The 12 Dates of Christmas

So, I do not normally consider myself to be a "crafty" person at all... or even a particularly "creative" person, really. But, I'm on pinterest like a lot of people, and even though I've never used mod podge or made anything exciting out of a bottle brush, I do get a little inspiration from time to time and do something that borders on crafty.

Pair all this with the fact that we have a new baby and combine that with

our pre-existing cheapness, and you won't be surprised to hear that I was on the hunt for something inexpensive, yet meaningful to give to my husband for Christmas.

On pinterest, I saw something about 12 pre-paid, pre-planned dates as a gift, which is pretty cool except, I don't have the cash on hand to pre-pay 12 dates. I also saw a "Can of Dates" idea on pinterest, which led me to spend a little time on the Dating Divas site and get some ideas there.

All of this manifested itself in a gift only my husband and Dave Ramsey would love. The 12 Dates of Christmas and a Date Jar sinking fund. Basically no money out of pocket right now, and 12 lovely dates with my man over the course of the coming year.

I started with this empty binder.

Yes, it's Vera Bradley. Can anyone who knows me really be shocked? It's actually a leftover binder that I had from the 2011 Agenda. So, no money out of pocket, and it's nicer looking than your average Office Depot offering. It's smaller than standard size, probably 8x5 or something.

I had recently bought a little value pack of cardstock to use in our Christmas cards, as well as a couple of white pens since most of the cardstock was dark. The five main colors you will see throughout this binder (black, blue-grey, maroon, beige, and green) are from that value pack. Also, double sided scrapbooking tape is my favorite thing.

Anything else that looks cute in this binder is probably from my box of misfit cards. Lots of stationery, greeting cards, blank cards, etc. that I don't use frequently. Tons of cards without envelopes, envelopes without cards, that sort of thing. So the picture of the kids and the umbrella is the front of one of those cards. The poetry is all original.

And here's where the concept of the binder is explained. Basically, I set up a sinking fund for the dates in this binder. If you're unfamiliar with the concept, "sinking fund" is the fancy way of saying we're going to set a little money aside in a cookie jar each month to finance this little project. So, each date is planned based on setting aside $40 a month. When a date costs less than $40, the remainder stays in the jar and allows us to carry the money forward for a pricier date later on.

So, the first date is a cheapie to get the ball rolling: redbox and carry out pizza, a budget of $20. As you can see, I went ahead and set aside this month's $40 and included the $20 cash for this date on the January page. The other $20 is in our "date jar" which I didn't take a picture of because it's not all that pretty. I'm sure a craftier person would've had a lot of fun with that part of the project.

I made the book with the idea the each page, front and back, is its own thing... so what you see here is January on the left, February on the right. If I had it to do over again, I might consider making it so that when the book sits open like this, you're looking at the same month on both sides. [shrug]

The next date, February, is kind of cheating. I had already received a voucher for two free Dallas Stars tickets from my mother in law, and one of the dates the voucher was good for was in February, the night before my husband's birthday. So, this is a nice little birthday date for us. $25.00 budget for this one for dinner at Chipotle and transportation on the DART rail. Or I guess we can spend the money on parking and pack peanut butter sandwiches. ha I prefer Option One.

Again, the cute matting is just repurposed Thank You cards that aren't really my style.

The envelope on the left there is part of the February date. Inside are the game tickets and a short note explaining that the budget is $25 and all those other details I mentioned earlier.

So... now you get the idea. March: game night!

April: a trip to the batting cages and a bar

May, the month of our anniversary: fancy dinner out at a restaurant way nicer than our normal.

June: a date idea from the Dating Divas site. A "video date". Basically, I prepared some questions for us to interview each other on camera a bit, and this can be a nice little keepsake for ourselves, James, or other future children on down the line. I mean, I would love to see a video of my parents when I was tiny, or before I was born... talking about their lives, giving advice, etc. So, that's a fun "free" date we'll try.

July, a baseball game! The budget is $50, so we'll decide later this year whether that allows us to get cheap seats, parking, and no food at a Ranger game, or if we'd prefer decent seats, parking and food at a RoughRiders game.

August will be a bowling date, $25 budget

September is simply going for a walk and doing some window shopping, $15 budget for lunch

October's date will be a local HS football game. Andrew and I went to the same high school, although not at the same time, so why not take advantage of our shared "school spirit"? My concept with this date is a "hugh school" date: eat in at a fast food restaurant, go to the game, make out in the car, home by 11. lol

The November date is your typical dinner out date, with a $50 budget and the caveat that it must be a "new" place, at least new-to-us.

The December date is a holiday lights tour. I budgeted just $15 for Starbucks and a self-guided tour, but that will leave us with about $100 in the Date Jar. So, we'll talk then about whether we want to use the leftover money for this date, roll it over to the 2013 Date Jar, or do something boring like put it in our retirement savings or something.

Well, this gift was lots of fun for me to make - so much so that I blogged! Woot! I hope you enjoy!