And to that end, I started seriously ordering my Christmas presents today. As in, I spent half my budget! Well begun, indeed. I found a couple of things on sale today and a few coupons that expired today, so I went on and did those, and with one exception, I ordered all the things that need to be shipped here and then mailed to other people. Hopefully, that will give me time to turn it all around so that things arrive by Christmas.
I also see that I have drastically underestimated shipping costs this year. I was planning on $5-7, and it's been running $8-12 in most cases. Multiply that by the 15 or so places I will be ordering from, and I'm pushing $50 over budget. The savings I incurred today will help with that somewhat, I'm just mad at myself for not checking. No wonder catalog companies hide their shipping information! If you knew what it would cost to ship in advance, you might not fall in love with the item. Once it's in your cart, it's hard to turn it down, even if shipping is $5 more than you planned. ::sigh::
As you may have noticed up at the top there, I am working on our Christmas menu, to the detriment of anything else I may have thought of doing in the evenings. I came up with another meal today, so that filled one of my remaining six slots, but three "full" slots say "new recipe," and I haven't found those yet either. How does my mother do this? She was all set for Thanksgiving, and I feel so behind with Christmas almost 4 weeks away. It doesn't help that I have no faith in my ability to select recipes. Most of the ones I have tried over the last few years have been awful, as in inedible. It's not that I did something wrong (I don't think), it's just that I hated the recipe when it was finished. Needless to say, I'm a little gunshy of doing that with company here. We can always go get Wendy's if we don't like it; I'd hate to do that to company, though it is just my family, and they wouldn't care. Still nervewracking.
Currently feeling:
anxious
Do you use allrecipes.com? I try to pick recipes on there that are 4 or 5 stars, and then I read the reviews to see if people have any suggestions for making sure the recipe turns out good, what kind of substitutions they made if any, etc. I find I have more luck getting good recipes this way than if I just pick some random recipe out of a book.
ReplyDeleteWhat a compliment that you felt I was ready!! I always feel behind when company steps through the door!! All I can say is, don't ask me for my chicken and *dumpings* recipe, right!!?? LOL Love, Mom
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