Contest Entries
This has been a very trying year. I lost my home to foreclosure, and was layeed off from my job in the same week! I 2 little boys, what am I going to do? A family friend enlisted to help me find another home for my family. He is a property invester and said he would purchase a home and let me rent it from him. Not only did he find me a home, but we are paying a much less rent amount! But, I had to come up with the deposit, first month's rent, and money for a moving truck. What do I do? I first received a loan from National Payday in 2004 or 05. So I applied again. Sure enough they were there for me. The loan allowed me to come up with the money I needed to move in, and it prevented me from having to explain why we didn't have a home for the holidays. Thanks National Payday!!
If won the $400.00, I would spent it on a mini vacation. I graduate with an MBA two years ago. I have been trying to get financial stable since then. My daughter and I have been having hard times and things are finally looking up. So I would treat her to a mini vacation, because she is a good student and she has really been by my side since day one. I feel that I have not adequately given her all in life that she deserves and getting this prize would give me hope and determination to press on. I know that everything will be fine, it's just that sometimes everyone gets down. Winning this prize would certainly give me the boost that I need.
This season we choose to go the traditional route for presents. For the grandparents we are giving them a School Photo of our son. It was something we had already purchased and we went to the Dollar Store to purchase frames to go with the photo. Because of the number of Grand Parents this is a lot of frames! Along with this we bought Wax and a few scents and will be making Homemade Candles to go along with the photos. An extra $400, especially around the holidays, would have helped to ease the burden of wanting to do something nice for our family.
Since my divorce a few years back, money has been a bit tight. My ex-husband has a large family and my daughter loves to give all her Aunt's and Uncle's a gift. I do not have much leftover to spend for them. So, we try to come up with something creative to give every year.
The first year after the split, with my help, my daughter and I made them calendars. Including family pictures at the top of the calendar. Each family member got a month with the exception of the big holiday months which including pictures of the family on the previous year's holiday. The bottom had a calendar that included any special events that would be happening the next year. That includes all birthdays, remembrances for lost loved ones and upcoming weddings and births. The back includes updated contact information for everyone in the family, name addresses, phone number and e-mail. We printed them at home on 11x14 card stock and folded them in half.
The next year we made a home made Christmas CD with all my daughter's favorite Christmas music. Including a CD sticker and cover for the CD hand crafted by my daughter.
This year we are making pizelle cookies for everyone in the family. All different flavors like banana nut, raspberry and chocolate. To make them look more personal and to give them to people in something fancier than a container. We bought brand new empty paint cans at local hardware store and she is painting the outside of each one with a Christmas theme. My favorite is the one where she attempted to draw jack frost.
This year a cash advance did come in handy. My daughter convinced me at the grocery store to buy all the flavorings for the cookies by placing them in my cart. I did not look at the price tag until I was looking at the total for my bill. It was $90 more than I anticipated and $60 of that was the flavoring for the cookies. Who knew each of those cost about $6 each? Anyway not to be overdrawn I had to borrow $100. At that price they may be getting pizelle cookies for a few more years.
I recently broke a large mirror in my house. Even though many say breaking your mirror can bring seven years of bad luck, I’ve chosen to use it as a way to make personalized Christmas presents for my friends and family. I have always wanted to get into making mosaics, and have recently taken a class in how to create such pieces. When I saw that my mirror was broke, I was thrilled to find all of the tiny pieces that would look terrific in picture frames. I have sorted all of the pieces out, scrapped old picture frames, and purchased enough caulk to do the job. And the best part is I am able to use my own pictures of those people for the picture frame. Though I am not spending very much on my gifts, I know that each person will be delighted to see what I have made for them, and that makes this Christmas one of the best in the books!
