Throw a Great Bash without Living in a McMansion (or Entertaining in Small Spaces)

 

Alright, stepping away from a hard finance post today and bringing you a frugal living post~ but no fear, Thursday's New Years post will crunch some numbers!

 

One of the facets of "spending SMALL, while living LARGE" may mean that you are on the literal end of living large in a small space. Housing/renting costs are often a huge part of an American's monthly budget*, so opting for a smaller home or apartment can really help save money in the long run. But there's a catch... living in a small house or apartment can discourage you from entertaining -but it shouldn't. The holidays are prime time for having friends and family over. Just because you live in a small domicile, doesn't mean you can't throw a great shindig! Keep reading for some handy tricks, I use at the Frugal Rock Home over the holidays!

While the Frugal Rock home is a not 'tiny' home** by any stretch of the imagination, one thing it doesn't have is an open floor layout or a dining room. Our house has four smaller rooms on our first floor making our floor plan not as conducive to large gatherings. We have gotten good at hosting 10 or less in our small space, and while at times it feels 'cozy', I would not say it feels cramped. Here are some things I do to make the place feel company ready:

                            1. Set up a Separate Drink Station Out of the Way
 

So one of the main joys (and struggles) of small kitchens is that they are immensely compact and efficient. I dig my galley style kitchen and have cooked dinner-for-two and for much larger groups in that small space. HOWEVER, if 8 people are also trying to get coffee or make drinks while I'm trying to bake/sauté/shake it makes me a cranky cook and also prevents my guests from getting their refills. No bueno all around.

Recently having hosted our annual Christmas Day brunch I experimented with sending our guests to our game room (converted from our spare bedroom) and set up a coffee station. Having a new year's soiree? It could be a drink cart! Kids party? Try a hot cocoa or lemonade station! Either way it helps move people out of congested areas (the kitchen) and mingle in a different area of your home. Making a drink station for your next event? Pay attention to the extras- flavor syrups, peppermints and other extras made our station a hit.

                       2. Consider a Variety of Seating Options

One of the challenges of small home living is where to put everyone when they come to visit! There are some great ways that you can maximize seating in small space. My number 1 is to think outside of your living room, and see if there are furniture from other areas of the home that may be repurposed to your dining/living room for the day. Think: chairs, ottomans, and even cushions can be repurposed for floor sitting. Forget matching- no one will notice anyway, since you'll be throwing such a great party!

Standing Room Only: Have a really small place? Chairs can also be removed to free up space if you have given up the idea of people sitting down. Taking away bar stools so people mingle more at the counter, or chairs around the table so people can graze are biggies. If seating wasn't plentiful enough for all, still ensure that you have some vignette spaces for more intimate conversation.

           3. Know Thy Space: Have a plan for your meal that matches your place

One of the things about small spaces is that they can make formal, sit-down meals challenging. That's why it's good to have a plan in place to make things as easy as possible for your guests. Don't stress if you don't have a table large enough to fit everyone- maybe set up two different seating areas; like an adult version of the kids' table. There are some positives to this, as it can get your guests talking to people they may not know as well. You can also ditch the formal meal altogether and plan your event after a typical meal-time. For example, have people over later in the evening for drinks and desserts- no one will come expecting a full meal and makes your job as host easier.
                                      


For the Frugal Rock Annual Holiday Brunch, our eat-in kitchen table was not going to cut it this year, so we opted to move the party into our game room/spare room, which has a large round table that generally we have board games out on. With the addition of 3 extra chairs, we were able to comfortably fit our group of 7. It ended up working perfectly for our numbers, but any additional visitors, and we would have opted for the two sitting/eating areas.

                                                4. Rethink The Fridge

When I was a kid, my parents had two fridges (one in the house, one in the garage) and a deep freezer. The Frugal Rock household had talked about adding a small deep freezer in the basement, but with really working hard to cut our electrical costs, a deep freezer would have been a step in the wrong direction for us. Fridge space is often a challenge no matter the size of your home, but in a small space, you likely also have smaller appliances.

So what to do? Channel your summer self and think of  your outdoor BBQ's and utilize coolers, ice buckets, etc. to ensure adequate space in your actual fridge for important food items. Keep extra items, beverages, chilled champagne- whatever you want to have on hand but don't immediately need in a cooler, out of the way. In a colder climate? Time to go retro- like 1800's retro and use the outdoors for your cooling needs (fun fact: modern refrigeration technology was invented in 1876, bet you always wanted to know that right?). The snowbank cooler is very effective for short-term needs. I have thrown champagne, bottled water- even a container of milk in a snowbank (short-term) during a party to keep everything cold!

Hope these ideas help you look at your space with fresh eyes! Already a confident host? What are your small space tricks to hosting a great party? Never have people over? What keeps you from hosting gatherings with family and friends?

* According to Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies, in 2014 1 in 4 Americans spent about 50% of their monthly budget on rental housing alone.*

**An official "Tiny Home", one the big trends in small living, is typically less than 200 sq. feet. I give people tons of credit for living that way, but too small for us!**
 

I Hope You Get Gift Cards for Christmas (or How to Save $ From Someone Else's Disappointment)

Jimmy opens up his Christmas card form Grandma. He smiles in that grateful but disappointed way and says thank you, holding up his $50 gift card for Applebee's. What's wrong with Applebee's? Let's say Jimmy is a vegetarian and a foodie, and wouldn't be caught dead in an Applebee's. He goes home, goes online and sells the gift card for $35 and gets money instantly in his paypal account. He uses that to buy a years worth of Tahini for his homemade hummus and considers himself content.

Enter the world of re-selling gift cards. Is your mind blown? Mine was!

Having been the receiver of gift cards in the past to places we never go to, I can see how there is a market for it. Case in point: Baskin Robbins gift card? What the heck is a Baskin Robbins?! (Can I order bird seed from there?) However, I was shocked that it turns out some people are so eager for the cash instead that they will sell their gift cards for 5-20% off from a lot of major retailers. In a quick check of one gift card buying/selling site- (I spent the most time on Raise.com) you could pick up a $300 TJ Maxx gif card for $250. Check it out: https://www.raise.com/buy-t-j-maxx-gift-cards

A Robin Basking...

If you can find gift cards that are places you already spend at regularly through out the year you could save quite a bit of money this way. In demand gift cards for places like grocery stores, or Menards are harder to come by, but as a big Home Depot spender I'm keeping my eye on their gift cards. They are currently selling for 8%, less than cash value. Hoping it will hit 10-15% after the holidays.

Most major restaurant chains, clothing lines, etc. are also featured on these sites. Shop Express or Banana Republic? Gift cards for these places offer a nice chunk of discount. Target and Kohl's also seem to fluctuate between 5-10%. Not huge savings compared to other stores, but if you know that you typically spend about $500 in purchases at Target throughout the year (another reason it's good to track your spending!), why not buy $500 in gift cards in January at a discount and relish how smart you are throughout the year whenever you use it? You look pretty smart to me...

                                                         Why Now?

Turns out that there is a best time of year to buy almost anything. January is the top month to buy gift cards according to most economy trackers, and it's really no surprise. It may be folks selling their holiday gift cards, or returning gifts without a receipt and receiving 'in-store' credit in the form of a gift card. Either way, January is the perfect time to shop around for gift cards. Check out the graph, courtesy of Life Hacker.

On the flip, if you get gift cards for Christmas, you can also sell them on site like raise.com, but be prepared to take a hit. People shop these sites looking for deals so likely will only bite if the deal is sweet enough. Be prepared to take a loss. So here's hoping that a lot of people get gift cards this Christmas- as I'll be expectantly waiting for them to turn up on gift card selling sites!

Oh, and if you were considering getting a few gift cards for those last few nieces and nephews on your list...maybe just get them cash instead.

 

           Are you giving gift cards this year? Would you ever sell your gift cards online?

 

Holiday Bonuses (Or Will They Ruin Your Christmas Vacation?)

It's that time of year, where trees are up, holiday music is playing, people are alternatively more upbeat and more cranky than any other month. It may be the overscheduling, or all the forced time with others, but it can lead to a stressful time. In many jobs, December is also a very busy time- it's time to wrap up the fiscal year, set budgets and goals for next year. It's also that time of year where you are expected to complete all your normal work, while also adjusting and covering for other's vacations or trying to squezze in your own. There is a silver-lining in all that: the Holiday Bonus.

One of the all-time best holiday movies (there is no room for debate on this issue) is National
Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. I was re-watching it a few weeks back, and I was struck that I had forgotten the whole premise that the movie is based on. If you haven't seen it recently, the crux is the holiday bonus- or the lack there of! In the 1989 movie, the main charector Clark Griswold, is waiting expectantly for his Christmas bonus. While you never know how much he is actually expecting, he is using it for a downpayment on an in-ground swimming pool. Sooo while I don't know how much that would be in the 1980's, I think we can surmise that he was expecting a fairly big 'pool' of cash to come his way. Hilarity ensues, as with all Chevy Chase movies and a string of unfortunate events occurs with the onset of his family coming to visit, as Chevy Chase loses sight of the meaing of Christmas. In summary, well-off head-of-household with good job, doesn't get bonus and can't afford a luxery his family was doing fine without. #firstworldproblems #80sclothesarethebest

In re-watching the movie, I was struck by the pre-great-recession idea of the Holiday Bonsus- and thought, do most folks even get holiday bonuses anymore? Is the Holiday Bonus it's own piece of nostalgia out there, gone by the wayside of other quaint 80's and 90's traditions like, matching outfits for Christmas cards and the overuse of AquaNet as a styling product?

The biggest sign to me that the Holiday bonus is (mostly) dead, is the complete lack of information nationally that I was able to find on it. The most reputable data source I located was a poll completed and featured by CNN Money in 2005. Yikes- not exactly current. At that time, about 60% of companies were reporting that they were not planning on giving a holiday bonus to their employees. I did find a lot more on the switch from holiday bonuses to performance based bonuses (or incentive based pay). Where as the spirit behind the Holiday Bonus was a way of thanking all employees (often equally) for their time throughout the year, incentive based pay is an increased compensation model based on the quality of work of that individual employee through the year.

According to the Society for Human Resource Management incentive pay is often performance based money due to the completeion of a short-term or long-term project or performance measure. A short-term performance incentive could be getting bonus after finishing a big project for your employeer that goes above/beyond your normal job expectations (overhauling the companies IT systems, for example...making it through a budget meeting without yelling at someone would not count...). A short-term annual performance outcome, may be based off of your sale numbers from throughout the year and could be an end of the year bonus. Some companies will also do retention bonuses, thus also finding a way to reward employees who have maitained time with the company, often 5 years and above. As in thanks for sticking with us all this time, and pleeeeze stick around another year!

In a survey completed in 2013, published in 2014, World at Work and Deloitte Consulting, found that 99% of the companies that they surveyed had some sort of short-term incentive plan. So while the holiday bonus may be on the outs, many companies are still offerring some form of incentive program. The research does show however, that this mainly impacts salaried employees, part-time or hourly employees were only receiving benefits from incentive plans or holiday bonuses between 50-55% of the time- significantly lower than the average for salaried employees which as previously mentioned was in the high 90%.

The research I found does seem to show that if your employeer has a good incentive based pay model, you could be receivng a bonus of around 5-10% of your annual salary as a low level employee, 10-15% as a supervisor and ascending as you rise in the company ranks. This has been a much higher amount than a holiday bonus historically has been- meaning you are probably better off forgetting that holiday bonus and enjoying your performanence incentive! ChaChing!

If your employeer is cheap and doesn't offer high incentive pay though, are you out of luck? Working for a non-profit, means that incentive based pay bonuses are not applicable. Being grant and government funded, I get it. I can imagine the tax-payer out-cry if government or private gov. funded agencies started to do large bonusus! We do have retention bonuses, but no annual performance based bonus. I'm glad to report that our holiday bonuses have lived to arrive another year- (though it always feels a little unsure as to if they will be received or not) and I'm grateful for that! Quick thing to remember if you are expecting that holiday or year end performanence based bonus- it's still taxable! So before you start spending that amount before you get it, remember that when it finally ends up in your bank account, it will be minus your normal payroll tax rate...Uncle Sam wants his own holiday bonus...

Is any bonus better than no bonus? A friend recently complained to me that instead of a monetary bonus, she got a $25 gift card for a local grocery chain. Instead of making her feel valued as an employee, it felt completely the opposite. The cash amount was way lower than she anticipated and made her feel less valued- not more. Is this just being a complainy-Clark Griswold- sort of person? I don't think so. How our employeers treat us makes a big difference! If your company did large bonuses in the past and is switching to smaller bonsus' this year- some sort of communication is needed to explain to employees the shift...was it a tough year? are they moving towards retenion/performance bonuses instead?...Something is not always better than nothing!  

Hoping that you have some form of bonus coming your way! Does your employer do holiday/incentive bonuses? Are you expecting a year-end amount? What's your plan for your extra cash?