Just like many guys, I am always trying to come up with some cool Christmas gift ideas at the last minute. This year I decided to do a little Christmas gift planning and try to generate some good gift ideas. I did some digging and found some cool, some unique, some quirky gift ideas. I hope you get some ideas from the list and please add some of your own ideas in the comments below, because I could use some more ideas as well!

So here are a few cool Christmas gift ideas that I have found so far…

KeyFinder flashing keychain $1.99

Just Whistle And The KEYFINDER Beeps And Flashes!

Looseleaf Tea-Set $15.00

The kit comes with 4 types of looseleaf tea and a teapot with a strainer.

Shadow Wall Art Lamps $47.99

Retro Cell Phone Handset $24.95

Plugs right into your cell phone with a 2.5mm jack.

iPod alarm clock $63.41

Herb Garden $15.95

BrightFeet Lighted Slippers $39.99

Why didn’t I think of that?

Insulated Drinkware for Hot & Cold Drinks by Bodum $19.99

I have a couple of these glasses and they don’t get hot to touch even with boiling water in them!

Genius Pen with Built-in Paper $35.00

Paper INSIDE the pen. What a great idea!

Valet/Charging Station $29.95

Slanket - The blanket with sleeves! $45.00

My wife has been wanting one of these for a while now - we will see if Santa brings it to you this year honey

USB Missile Launcher $29.99

Can you imagine hitting a button on your keyboard that launches a Nerf missile at your co-worker?

A few other Christmas gift ideas

• Steaks from Omaha Steaks
• A subscription to his favorite Magazine
• A little decoration on the walls
• Tickets to a Sold-Out Show or Concert

Where to get your Christmas gifts

I know not everyone feels the way I do, but I love going to the mall during Christmastime. I love how busy it is and how “Christmassy” it feels. But, I also know that online shopping is often more convenient and cheaper in the long run. So, if you are going to be doing some online Christmas shopping make sure you learn how to get bargains on Ebay (for new items) and/or use Ebates for just about any other online store to get cash back for your purchases.

Do you have any cool Christmas gift ideas to share? Please do in the comments below!

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Your tips to get out of debt

1. Find a good friend and work out a budget with them and then, stick to it by your friends encouragement and oversight. It becomes much easier to pass over small purchases (or large ones) when you have someone watching your purchases and providing some support.
2. Commit to using your “raise” to paying off debt. You won’t miss the raise because “you didn’t have it anyway” and it’s like paying down debt for free.
3. Cut up the credit cards
4. Pay off the credit cards with an automatic withdrawal from your bank account.
5. Consider looking for a Crown Money Map Coach. It’s free.
6. Create a strict budget and stick with it.
7. Learn the art of competitive shopping. Make saving money shopping your hobby!
8. Pay for routine purchases with cash. This will help you to better SEE where your money is going.
9. Post your debt free goal on the Fridge. Make a graph and every time you pay a little down, color more of it in.
10. Celebrate the small successes!
11. Get a part time job
12. Use ebay to sell something you make yourself (careful about how much your actual cost is)
13. Use ebay to sell stuff around the house
14. Use ebay to sell stuff you get cheap. You can try shopping garage sales or thrift stores and reselling on ebay. 
15. Cut back on expenses - can you imagine life without cable?
16. Shop for cheaper cell phone plan
17. Cut your home phone or get a cheaper plan
18. Cut back on Internet service. Switch to dial up, share with a neighbor, use the library
19. Contact creditors and negotiate lower rates
20. Reduce the “source” of the debt (i.e. sell the car with the high loan note and buy a less expensive car)
21. Quit any vices you have and use that money to pay down debt
22. Change your housing situation if possible to one that is less expensive / take on a roommate ( again, the point is by saving on spending here, you use the money to pay off debt )
23. Lower your insurance costs by increasing your deductible and/or review your insurance policy and see if you can find a less expensive one
24. Shop smart - pool coupons with others, plan a menu around what is on sale at the grocery store, buy in bulk if it is reasonable… etc…
25. Pray, with God anything is possible
26. Create a realistic, workable budget and stick with it. This blog has GREAT tips and ideas. Read, Read, Read.
27. Do whatever is possible and legal to increase your income short term and set goals to increase your base income long term.
28. Stay focused, stay disciplined, see the end, see yourself debt free. You can do it! It wont be pretty and it will be frustrating at times but you can do it. In other words, keep yourself encouraged

The one tip I am torn on is #29. It seems like this debate will live on as long as the chicken and the egg debate. I personally like Dave Ramsey’s Debt Snowball approach and generally recommend that for most people. I understand that mathematically it is better to pay off higher rates first, but the reason most people are in debt isn’t because they are bad at math, but that they are undisciplined and need all the motivation help they can get. If they quit halfway to their first goal, it doesn’t matter how much they saved by paying off the higher rates first. This is why I generally recommend the Debt Snowball approach. But, study it out for yourself and pick what you think will work for you.

   29.  Regardless of what anyone says about debt snowballs, etc…. pay off the highest interest rate first. Mathematically, you come out better

For additional information, I suggest reading the series I wrote about how to get out of debt.

Thanks Joe, Todd C, Redonno, John Finkelde, MJH, MINtheGap, Gholmes, Cyndie, and Joshua for your great tips! 

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Ingredients for your homemade air freshener

• Baking Soda
• Water
• Vanilla Extract
• Plastic Spray Bottle

or

• Vinegar

How to make your air freshener

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If you have an Electric Orange Checking with ING Direct you are eligible to receive $20 from them. All you have to do is use your debit card 5 times during November (purchases more than $10 each) and they will add $20 to your account on December 15th. You can read more about it here.

If you are interesting finding out more about ING and why I and so many others rave about them, check out 10 things I love about ING Direct.

And here are a few of the articles that I have been reading this week…

• 10 plants to make your house healthier
• 101 tips for selling your home
• Expenses to watch out for when moving
• 20 healthiest foods under a buck
• 5 Tips to keep from getting ripped off by your mechanic
• Is technology good for your finances?
• Use cash this Christmas
• A cool tool to help with Craigslist or Ebay listings
• Save 25% on Ebay purchases
• Should you pay debt off with a 401k loan?
• You can’t buy happiness
• $50 giveaway to Bibleco
• 5 ways to stay broke
• Gmail now offers Video chat

And these are a few carnivals that ChristianPF participated in… Carnival of Personal Finance, Eco-blog Carnival, Money Hacks, Finance Fiesta.

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I just finished listening to Stock Investing for Dummies by Paul Mladjenovic. All in all, it isn’t a bad book for beginners who want to start learning about stock investing. The author covers the basics and touches on quite a few other topics as well. Interestingly, he forecasted and talked quite a bit about the impending recession that we are currently going through. The book was released back in 2005.

While I think the book does a good job covering the basics of stock investing, it leaves the reader/listener with the general impression that stock-picking is very time consuming and difficult. I personally don’t believe that to be the case. I don’t have decades of successes behind me to prove my theory, but when I do I will let you know!

In general, the book was very much like a college textbook for stock-picking. It’s one of those books that is great as a resource, but doesn’t have the inspiring pizazz to get you to want to run out and start investing. Peter Lynch’s One up on Wall Street or The Little Book that Beats the Market leave you feeling super excited about investing. Neither is as detailed as Stock Investing for Dummies, but they sure get you excited about investing.

I should also mention that the author suggests that you probably won’t be able to start investing without at least $10,000. Back in 2005 I was buying stocks with just a few hundred dollars at ShareBuilder. I recently signed up for Zecco as well since they have free trades. These are just two of many places that investors can start with a lot less than $10,000.

So for this week’s giveaway, I will be giving away the audiobook version of Stock Investing for Dummies. If you want a shot to win it, just head over to the forums!

What do I have to do to win the Stock Investing for Dummies audiobook?

1. Go to the ChristianPF Forums before 11:59 p.m. CST on November 20th, 2008.
2. Sign up, if you have not already. (Don’t worry, it is a very quick process)
3. Leave a comment by joining one of the conversations or starting a new one.

To be sure you are entered for the giveaway each week, just make sure you comment at least once a week.

• I will randomly select a winner using random.org.
• The winner will be announced on November 21st in the forums!!

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1. Start Saving Early

Duh. That is SO common-sense. Well, it is. But for some reason, I used to be surprised year after year at how hard Christmas hit my wallet. We know its coming. It is the same day every year. We can’t run from it, so we might as well save up for it. Sometimes these simple things take a while to sink into my skull, but I finally figured out that by saving up for it, I was a lot more likely to stay out of debt. Often times it is the simple things that have the biggest positive impacts on our finances. It is mid-November. Let’s start saving.

2. Create a budget for how much you will spend

Why after every Christmas are most people looking at huge credit card bills wondering, “Where did all that money go?” It is no different than any other area of our lives, if we don’t have a leash on it - it will be out of our control. Think of your money like your neighbor’s dog - Oh yeah, your neighbor thinks he has his dog under control. But every time he has the dog in the front yard it runs over and jumps on you. He thinks he has control of the dog, but I am sure if he had a leash on the beast, he wouldn’t let it jump on you when you are on your way to work. Of course you probably are not going to tell him that his dog is terribly behaved, just like my checkbook isn’t going to tell me that I have no control over my money. In order to have control you have to monitor it (dog or money) or have a system in place (put up a fence or make a budget) that will do it for you.

My wife and I started budgeting for giving a couple years ago, after we realized how out of hand our Christmas spending was getting. We just sat down and made a list of everyone we were going to buy a gift for that year. We wrote down (actually we used an Excel budgeting spreadsheet) how much we were going to spend on each person and totaled it up. We took this total figure and worked backwards from Christmas to see how much we would have to save each week in order to have enough. This helped us get motivated to start saving early.

3. Stick to your budget

After all, that is why you created it in the first place - right? If you decided to spend $20 on Billy Ray, then you have to be vigilant not to buy him that $50 toaster that is just glistening in the florescent light of the department store. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing more fun than giving great presents, but you have to be honest with yourself and others about what you can spend. Trying to spend $100 on each person’s gift when you only have $10, isn’t being truthful and it is going to hurt you more than anyone else. This is the whole “keeping-up-with-the-Joneses” disease that is rampant these days. I think most people you are buying gifts for would want you to give from your heart, rather than under compulsion to spend huge amounts of money that you do not have.

4. Get Creative

When you are strapped for cash you have to use creativity to get the upper hand. A creative gift can often beat out the most expensive gift. I am not talking about, “it’s the thought that counts, dear.” I am talking about meeting a unique need or desire for that person. To give the best gifts you need to know about the recipient. Listen to what they talk about. Listen for clues as to what they are interested in. It probably isn’t a necktie or a picture frame. Shop accordingly.

5. Shop Online

A lot of brick-and-mortar stores can’t compete with the prices of the online stores even with the additional shipping costs. If you decide to do a bunch of shopping online this year, Amazon.com has a deal where you can ship as much as you want for a year for $79. And they are not just a bookstore anymore, they have everything from electronics to candles and you can even buy an engagement ring from them. You also should look at Ebates - they pay you for shopping via their website.

6. Start Shopping Early

I love the convenience of online shopping, but I also love going to the malls in the heart of the Christmas season. Granted, the parking normally isn’t fun, but I love Christmas (ask my wife and she will tell you how annoying I am - i.e. Christmas music starts November 1st) and it just doesn’t seem like Christmas to me without spending some time in the malls during the season. Since department stores start breaking out the Christmas decorations after the 4th of July sale (slight exaggeration, but not much), you have plenty of time to get started early and have the “spirit of Christmas.”

The key is to use early shopping to your advantage. Having your budget in mind, it gives you a lot more time to think about WHAT to buy everyone and gives you more opportunities to catch things on sale.

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Anyway, until more places offer free wi-fi, I will probably be frequenting Starbucks. I am not a coffee drinker myself, I prefer tea. As far as I can tell, they have not spiked their tea with addictive “secret juice” like they have for their coffee.

Starbucks Gold Card

In my last visit, I was offered to sign up for their new Gold Card. It is a basically a club that you pay $25 to get a 1-year membership. The perks include…

• A free drink when you sign up
• 10% of all drink purchases
• Surprise indulgences (whatever that means)
• 2 hours of wi-fi each day
• A few more ambiguous benefits

Gold Card Math

If you assume that the average Starbucks drink cost $3.50, then you will save 35 cents on each drink purchase. That really isn’t too exciting to me, but for addicts it could be worth it.

If you buy a drink from Starbucks every weekday then you will spend (5 X $3.50) $17.50 each week on drinks and will save $1.75 per week. This will work out to $910 spent on drinks each year with a savings of $91.00.

$91 savings - $25 cost = $66 + a free drink or two = You come out ahead $70 ish

So is it worth it?

To me, I don’t really like savings cards like this. When you have one you feel compelled to always go to that place, since you will get the discount that you already PAID FOR (conversely this is why it is a good business move by Bucks). If I hated all other coffee and knew that I was going to give Starbucks $1000 a year by drinking it every day I might join, but I have a feeling that many people will think this is a better deal than it actually is.

After all, if you are spending $1000 a year on coffee, you probably aren’t too concerned about saving money. Or maybe you should be?

What about you? Will you be signing up for the Gold Card?

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Eating out is a bad investment

Financially speaking, eating out is a bad investment. It costs a lot more than making food at home, and that is why we have worked hard to discipline ourselves not to do it very often. The beauty of this is that we actually enjoy it more since we don’t go out to dinner every other day, or even every week. Even the fun things in life can become boring when you do them everyday.

Tools to help save money when eating out

Since going out to dinner is something that we love to do, we work to find ways to make it possible. One of the best tools we have found has been the Entertainment Book. I believe they are sold in every major city in the U.S. - if not, you are missing out!

The Entertainment Book

The Entertainment book is filled with coupons for any and every kind of restaurant, grocery store, movie theaters, dry-cleaners, and a bunch more. Most of the coupons for restaurants offer buy-one-get-one-free meals. This almost cuts our bill in half. Saving this much money makes it a lot easier to justify going out to eat!

Another great thing about this book is that since a lot of the restaurants are smaller “mom-and-pop” type places or new ones it helps to try out restaurants that we otherwise might not have known about.

Restaurant.com

You should also consider Restaurant.com who sells $25 gift certificates (with restrictions) for $10 to thousands of restaurants across the country.

Do you have any tips on how you save money eating out?

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The parable of the ten virgins

At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise.

The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’

Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’

‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’

But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. “Later the others also came. ‘Sir! Sir!’ they said. ‘Open the door for us!’ “But he replied, ‘I tell you the truth, I don’t know you.’ “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

Matt 25:1-13

Five wise virgins

There are a lot of lessons to be learned from this parable, but to me, the biggest lesson I have learned from it is to get prepared! I think this can be applied to all areas of life - including our finances. With things being as uncertain as they currently are in the U.S., I think now is as good of time as any to get ready for what’s ahead.

In my own life, I have noticed that since gas prices have dropped back down below $2 (after being at $4) I feel like I have more money to spend. Yes gas prices have dropped and have freed up some additional cash that has been tied up for a few of the previous months, but should I really be spending it? Wouldn’t the wise thing be to save a bit of it up in preparation for $5 gas? I honestly have no idea what is going to happen with gas prices, but I think this parable makes it very clear that the wise thing to do is to be prepared.

So what should you get prepared for?

I have noticed that most people drastically under-prepare for situations or they over-prepare. The key is to stay balanced. Preparation is not to be something that is guided by fear, but by wisdom. The Bible says that God hasn’t given us a spirit of fear (2 Tim 1:7) Therefore our decisions shouldn’t be made based on fear. So, if you are preparing for situations, first make sure that you are trusting god and not doing it because you are afraid.

These are just a few things that the parable of the virgins has helped inspire me to prepare for…

An emergency fund

This is one of the first things that Dave Ramsey recommends to do in the Total Money Makeover and I completely agree. In order to have a fighting chance of getting out of debt you should have an emergency fund started. The purpose, of course, is to allow you to handle car problems, a blown water heater, or any other urgent and unexpected expense.

Retirement savings

We shouldn’t be saving everything up for retirement, but we probably all should be saving something. The goal isn’t to hoard wealth for the last 30 years of our lives, but to share it! Whether you plan on staying in your current job until you die, preparation allows you to have options. When I am 70 I want to be getting paid for doing something I love, rather than being forced to go to work to pay the bills.

A disaster

After Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast a few years back, I decided to take some steps to prepare for a natural disaster. After the hurricane, some of our neighbors in the south had a few weeks of living in the “wild west.” They didn’t have water, power, an easy way to get food, or ATMs they could run to.

As we near the end times, we are going to be seeing more of these types of occurrences, and it would be wise of us to be prepared.

Obviously preparing a disaster kit is a good way to be prepared. We also have stashed some cash in case ATM networks would not be functioning.

The foolish virgins

The five foolish virgins missed out on a great opportunity. The reason they missed out was because they were not prepared! I think we should take heed to this warning and take action by preparing for the things we know we should.

Remember that Joseph prepared for the seven years of famine (Genesis 41), because he knew it was coming. What would have happened if He had decided not to prepare, saying to himself, “I don’t need to prepare. God will take care of me.”? I don’t know the answer, but it is interesting to think about…

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Or actually help a lot of readers get out of debt! From the little demographic info I have about CPF readers, it seems that most are in debt and are working on minimizing their debts.

I recently got this email from a reader and thought I should share it to get the wisdom of the crowds…

Hi Bob and thank you for being there for those of us that are in debt due to our lack of discipline and allowing us to express that in an e-mail. Being in debt is not a fun trip, it is very stressful and can cause all sorts of problems. I am trying to cut back on everything possible…taking my lunch to work, wearing old clothes (cannot afford new ones), buying only what I need and never anything I want. If you have any other ideas that may help me stay on my budget, please share them with me. Thank you.

I shared a bit of my advice to help her get out of debt, but I want to open it up to the readers…

What other tips do you have to help her get out of debt?

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