Last Minute Advent Calendar

Last year I went a bit overboard and crafted 10 Advent Calendars for friends and family, however this year things took a different twist. I kept thinking about the advent calendar and how I should be collecting items during our travels and throughout the year, but somehow, that didn’t really happen. No, instead I waited until the very last weekend before I got moving on the calendars. Little Monkey already has her Kinder Egg calendar ready and this year I decided I’ll only make three calendars but then found out I was able to stretch my budget to make four calendars! You know those four people must be pretty special!

Even though it was a bit rushed and oh so last minute, I still had fun making the advent calendars and I know the recipients appreciate the efforts as well.  I decided to mix things up a bit and included a couple beauty items along with the food and chocolate- who doesn’t love new nail polish and lip gloss, right? The beauty of waiting until the very last moment was that I hit up quite a few Black Friday sales (my wardrobe is very happy right now!) and that gave me an idea! What if I stretched my dollar a bit further by finding chocolate and foodie items on sale?

Disclosure : This post is in partnership with Flipp but, as always, opinions are totally mine! 

I had attended a delicious brunch with the team at Flipp and I decided to give the Flipp app a try. If you haven’t heard, Flipp is an app that helps you save on your daily purchases.  The app allows you to easily browse through the many flyers and save the items you want (easily!). I’m not a coupon kinda gal ( I used to be but just don’t have the time to sift through printed flyers that end up making me sneeze!) and I was a bit hesitant about using the Flipp app (much to my brother’s chagrin- he LOVES it for tech deals). However, I soon realized that the Flipp app actually works wonders and helps me save a fair bit even without cutting coupons.

As I was looking for advent calendar items I could purchase in my neighborhood, I opened the Flipp app and typed in chocolates in the search field and it immediately showed me which stores had sales on and I was able to quickly bee line straight to store and grab the Ferrero Rocher I was hunting. I was even able to find lip gloss and nail polish through the app! Most people do use it for price matching during their grocery runs but living downtown, my regular stores don’t offer price matching programs, so for me the main purpose for using Flipp is to peruse the many flyers and quickly “clip” a deal with my finger tips, saving it in my clippings. This way when I get to the store I quickly look through my clippings and know exactly what I am to stock up on during that visit (and not aimlessly roam the aisles looking for sales). The latest 3.0  version of the app lets you make shopping lists and even finds stores in your immediate area.

Using the Flipp app I was able to stretch my original budget of $100 that I was going to spend on three advent calendars! I was able to build an extra calendar which I desperately needed as my brother will be travelling and wouldn’t be able to share one with  his girlfriend as I had originally planned for them! PHEW!

As you can see, Little Monkey helped me with the calendars this year. I had the numbers written out and she would give them to me (great way to practice those mathematical skills) as I packaged each of the pieces. So what did end up in this year’s version?

• Chocolate! Of course – Lindt, Ferero Rocher and booze filled ones. I ensured 80% of the calendar had chocolates this year and stocked up on deals I found through Flipp
• Teas – I found packs of fruit teas on sale at Shoppers and they were cutely wrapped as well
• Candy Books ( Skittles, Hubba Bubba and Lifesaver have fun games that are part of the candy books and were on sale at Shoppers as I discovered on the Flipp app)
• Goody Hair bands and ties – every girl needs extra hair gear and I figured these would be useful
• Nail polish – Quo (available at Shoppers Drug Mart) has some cute mini bottles filled with bright colours and sparkles
• Make up – I was shocked when I found out that Quo has cosmetic bonbons!! How cute are those crackers?
• Colouring books – adult colouring is all the rage and I found some at the dollar store that came with markers included
• Minis – I’m talking about booze here! Wiser’s Deluxe Whisky, Kahlua and Malibu all made it in this year!

Crafting these calendars are actually quite fun. Next year I need to start collecting items a bit earlier than I did this year and I need to find some good boxes to build permanent compartments in. I bagged each of the presents this year in Christmas themed zip lock bags but we definitely need to up the ante on the presentation next year. The hubs and I are building a beer calendar as well but the friends we’re exchanging with don’t get into town until next week, so we’ve got a bit of extra time on our hands!

We have some awesome contests on our site and so does Flipp! They’re giving away a $2,500 shopping spree every week for six weeks!!

How’s your holiday shopping coming along?