A spin off to the waste post....Holiday edition!

Goodness knows I have room for improvement in all areas of my life.  But when it come to wasting money at the holidays....ugh.  It always bites me.  None of it is intentional...it just sort of happens.  Here are a few things from this year, and years past:

1) Electricity.  We have lots of holiday lights (pics to come!).  And for some reason....no one remembers to unplug them but me!  The big tree....G-man will shut that off.  The rest?  They would burn 24/7 if my family had anything to do with it.

2)  Little trees.  This could be a whole post in itself.  But we bought walkway trees this year.  4 trees with lights...and they are connected by the strand of lights.  I wanted ones that weren't connected, but that was $$$ (they were solar powered!).  I looked around in the major big box stores...nothing.  Ended up buying 2 boxes on Ebay for $13 each, plus $9 for shipping (so $35).  The day after they arrived....I found them in a store I rarely go to.  For $10 a box.  No shipping.

PLUS...these trees only stake into the ground, and we needed 4 of them on the steps.  So G-man bought inexpensive clay pots to put them in.  He put dirt in the pots, and staked them that way.  WELL....the pots he bought are too small.  So they keep tipping over, and since they are connected....once one goes, it pulls the others over as well.  I spend at least a few minutes a day picking these things up, fixing it...having to wash up from all the dirt on my hands....

3)  Bows for the tree.  Good gracious.  I must have thought that there was going to be a Zombie Apocalypse and that bows were going to become the new currency.  I have enough bows to last until my grandchildren need bows.

4)  Filler ornaments.  I also thought that I needed more "filler" for the tree.  So I have at least 3 packages of plain ornaments from years past.  Maybe I will try and glitter them for next year!!!! OOOHHHH, a new project!!!!

5)  Finding a present cheaper somewhere else.  We have all had this happen...you buy something, and then you find it somewhere else cheaper.  Then the debate comes in...do I buy it again and return the first one?  Sometimes the amount of time it takes to return the gift negates the price savings.  We bought a game for $15.  Then found it for $10.  We ended up buying it again, and returning the first one....because we had to go back to that store anyway.  But waiting on line for 30 min to return something for a net of $5....not so sure.

6) Products to save you time.  This one ALMOST ended up in the trash, but we got it working, and all is good now.  We bought a timer for the outside lights.  It was $9.  It took some fiddling around with, but it is fine now.  However, while it wasn't working right....it was about to be pitched and take the loss of $9.  Same with the pop up tape dispenser...it doesn't work for me.  I just will stick with the regular ole roll of tape.

7)  Stuff you break.  I bought a pair of hurricane lamps...one broke before I even put it up.  It must have hit up against something.  $5 down the drain. I also broke the base on one of the artificial trees (I dropped it).  So now we have to buy a new base.  $8 apparently is the price of clumsiness.

8)  Stuff you were GOING to do.  I wanted to put wreaths up on the cabinet doors.  I bought the hooks for the cabinets, some new wreaths, and had some ribbon.  Went to do it, and the wreaths are too big, and haven't seen smaller ones in a price level I am willing to spend.  So all of that got thrown back in the tote and maybe I will try again next year.

As I stated earlier....I am using up the wrapping paper, bags, and ribbon I have this year, so I am not wasting money buying more.  I did buy tape and tissue paper...but I needed that, so it doesn't count.

So fess up....what have you wasted money on for the holidays?????