After Halloween Deals

$ Grab up remaining halloween candy.  You can get a great deal on chocolates, and no one will be the wiser when they are chopped up in holiday desserts & [...]]]> There can be considerable benefits to starting your holiday planning now.  Start thinking Frugal Christmas, now… and you won’t miss some great opportunities to save.

After Halloween Deals

$ Grab up remaining halloween candy.  You can get a great deal on chocolates, and no one will be the wiser when they are chopped up in holiday desserts & cookies.

 $ Many halloween candies are not individually marked as such.  Pop them in the back of the freezer and they will make stocking stuffer fillers.

  $  If you are a fan of “The Nightmare before Christmas”, start planning a themed Christmas party now.  Gummie worms & those foil covered chocolates, that look like eyeballs ,will never be cheaper. Some halloween props, like cauldrons and mummy wraps, will actually work for the theme. 

  $  Angel and Elf costumes might be found in the clearance racks now.

Right now stores are trying to moved this stuff out as quickly as possible and cutting prices drastically.

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To effectively assemble a number of baskets at minimum cost, just takes [...]]]> If you have several people you need holiday gifts for this year and more time than money on your hands, consider making some homemade gourmet or spa gift baskets. With proper planning, these impressive and thoughtful gifts, can be made at relatively low cost .

To effectively assemble a number of baskets at minimum cost, just takes a little planning. Adopting a less is more approach, will help ensure that you are able to maintain quality and attractiveness of presentation. Two-three well executed and packaged items can make a lovely gift.

Poor Santa has been able to find all necessary packaging materials for holiday gift baskets at local dollar stores. Most carry small baskets, gift bags, jars, cellophane wrap, tissue paper, tins, ribbons and gift tags. Of course you will probably not need all of these items for your project, planning ahead will avoid extraneous purchases.

Now for the contents of your holiday baskets…

For gourmet baskets consider these, as well as, your own specialties:
Homemade Jams or Jellies
Dessert breads
Cookies/Biscotti
Cocoa or Mulling spice mixes
Candies
Flavored syrups

Spa basket suggestions:
Bath Salts (Lavender Bath Salts)
Sachets
Candles
Cloved Fruits

To keep costs down, whenever possible, use seasonal ingredients for your baskets.  If you have a favorite craft or recipe, try and integrate it into your baskets. When planning your Christmas gift baskets, the choice of contents is all up to you, but having a theme or at least assembling items which relate to each other, will ensure successful results.

The [...]]]> I am currently working on the new PoorSanta.com website.  The old one is still up, but it is in pretty bad shape.  The site builder I had used to build it, cancelled the template I was using.  The one I had to substitute, in order to make a small but necessary change is …well, hideous.

The new site is being constructed on my computer with my own editor, so the sitebuilder problems which held back progress on the site last year, will not be an issue this year & the design will not be reliant on anyone else.

I was considering the addition of a blog section on the site, for site news and short term deals, so decided it might as while launch during the site’s construction phase.  I will post site progress reports, as well as, a few hot deals, that I come across.  I know many like to start saving and working on their lists early, especially in tight economic times.

I plan on expanding the recipes, homemade gifts and crafts sections a lot this year.  They were popular last year.   Due to problems with the sitebuilder I was using last year, I had to stop adding pages to the site, so the sections were rather small.  I have several additions waiting to be added, but submissions will very welcome.