FROM YOUR LOCAL REAL ESTATE EXPERT
MAIN LINE HOME & DESIGN Sarah Holmes
Sarah Holmes, REALTOR® Keller Williams Pinehurst www.kw.com
How to... Trim Your Holiday Budget
2. Give your time. Make coupons or vouchers for family and friends, offering up free babysitting (brilliant, right?), delivered homemade dinners (want!) or something more, ahem, interesting for your spouse. 3. Cut down on unnecessary spending for the weeks leading up to the holiday shopping spree.
If you find yourself crying over a bloated credit card bill every January, try these tips and tricks for cutting back on spending without losing out on any of the good stuff that makes the holidays special.
1. The number one thing is, you’ve gotta make a budget—a detailed budget based on what you’ve spent in previous years and where you’d like to make changes. Break it down into categories for gifts, groceries, entertaining, travel and incidentals (like babysitters).
PRO TIP: Set up a holiday savings account now. Yes, this is more of a “going forward” tip, but think of it as next year’s gift to yourself.
4. Have your kids make gifts for the grandparents rather than buying something impersonal. 5. Spend time together instead of spending money during the holiday. Take a walk around the neighborhood to see the pretty lights, go tobogganing, make popcorn and watch a classic movie, bake gingerbread or volunteer at the local food bank. 6. Use flyer apps like Flipp and Reebee to find the best deals and coupons for groceries in your area. 7. Go full DIY for your door decor. Kids love collecting, so go for a nature walk and pick up small fallen branches, pine cones, berries and twigs. Use them to make a wreath, or tie them up with some ribbon for a door swag that costs next to nothing.
8. Buy festive table accessories that’ll work throughout the year, like gold-rimmed plates or pretty napkins in a neutral colour instead of ones emblazoned with snowflakes.
Winter Landscaping Learn how to add texture, color, and beauty to your yard with these six simple winter landscaping tips. WWW.KW.COM
TEXTURE
COLOR
BEAUTY
INCLUDE BERRIES Many trees and shrubs have berries they hold onto during fall and winter, and those can provide food for birds overwintering in your area. "Crabapples hold their little fruit," Pierson says, and they make a great addition to the winter landscape. "A holly with berries is really beautiful," she says.
REMEMBER EVERGREENS Evergreens are great in the winter landscape for many reasons. First, there's color: Evergreens are not just green; they're available in yellow, such as Gold Thread false cypress, and blues, including dwarf blue spruce, and all colors in between. And evergreens just make good design sense, Pierson says. "They are really important for a winter landscape, but they make good focal points all year-round," she says. "I always like to have at least one or two evergreens and work a border around those. When you are planting a new bed, you always want to have at least one evergreen."
DECORATING
TIP
HOLIDAY DECORATING IDEAS Deck your halls for the holiday season.
Holiday home decor doesn't have to be expensive or time-intensive to make a big impact.
BRING COMFORT AND JOY TO YOUR ENTIRE HOUSE WITH THESE VERY MERRY DECORATING IDEAS.
GARLAND ALL OVER While some rooms need particular Christmas staples like trees and stockings, other areas, like hallways, entryways, and cozy corners, call for a little more creativity. But if there's one Yuletide piece that works all over, it's a string of fresh greenery.
POPS OF RED A pitcher full of wintertime berries can bring a little holiday spirit to any overlooked space like a bedroom or office.
RETRO STOCKINGS Make dressers, armoires, and other storage pieces fit for a visit from Santa by hanging stockings from their pulls and drawers.
HEALTHIER HOLIDAY COOKIE RECIPES Delicioso!
Ingredients ¼ cup peanut oil ¼ cup maple syrup 1 teaspoon rum (or 1 teaspoon rum extract) 3 ounces chocolate chips (about ½ cup before melting) ½ cups sifted whole-wheat pastry flour ¼ teaspoon baking soda ¼ cup chopped pecans
Chocolate Rum Cookies Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix wet ingredients together; then combine dry ingredients. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Scoop with a cookie scoop onto a non-stick or greased cookie sheet. Don't press cookies down; they will spread out. Bake for 11 to 15 minutes.
Courtesy: motherearthnews.com
COOKIE BAKING Baking cookies is one of the all-time great rituals of the holiday season. You can place them around the house, stick them in colorful gift tins, you can pretty much avoid the shopping frenzy. The only problem is that holiday cookies are rich in fat, cholesterol, and sugar, and are poor in nutritional content. But who wants to serve granola bars on Christmas Eve? There are ways we can have our cake and eat it too. All we need to do is reduce the pound of butter and sugar in our favorite recipes, throw in some whole grains instead of refined flour, and we're on our way to healthier holidays.
Don't make a costly mistake! Request my Home Buyer Checklist youremail@kw.com
555-555-5555
(M)
WWW.KW.COM
Ready to make a move?
LET'S TALK! www.kw.com
555-555-5555