The Lure of Holiday Spending! Christmas Is Coming!

Gosh it is good to be back writing again after nearly two month of craziness! Working, expanding our fruit group buy, taking care of Chapati and Murtabak....! One good thing about all this busyness, we have managed to stay prudent and frugal in our spending. Yeah, it is sooo difficult to go out and spend money when you have little time even for sleep! (Hahahaha!) But honestly when you are jam packed with projects, it is a great way to be able to save.

Kor Kor and Di Di learning how to sleep together now! So adorable....

Well it is the most wonderful time of the year! Christmas is coming and the holiday season brings cheer and sparkle to many shopping malls and is food for the roving eye! I recently took a walk around the malls and restaurants and they were decked out to the max! I really love the festive atmosphere and beautiful decorations but they really make you want to take out your wallet and buy everything in sight! Somehow things look extra enticing during this time of the year! It's not just the buying but all the feasting and merriment! I love turkey and it is the only time of the year that we can get them in Malaysia. 

How do you say no to all these goodies!!??? 

Our feasting and merriment started the first week of December this year!!! 

On top of everything, there is the numerous sales going on literally everywhere! One that could make severe dents in your willpower to not spend so much is the Big Bad Wolf Book sale!!! Needless to say I found myself there on Preview day having gotten free passes from a good friend. Everyone brought luggage bags to carry their purchases and I mean big huge ass ones!! A 24 hour sale is really both awesome and terrible at the same time! If you know what I mean...and it is on till the 19th of December

Look at all those books! Books! Books! Books!

So as I was saying the lure of just spending like crazy is nearly irresistible! Here are a couple of things that I have done to stay sane and not go into the malls like a roving lunatic zombie chomping my way through endless stuff and long cashier queues!

• I keep reminding myself that this is the season where it is more blessed to give...ok this doesn't help...buy things so that I can give? Give could mean a lot of things! Gift of your time and creativity in coming up with ways that doesn't involve just going out to a mall and buying something. We also had extra incentive that we had to teach our kids about the real meaning of Christmas. 
• Make your own gifts - I am working on fruit leathers for all my friends as family presents. It is is healthy and pretty. Not to mention I am able to use up all the fruits from my group buy!
• Chocolate and sugar is bad for you!! Who cares...once a year only right? Still I fell trap into buying near RM100 bucks worth of candy canes, chocolates and chippies just for the atmosphere! My other excuse was other peoples kids when they come to our house for Christmas! So it's not for us, it's for others!
• I have been clearing my credit cards in full every month, so I won't buy if it causes me to not be able to do that.
• Shop throughout the year for simple useful gifts on promotions - Now we are armed and ready if our friend's kids descend on us at anytime during Christmas
• Clutter blocks success and if I go out and simply buy stuff, that's what it going to be CLUTTER! 
• Staying focused on our family mandate to live a more simple life that is not just filled with things
• Taking time to consider my purchases! Ie. I don't buy straightaway. The great thing about the Big Bad Wolf sale this year is that they allow you to put the stuff that you choose in storage for specific period of time. I choose a lot of books and children's stuff, now I am able to go back and choose exactly what I want. 
• Asking if we really need it!

Ok, ok I am going to get to my point soon...I think..hope...this is part rant and part reflection. We are learning that indeed we have so much to be grateful for. We are learning to find joys in simplicity and not just spending because it is Christmas. But yes at the same time, it is wonderful that we can buy whatever we want and need. We feel so privileged to be able to spend money on things that bring joy to us and also to others. We do want to continue to be prudent and frugal. We do want to live a simpler life and not succumb the colossal force of consumerism and finally we want our financial independence being able to do the things that we want because we want to and not because we have to!

Merry Christmas!

 My candy stash!

Do you feel the lure of spending too during this holiday season?