Magazines and Christmas

Reading all your posts about cleaning out drawers, etc. when you get to the place you keep your old magazines, think twice before throwing them away. there are endless places that would love to have them. Senior citizen centers, nursing and assisted living centers, day cares, shelters, and some libraries love to have these given to them. There are a lot of people awaiting free magazine.

Christmas: Now is the time to start buying all the baking staples you will need. If you buy a few items every week, your budget will be happy and you won't be as likely to not have all you need on hand. Lots of items can be frozen such as nuts, chips, butter. Look at the use date on things you are interested in buying. If it is beyond Dec it might as well be on your shelf as the grocery shelf. This is true also for disposable pans. Many times I have found them on sale at the end of the summer. A good cheap Christmas gift especially for people just starting out is to buy a picnic basket now on sale and fill it with all the items that can be used for picnics next summer. Everything from the basket to the tablecloth is on sale now. don't forget to throw in some tablecloth clamps too. Was in a store the other day that had cookie cutters of all kinds on sale. I bought a bunch of different holiday ones and am going to give them along with napkins to match the holidays with some roll out cookie recipes, a rolling pin and cookie sheet for an upcoming shower gift. Think ahead and some of these gifts are waiting to be had very reasonably right now.