The Calender Year Ahead

     The way I pull off a festive and giving holiday season, is to plan for it months ahead.   I am like the fashion designers who work ahead of the calender month and are currently designing clothes for the spring while they are manufacturing clothes for the winter right now.  It is the only way they can get drawings off the board, to the pattern cutters and sewers and installed in stores in the proper time.  

     I have already started to take orders for Halloween costumes.  One of my granddaughters spoke up at the Fourth of July celebration and put in her request for an historically correct Greek Goddess costume.  Easy sew!  Her cousin started thinking, I can see it now, he's going to want something special, too!  Good!  The grandchildren know there is a cut off date for special ordered costumes (September 1st).  If I have taught them nothing else, it is that waiting until the last minute costs more and you get less. 

     Even though we are working on our summer crafts together, the end goal is the products that will be Christmas gifts.  They are learning to work ahead of the season.  We enjoy the pool and the hot summer day swims, but we are planning into the next season, and the next.  

     I would like to get more preppers on the Calender Year Ahead routine.  
In the Spring we plant seedlings.  These are plants we germinated indoors late in the winter.  When others are putting seeds in soil out of doors, we are planting young plants!  Looking ahead makes for better planning.  This is not a hurry up and wait habit.  This is a look around.  Check your possessions and equipment regularly, and plan to replace anything you need when it is on sale routine. 

     Waiting until the season is in full swing is to wait until it is too late to enjoy sales, or the season itself.  I knew I needed two more chairs for the patio area.  Buying them as soon as they come to the sales floor means paying full price.  Knowing and planning means I bought two chairs at the end of the season last year at a 70% mark down.  They were just as new and nice when they came out of the shed this spring and cost much less.  

  July sales include Fourth of July decor clearance, summer clothing clearance, swimsuits, patio furniture and grills, and back to school supplies.  If I can hold out on the printer another week, I can get a great deal. 

     At the end of August, I will go through he garden tools, the sprinkler heads, the hoses and see what I need for next year.  I will buy it at it's deepest seasonal closeout sale at Big Lots and hardly feel the price pinch.  

     I know I am going to need a new printer soon.  Looking online for the current price of printers, and checking the site that tells me when things go on sale means I will make a better purchase and be able to spend the savings elsewhere. My sister has an Office Depot discount card.  We combine the use of it to increase the discount points for her business and she tells me when to buy.  It's a good deal.  I only need two medium pricey objects a year and she is in there every week.  It is a nice card that gets early sales and deeper discounts based on her bigger purchases.  Or, I could go to Wal Mart and get what they have and get less printer for more money.  I prefer my way.

Preparing for hard times and prepping is just a lifestyle choice that when worked properly, until it is second nature, allows me to live with what I need with less stress, because I planned ahead for it.