77 days til Reindl Christmas - Annual Newsletter

This isn't something that many people do, mainly because of the rise of social media and the decline of actually being social. I'm guilty of it too! I can update my Facebook status three times a day (with pictures) of what I'm doing yet I'd be lucky to call grandma twice a year. So this year I plan to start an annual Reindl newsletter - to tell all my family, especially those interstate, about our lives over the previous year.

I first read up on this actually being a thing in 2014 from a blog called "Honeysuckle". I planned to do one that year but was pregnant that Christmas, lazy the next, pregnant the Christmas after that, and well- I'm trying not to be lazy this Christmas. Honeysuckle's newsletter looks amazing and it's such a fun way to include out of town family in yours and your families lives. 

My first attempt at a "year in review" started with Becky Higgins 'Project life' app. To be honest I loved it, the app is $4.49 from the App Store but I've had it downloaded for quite some time. I added the Christmas selection to my card designs I'm able to use ($1.49) and that has already and will continue to come in use on my social media platforms and on my blog with this current Christmas series. It's seriously been my favourite collage app for the past 18 months!

When compiling my piece, I added one family pic, one of each of the three kids and one of the happy couple. I added a few sweet words and then a quick sentence or two about what we've each been up to individually. This is very similar to what most of the examples that I've seen on Pinterest include. Only problem is; I want to brag a bit more. 

Our family has had an excellent year. Individually we've each had quite a bit going on, not to mention our big trip to Bali. So I saved the original design, scrapped it and then started over. This time I started out with the 'Big W photos' app. I normally order photo books automatically through the photos I've uploaded to Instagram - once I've uploaded 60, I get a prompt to edit the book before it is automatically sent to print then shipped to me. Get a free photo book by following my link here. http://invite.chatbooks.com/danniellebull4pn

I made a 22 page photo book via Big W with the photo books being on special for $6.00 instead of the usual $10.00 and opted to pick up in store rather than paying for postage. I added in 25 of my favourite photos of the kids, the Reindl man and me from over the past year and ordered enough copies for my 'long distance' family members. 

Next step was to quiz the kids! Often kids, especially at Lexi's age (9), feel very grown up and get very frustrated when they are treated like the children that they are. A small way to combat this is to consciously make a point of including them in organising family activities. What better way than to put real emphasis on asking how their year has been so you can tell all the family about how grown up they are. For obvious reasons I coaxed the three year old and didn't even bother to ask the one year old. 

Perhaps even interrogate your partner about their favourite part of the year... it may not be the promotion he got, as you first thought, but rather his AFL team winning the grand final this year. You really want this letter to be not only about your whole family, but also FROM you all too - after all, unity is what family is all about. 

Writing the letter should now be easy. You have all the components you need - just let it all flow onto paper, or the screen, and edit until you are happy. You can then put it onto a pretty bordered paper or simply jazz it up with some stickers, pretty pens and glitter. Make it to suit your family! I'm so happy with how ours turned out! I'll put mine in an envelope with the photo books once they're printed, add a Christmas card (after I've written all those out) and hopefully have them all mailed off at/before the beginning of December!

84 sleeps til Reindl Christmas - Money Matters (festive budgeting)

Before I start I just want to make it known that I won't be posting any amounts on this subject. Whether you spend $250 on Christmas or $2,500 it doesn't matter to anyone except you and your family. I want to make sure everyone is clear that we each try to stick to a budget that fits us as we each belong to a different demographic, culture and income bracket. That said there are very few people I know that will actually budget for Christmas and even fewer that are actually able to stick to it!

Last year I had a budget as financially we were in a difficult situation and there was literally no way to spend any extra on Christmas without taking food from our children's mouths or fuel out of our car. From memory I do recall being a little sneaky and as we approached mid-November I would purposely shop for groceries as frugally as possible so I could stash a bit more towards presents and the likes. This year although we still have not won lotto (yet) we do have more money to spend than we did last Christmas. So I sat down this week and wrote down every possible Christmas-related expense that could possibly apply to us. 

The next step was to go through each item on my budget and fill in the 'budgeted amount' with how much I would LIKE to spend on that item. Once that was done I grabbed a calculator to total my budget, wanna know what it equaled..? Too much! I then went back through and crossed out any amount I could, to replace it with a figure that seamed more reasonable. Just by doing this I halved the amount that I had budgeted. 

The Reindl man and I have been in discussions over the past week about how to pay for Christmas. Eg he thinks me paying $36 for a king size santa bedspread is ridiculous and isn't happy to spend "Family money" to pay for items that 'I want'. So we have agreed that items such as Santa presents, kids presents, alcohol and food for his family's Christmas Day gathering shall come out of the family budget. Anything else that he sees as 'unnecessary' (class gifts, charity donation, santa photos, elf items and the like) comes out of my own weekly allowance. I'm happy with that agreement as I feel like I'd be better at sticking to the budget that way. 

Each week I've been purchasing Coles prepaid gift MasterCards to assist with the purchases that will be coming up soon. They don't need to be registered or activated, once purchased they can be used straight away and are available in $50 and $100 amounts. The cost of the card includes a $5 card purchase fee (so total price is $55/$105) but the best part is that  you can get flybuys both on the purchase of the card and when you make purchases with the card at stores that accept flybuys. 

Flybuys is something I've grown EXTRA fond of lately with learning about coupon stacking, the 'We <3 flybuys' Facebook community and the upcoming 'points for packing' offer. I've always used flybuys as a way to buy more at Xmas time than I would usually be able to, but this year I've gone a bit flybuys mad. My meal planning is even based around meal planning! 

"Mum what's for lunch?"

"Two minute noodles with asparagus and paprika"

"I wish flybuys would give Mum better bonus point offers!" 

Well it hasn't gotten that bad... but still. So not only will flybuys help me with buying an extra toy or two for the kids for Christmas but it will also help me purchase something cool for the Kmart wishing tree and to pay for all the perishable items that will accompany the non-perishable items that I've been collecting in my DIY food hamper. It just helps make Christmas a more enjoyable and less stressful time. 

Using a budget and store rewards cards will help you progress through the silly season with ease and tact.