural that they would begin to do this.

Each employee in my office receives a mandatory physical once a year due to the nature of my work, so it would not be a far stretch to assume that one year they might get their information on whether or not we use tobacco, our body mass index (BMI), and any other metric they might use to increase health insurance premiums straight from a doctor. I’m not suggesting that people should lie about whether or not they use tobacco between now when we voluntarily give this information and the future when it could possibly be reported for us, but I am suggesting that in my line of work our employer’s connection to our health is a little too close for comfort.

I am not a smoker and I am not obese. However, I do have borderline high cholesterol due to genetics (my diet is pretty good, though there is always room for improvement). Should I be penalized for my cholesterol? On the one hand it seems fair that I should pay a higher cost for my health insurance than others. On the other hand, this is a scary proposition.

Do you currently pay a higher premium for any health issues? If so, has it been an incentive for you to change any habits? How do you feel about this trend? 

When I was in my early twenties I went to an acupuncturist who quickly caught onto my limited vocabulary of should, could, or would. Almost every sentence I used then had one of these words in it—a thought accompanied by a heaping side of guilt. It was so bad that my homework after one session was to eliminate those words from my vocabulary all together. I looked at her incredulously that day, asking, “then what would I say?” Literally, I could not think of another way to say what it is that I wanted to if I could not preface it with one of those words (love those conditionals!). She was not surprised by my question at all. She suggested, “how about say I can, I feel, I want to, I am, I do, I don’t, I won’t.” All of these statements seemed so harsh and permanent to me, especially coming from the much more comfortable land of the conditional.

Over the years since, I have found that saying those conditional words was a great way to pass judgment and beat myself up. It was for any number of reasons: I should have called that person back more quickly, I would like to become a writer, I could have done something differently, and I should have asked my professor that question. By saying those words, it meant that something else must happen in order for me to say, do, feel, or be what I wanted.  For the deeper meaning, it means that I was feeling powerless in achieving or getting what I wanted. And since I felt powerless, I did not have to own the results—after all, if I achieved a great result then it was a semi-fluke, and if I didn’t achieve anything then it was because I hadn’t committed to it anyway.

If we take those same phrases of my early twenties and put some backbone to them, they read like this: I will call that person back more quickly, I want to become a writer, I can do something differently, and I shall ask my professor that question. Perhaps this territory of definites and the potential for mistake-ridden circumstances is as scary for you as it was for me when I to change my words. After all, a conditional statement is a lot softer and allows the leeway to back out of something and not really own its outcome because it is conditional upon something beyond you to make it happen. But a conditional statement also dilutes life.

What I urge you to do this year while writing your New Year’s Resolutions is to include at least one resolution from your land of conditional. If you have this inkling that you should open up a retirement account, if you wish that you would find the time to check your credit scores, if you wish that you could find a way to save money even though you are living paycheck to paycheck, then make it happen this year by putting yourself in the driver seat. Change any of the above statements or the ones from inside your own head into statements with a backbone. Dismiss any judgment of the outcome and own your resolution. If nothing else, this will be the year when you move one from the “I should” category to the “I tried” category.

Since I lived in the land of conditional for most of my young adult life, I’ll get you started with one of my own.

I know I should exercise, but somehow it is just easier to sit on a couch and work on a laptop instead of getting up to go for a bike ride/walk/swim/fill in the blank. And it’s not just the lack of exercise; with work being extremely busy and Frugal Confessions keeping me quite busy, I have been eating lots of pastries, chocolates, and chips instead of healthier options. It’s a good thing I’m not famous, because if I were the Houston Paparazzi would be all over my newly acquired writer’s muffin top! So for 2012, I will exercise at minimum twice a week, every week.

What is your 2012 New Year Resolution from your land of conditional?

Check back on Wednesday to see the results from our goal of saving 50% of our take home pay in 2011, as well as to learn what our financial goals are for 2012. 

I can imagine someone walking around Brooklyn, New York right now with new shoes, new clothes, furniture, and a small appliance or two. They are probably smiling after all of these purchases, smugly satisfied in the good fortune and booty that has come their way. I’m not really certain of what $851.42 can buy a person in a department store as I have never spent this much of my own money in one before, let alone somebody else’s money. But someone else sure had the audacity to do so using Paul’s identity and our credit.

It started about a month ago when I received some mysterious 800-number phone calls on my cell phone. I don’t like to answer my cell phone and specifically never answer it from a number I don’t recognize. The test I usually do is if the unrecognizable number leaves a voicemail, then they were calling for a reason. If they don’t leave a voicemail, then there was no reason for them to have called in the first place or for me to pick up the phone the next time they dial my number. This time it was a 1-800 number that left a voicemail, and it turned out to be our credit card company’s fraud department.

There had been two purchases made at an undisclosed department store in the amount of over $400. Since this is not typical purchasing behavior for us, they rightly called to verify that we had, in fact, not made these purchases. The card was in our possession, which meant that the credit card numbers had clearly been compromised. The only problem was that Paul had all ready left for a business trip and his credit card was the only form of payment on him (coincidentally the magnetic strip was not working on his debit card anymore; he had ordered a new one right before he left)

Over the next week while Paul was in Dallas he was declined on every single purchase he made—gas, restaurants, hotel charges, etc. To be fair, the credit card company was protecting themselves; so long as the card stayed open, someone else was making out pretty well on either the store or the credit card’s dime. After another $851.42 in purchases in a Brooklyn department store, we finally talked the credit card company into sending Paul a new credit card overnight to his hotel so that they could close the account. It was a bad situation for all of us, but I felt really bad for the credit card company/department store that was on the hook for the charges.

The $851.42 showed up on our statement. We had to fill out an affidavit to attest for the charges that were fraudulent, and then fax/mail this in within 5 days. When it came time to pay our credit card for the month, I subtracted the fraudulent charges from what were ours. Unfortunately, this resulted in us getting charged interest of $28.99. Another call into the credit card company and they took the interest charges off. They were still processing the fraudulent claim at the time, but in the end they ended up subtracting this from what we owed. Unfortunately again there was another statement issued, leading us to have to call in again for the interest charges to be taken off of the account.

In the meantime, we also had to call the companies that automatically were paid from this credit card and change the card with each of them—a real hassle.

In a nutshell, the whole thing was a big headache. We were fortunate in that our credit card company was vigilant over our account enough to see that there were fraudulent charges being made. Our credit was not hurt, our identity was not stolen, and we now have the new credit up and running.

Have you ever had your credit card or debit card stolen? Was it the physical card, or just the numbers? Any idea how it happened?   

I sat down to watch the first episode of the new season of Downsized. My eyes widened when the father, Todd, decided that it was time to start looking for a home to purchase. Not only did they just have a foreclosure 18 months earlier on top of a bankruptcy, but his argument to purchase a home was that the children now owned about 5 vehicles between them (they worked hard and paid for their own vehicles) and there was no room to park them all.

The wife was not keen on purchasing a home after just getting out of such a rough period in their lives (listen to your gut Laura!) and so they decided to discuss their finances and home purchasing outlook with their financial advisor. During the sit down, it came to light that they had received money from starring in the first season of Downsized. The amount of money was not disclosed; however, they were able to pay off their debt, their debt to their children, and still had $18,000 in the bank. In my mind I think they were paid around $50,000, but this is just speculating based off of the debts I remember from the first season. Needless to say, they are in a much better financial situation due to their involvement with the television show…but I am still completely against the idea that they should purchase a home.

Reality television shows to me are sort of like terrariums. Through the glass we are given a sneak peek of a different ecosystem, however frail or robust it may be. Because of the recession we are seeing reality shows pop-up that are based on people whose finances are in disrepair. However, by paying them money to be on a reality tv show the producers jeopardize the terrarium environment that we all find so fascinating or gut-wrenching to watch. It’s like when you watch one of those Renovation Reality tv shows and you know that there just has to be a handyman behind the camera—wouldn’t it be nice if they swooped in and pointed out what they were doing wrong before they hurt themselves or their wallets? But if they did…then it wouldn’t be reality anymore.

This made me wonder about financial reality television shows: how much money do financial reality tv stars make for being in the shows, and how does this affect their reality and the ‘reality’ that we are witnessing? From what I have seen and researched online, reality tv stars are compensated in some way for their participation. I think whether or not this affects the reality that we see is based on many factors, such as the type of payment, time of the payment, and the amount of the payment.

Time of Payment

I think the time of the payment is key in whether or not it interferes with the reality that we are viewing. Is the person paid per episode, before taping, or after the episode/season? This could have a lot of bearing on their lives. I think if the people are not paid during the tapings, then that holds a little bit more reality than those who are paid per-episode.

For example, Gail Vaz-Oxlade’s show ‘Til Debt do Us Part pays the person at the end of the show if they made the improvements and changes she was hoping to see. The payout from this show can be up to $5,000, and she often throws in a monetary gift of some sort like a weekend getaway or paid-for classes to further someone’s passion. During the show there is typically no money exchanged between the producers and the person. However, several times she has had to give a person monetary loans against their potential $5,000 earnings at the end (every time she does this she informs the viewers and subtracts it from any money earned at the end of the show).

The show Downsized is another example where the people were not paid during the season; however this one has a twist. For the first season the family was unpaid. Then they were paid an undisclosed sum of money at the end of the first season, and WETv is now airing a second season. This means that their reality has now changed dramatically as they were able to pay off their debts and have $18,000 left in a savings account. How would their family have fared without this money? What would their reality be then?

Type of Payment

Some people are paid for their appearance and participation with cash, while others are given non-monetary compensation such as a new home and a vacation while the home is being built (Extreme Makeover Home Edition). While not having a mortgage to deal with each month arguably gives you a huge financial leg-up, the families also have to cover higher property tax, utility and maintenance bills (it is typical for a home to go from being 1,200 square feet to over 4,000 square feet, which ends up raising the property taxes for not only the owner, but in some cases the neighborhood). Also, there are tax ramifications for someone giving you such a large gift. However, this show stops taping after the owners are given their new house, so we don’t really see the results of people being given such a large gift.

Amount of Payment

Depending on how much money the show is bringing the network, industry experts say that reality tv stars are paid anywhere between $750 per week (Big Brother) to $75,000 episode (Jon and Kate at their height of notoriety).

Teen Mom on MTV reportedly pays $60,000-$65,000 per season. This is a lot of money for a teenager (heck, it’s a lot of money for someone my age!), and would certainly change their financial circumstance. In fact, this would seem to backfire because it could show other teenagers that it is not that tough to make it as a teen mom (which undoubtedly it is incredibly tough to do so, especially due to finances, but for other obvious reasons as well).

Anticipation Factor

I’d like to discuss one other thought I had: the anticipation factor. I am not sure how much reality can be in what we are viewing due to the fact that it is human to make financial decisions based on what you are anticipating. If you know that you are going to receive monetary compensation at the end of the season or show, then perhaps you will spend money as needed or wanted. This would certainly change the reality of the terrarium.

After all is said and done, I feel that paying financial reality television stars is going to change the reality that we are watching, whether it be because of the anticipation that they are receiving payment after the show is finished, or because they are being paid all along. Yet I do believe that they should be paid for their time and willingness to bare their lives on television—after all, networks are making money off of them. I guess I need to have a dose of skepticism for shows that I watch and remember that primarily they are for entertainment purposes.

Do you watch any financial reality television series? What are your reservations about them? Do you feel that payment changes the reality of the stars?

Happy Memorial Day to all of the Veterans, Active Duty Military Personnel, and their Families, Loved Ones, and Friends!

Most of you know that my husband and I met while he was in a Cryptologist in the Navy. He was stationed in Japan, and so the first three years of our relationship took place over thousands and thousands of miles apart. We used to joke that it would be wonderful to get on the same continent as one another, let alone in the same time zone.

                We are proof that relationships can survive the military; 7 years later we married and are now living in Houston. Still, I remember how hard it was to sustain a relationship with someone in the military. Initially we had three months of uninterrupted bliss together in Japan while I was studying abroad in 2003. Once I returned home, we saw one another once every three months for a few weeks at a time. During the day I wrote emails to him, and I would excitedly wake up in the morning knowing that he had sent me emails while I slept. We spoke to one another on the phone several nights a week. Our conversations centered around learning about each other’s day-to-day experiences, talking about memories of Japan together, and counting down the days to when we would be reunited.

                What really sustained us and our relationship throughout those years was our handwritten letters. Emails were wonderful for day-to-day, especially since letters would take anywhere from two weeks to several months to arrive (we learned to number our letters because sometimes they would not show up in chronological order). Hearing each other’s voices was the best but speaking to one another everyday was not financially viable. It was the letters that made all the difference—knowing that the other person has handwritten thoughts onto the same paper that is now in your hands.

                I thought I would share with you all ways we found to sweeten up our letters. Note that these are all very inexpensive touches, and a lot of them you can make yourself instead of purchasing at the store.

• Scent the paper with perfume/cologne
• Add confetti (store-bought or homemade) to the letter
• Use stickers and stamps to dress it up
• Include small chocolate treats, like the single Ghirardelli chocolates you can buy at cash registers
• Go to a photo booth and have a strip of photos taken (you can also make large letters L-O-V-E and hold them up in each of the photos)
• Include torn-out magazine articles and newspaper clippings or printouts of articles online that you read and found interesting (you can put your thoughts in the side columns and/or use a highlighter)
• Photos of any kind, especially developed ones from a previous trip together
• Learn how to fold your letters in original ways
• Include a Mad Libs sheet (store bought or make your own) and the next time you are on the phone you can fill it out together
• Purchase a journal and mail it back and forth so that you see a chronology of your letters, thoughts, and relationship
• Play a questions game: in each letter include a separate sheet of paper with several random questions on it for your beau to fill out and return with their next letter
• A book that you also purchased for yourself so that you each can read it at the same time (your copy can be from the library)

I would love to hear your ideas for adding that extra something to letters!

Most of us don’t like paying taxes because it is more money out of our pockets. This can be especially true if we do not believe in the types of policies or programs our tax money is funding. Because of this, you would think that the country with the highest tax rate in the world would have the most miserable people, right? It turns out that Denmark has the highest tax rate in the world with a 48.9% tax-to-GDP ratio.  In comparison, India’s tax-to-GDP ratio is 10.6%, Japan’s is 27.4%, and the United States is 28.2%. But there is something else that Denmark is known for: being the happiest country in the world. Isn’t that interesting?

Every year, the Danish work until June 17^th in order to pay their tax burden.  In comparison, the United States’ tax freedom day is April 9^th. Even though the Danish must work two entire extra months out of the year just to pay their tax burden—half the year in total—they are happier than we are as a whole. In other words, happiness or lack thereof cannot be dictated by the amount of taxes paid (unless it increases the Danish people’s happiness to pay taxes). Happiness also is not dictated by moneyalone either: while Denmark is a wealthy country—Denmark’s 2009 GDP per capita is $55,992—Norway has a much higher GDP per capita of $79,089 and ranked 9^th in terms of happiness, not first.

So if both tax burden and GDP are not indicators of happiness, then what are?

Main Indicators of Happiness

It turns out there are several different ways to quantify the happiness of a nation. In 2006 the University of Leicester undertook a study that combined both economics and psychology in order to find out which countries were the happiest in the world. Analysis showed that “a nation’s level of happiness was most closely associated with health levels (correlation of .62), followed by wealth (.52), and then provision of education (.51)”. Denmark ranked No. 1, and the United States came in at 23^rd on the world’s first ever “World Map of Happiness”.

This study was followed by a University of Cambridge study in 2007 that showed the Danish as the happiest people in Europe. The Cambridge study concludes that “[o]ne of the most consistent trends is that those with the highest levels of happiness also reported the highest levels of trust in their governments, the police and the justice system, as well as those around them. Happier people also tended to have plenty of friends and acquaintances, as well as at least one very close friend, or a partner.”

A final study was conducted in 2009 by the OECD (Organization of Economic Co-Operation and Development) and once again Denmark was named the happiest country. This study was based on “subjective well-being, defined as life satisfaction”, and asked the question, “D[o] people feel like their lives [a]re dominated by positive experiences and feelings, or negative ones?”

How Can We Increase Our Happiness as a Nation?

I can say with certainty that happiness is not based on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or the amount of our tax burden alone. Most of us have limited resources and know that the lack of money can make us pretty miserable around bill-paying time. The same is true if we owe the IRS a lot of money and April comes around. However, gobs of money and low tax burdens do not have a strong correlation to true happiness. As listed above, some of the studies showed that trust in government, health, wealth (enough to be comfortable), and education are all good indicators of happiness, and are all prevalent in Denmark. This begs the question as to why Americans are not higher up on the ‘happy chain’? If we take the same indicators used in the studies above, we can start to see why we may be lacking in happiness. Overall, there is a growing distrust of government in the United States. Nearly 1/3 of Americans are obese, diabetes and heart disease are also wearing on our overall health. There is also a prevailing cultural obsession with those who are wealthier than us (keeping up with our neighbors and idolizing celebrities), and with consumerism, both of which can lead to discontent and to a lot of debt. We’ll need to start tackling these issues before we can beat Denmark at the happiness game.

What do you think are indicators of happiness? How do you think Americans can improve their happiness as a nation?

This is a sponsored post from the British Company Homeserve Insurance.

Boiler failures are, unfortunately, quite common, and there are many causes – but some can be remedied with a simple, non-technical action. Although carrying out a boiler repair is illegal if you’re not properly qualified, there are a few simple checks you can carry out yourself if you’re unlucky enough to suffer a breakdown. Having a quick check of your equipment could be one way of diagnosing the problem quicker, and will help ensure that you get the right person out to do the job.

Safety Precautions

Please be aware that there are safety issues involved when dealing with your boiler. It’s important that you feel confident that you know what you’re doing, as making a mistake could lead to the leak of carbon monoxide – which can be fatal.

Checks to Do Yourself

Most people should be able to carry out a few simple checks.

• One of the first things you should do when your boiler packs in is check your power supply – if it’s off, you may have suffered a power cut. If this has happened to your street or local area, it’s likely the utility company is doing all it can to get the power back on. However, if it’s just your home that’s been affected, it’s more likely to be a wiring problem – and will require the services of an electrician.
• You can also check whether your gas supply is on – if the gas stopcock is on but no gas is coming through, you will need to contact your supplier.
• It’s also important to check whether your pilot light is on. Information on how to relight it should be contained in your boiler’s instruction booklet or printed on the door of the boiler itself. This involves checking whether the gas stopcock is open or not. If it’s off, turning it on will restore the gas supply to solve the problem.

When to Call in a Professional

• You should never try to dismantle your boiler or alter it in any way – that’s the job of a skilled and fully qualified professional.
• If you have found that your gas stopcock is on but no gas is coming through, you will need to contact your supplier
• Call an electrician if your power supply to the boiler is off and will not turn back on

Boiler Insurance

In any case, having boiler insurance in place is one way that you can avoid having to carry out any checks you feel uncomfortable with. With this type of cover in place – which can come as part of home emergency insurance – you’re able to get a specialist out to fix the problem as soon as one occurs. With no hefty bill to deal with and the peace of mind that a Gas Safe-registered technician is working on your boiler, you can be sure that your home will usually be back on track in no time at all.

Half of this article was written by a person lost in a flurry of details in June of this year, the other half was written by a much calmer, reflective person this past week.

For the last two weeks, I’ve been running around like my head’s been cut off by a chicken—or whatever that saying is. It’s the paperwork to change my name while cutting through the bureaucracy to figure out how to do so, it’s the lethargy that comes from stagnant, humid, Houston air from the AC not working in our home concurrent with the energy and time drain from dealing with our home warranty company, it’s the property appraisal that I just fought and won after two rounds with Harris County, it’s deciding to tackle the trim in the entranceway and hallway upstairs—albeit with beautiful results—on top of normal housework, my fulltime job, and my writing. In essence, it’s everything.

I find myself in these phases every so often, when I am willing to use up every last second of the day in detail-hell because I think that there is an end in sight, a point at which I will no longer need to take care of any details. I am a hamster on its wheel, allowing myself to loop around in circles over and over again in the rugged and senseless details of the now with the hopes that I will fall upon Utopia: the promise land of automatic, of non-paperwork and of more time than I know what to do with.

A Glimpse into My Utopia

Somehow this place exists where errands do not need to be run, no phone calls need to be made, and I will never again need to stick my unsuspecting hand down into the bowels of our broken garbage disposal. If I were to define it for a specific day, it would look something like this: At around 8:30 I naturally wake up to an audience of my two cats, who are snuggling and adoring one another. Paul and I have breakfast of French croissants with sugared berries in parfait glasses on our patio to the coquettish tunes of birds taking advantage of our bottomless bird feeders. Next I grab an empty notebook and close myself into my office—a room with four whiteboard walls like at the Google headquarters—and I brainstorm for hours. After lunch, Paul and I settle into our library, which is stocked with wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling bookcases, complete with one of those sliding ladders so that we can access anything our minds desire. After several hours of losing myself in a delicious book, I head back to my office, close myself in, and write to my heart’s content.

Life is good.

Financial Utopia

Most people have a vision of Financial Utopia as well. It’s a daydream that usually starts with winning the lottery, receiving a sizable (and unexpected) inheritance, or reaching an early retirement age with enough money to feed our luxurious desires for the next 30 years. People envision that with large sums of money—thus taking money out of every equation in our lives—everything will neatly fall into place and we will be happy with the results. And while it is easy and tempting to think about all of the luxuries money could afford us, such as laying on the beach all day and being served by cabana boys, sitting on the couch without the need to lift a finger ever again, fill in your own blank, even lottery winners do not seem to the find the Utopia that winning millions of dollars seems to warrant. Many lottery winners actually go broke within a few years, something my numbers-obsessed mind cannot wrap itself around. And for the richest in our country, Notorious B.I.G. seems to have it right when he rapped “Mo’ money, mo’ problems”.

What is Utopia, Really?

Aside from the fact that Utopia might not exist (ha! I’m still holding onto the slightly delusional thought that it does and I am just ten errands away from finding it), what would I do once I reached it? Eat luxurious foods until I become fat, sing cumbaya by a fire for all of the rest of my days? Sit in a rocking chair on my porch with the hopes that something exciting might come in the mail?

As I sit down to round out this article months after initially writing it in a flustered fury, the rush of bills, mail, paperwork and the like have all been dealt with and I feel a sense of calm. Perhaps this is what Utopia truly is; I still have things that need to be done this week—I need to eat, run a few errands, pay a few bills, the like—but the majority of the load is off my back. In other words, I do not have more than I can handle. It is having something to do, lodged between moments of pure calm and serenity where the world seems to stop and you can sit down and enjoy a cup of tea. It is moderation, living in-between the world of extremes: too much on one side (riches), and too little on the other (poverty). It is having enough time to sit and ponder the ways of the world without getting lost in a spiral of endless questioning.

Utopia is a moment to breath.

Other Articles You May Enjoy:

Why We Are So Bad About Buying Happiness
Would You Take a Pay Cut for Happiness?
Finding Happiness: How Can You Own More by Owning Less?

Let’s face it: not all homemade gifts are created equal. Some people seem to have a real knack for making things from scratch, and we look forward to those kinds of gifts. Other people seem to not have such a knack…and our attics fill up over the years. (Yes, it is the thought that counts and we truly appreciate their efforts; we just can’t seem to make use of them).

Below are a few ideas for homemade gifts that are practical, delicious, cute, and frugal.

• Chinese Takeout Boxes and Chocolate Truffles: Purchase Chinese takeout boxes from Michael’s craft store (don’t forget to use a 40% off coupon from the Sunday paper), and make homemade chocolate truffles. You can put tissue paper in the little boxes, and then fill each with a few truffles. Make a cute tag.
• Herb-infused oil/Dipping oil: You can score great glass bottles from Marshall’s, Ross, TJ Maxx, or other discount department store. Purchase the herbs and oil, and make some beautiful and yummy gifts! You can include a long loaf of French bread, and/or directions for how to use the oil.
• Jams and Jellies: Make a cute label from your kitchen, or from your yard, and tie it around with a festive ribbon.
• Photo Calendar: Gather photos of your family, photos of you, photos of your travels, your favorite recipes, etc. and assemble them into a calendar. You can print these out using services such as shutterfly or vistaprints.
• Wine Cork Bulletin Board: Save your wine corks throughout the year, or ask restaurants to save them for you. Assemble your cork board using particle board or other scraps of wood as backing.
• Brownie and Soup Jars: This is an idea that was popular in the amish community where I grew up. Purchase bulk ingredients, mason jars (can also get these wholesale), and perhaps even a little scoop from a craft store like Michael’s. There are all kinds of neat gift in a jar ideas out there; remember to make a cute tag to wrap around it to dress it up a bit.
• Garden Marker Rocks: For friends and family who enjoy gardening, purchase outdoor paint from Michael’s using a 40% off coupon, and purchase large pebble rocks. If you can’t find the rocks there, I was able to find some at a pet store (look in the reptile aisle). Using the paint, make garden markers for different plants like basil, lettuce, spinach, corn, etc. They look so cute and will decorate any garden!

Do you have ideas? I’d love to hear them!

Other Articles You May Enjoy:

77+ Homemade Gift Ideas
Homemade Kitchen Apron

Stockings are fun to fill. What can you fit inside? How can you keep your family and pets guessing? Okay…perhaps your pets aren’t as excited as a person would be, but having stockings for them can add to the character of your family’s holiday.

We have a fireplace and so as soon as we return from Austria we will be hanging our own stockings. So what sort of goodies can I fit inside this year?

1. Mind Games: Mind games are great gifts as they keep you occupied and thinking. They also are excellent gifts for people who work in cubicles and need some punch added to their day. Try out the following: Knots, Visual Brainstorms, and Brain Teasers. Museum stores are also great places to purchase mind games from.
2. Guide to the Stars: This is wonderful for a date night, or for a child who is interested in space.
3. Specialty Barbecue Sauce/Jam/Spice Rub: You can find an excellent selection of these at Marshall’s, Ross’s, TJ Maxx’s, etc. You will get a great discount, and the variety is phenomenal.
4. Gourmet Teas: Throw in a stainless steel tea ball and some loose tea from a tea shop.
5. Small Toys: Think bubbles, bouncing balls, a deck of UNO cards, and glow-in-the-dark adhesive stars.
6. Candy: Any other chocoholics out there? How about putting in untraditional but interesting candy, like rock candy, a giant jawbreaker, or gourmet flavored gums.
7. Burt’s Beeswax Lip Balm or Lip Gloss: This is my favorite lip balm by far, and I often purchase extra tins as gifts for others. The peppermint is fantastic.
8. Batteries: This may not be exciting, but for the person who uses a lot of batteries, it is very useful.  If Santa leaves a gift that needs batteries, it would be complementary to leave them in the stocking (Santa thinks of everything, right?).
9. Unique Socks: But not the white kind; get really interesting ones like toe socks, extra soft ones, character socks, etc.
10. Nail Polishes and Hair Accessories: If you have a tween or teenage daughter, choose a few colors of nail polish to include and some hair accessories.
11. Measuring Tape: For the handy woman or man.

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