It’s always a challenge in our house to stretch our holiday budget to its absolute limits. I am a stickler about staying within the confines of our budget so I have to be creative when it comes to finding inexpensive ways to wrap the gifts I give. My goal is to make the gift look attractive, but not pay more for the wrap than the gift! Here are a few ways I stretch the budget when it comes to gift wrap:
Wrap with newspaper – I love the graphic quality of newspaper. Begin by wrapping your package with sheets of newspaper. I prefer the sections that don’t have a lot of pictures like the classifieds, but use anything that appeals to you. Then, top the package with a mass of curling ribbon or other brightly colored adornment. Your packages will be so pretty that no one will ever guess that you chose your wrapping material because it was cheap.
Use butcher paper – Large sheets of white butcher paper create the perfect canvas for you to create custom (but cheap) wrapping paper. You can use acrylic paint to decorate your paper. Use stencils or stamps to apply the paper, or you can even paint a freehand design on the paper. Your cheap white paper can take on any look you like.
Use last year’s paper – If you know that you simply don’t have the time to do a lot of embellishing on your wrapping paper, you can always opt to purchase traditional wrapping paper. You don’t have to pay full price, though. Pick up your wrapping paper after Christmas has passed. Then, pack it away with your Christmas decorations. You’ll be totally prepared next year when you’re ready to starting wrapping.
Shop the Dollar Store – My local dollar store has fabulous themed wrapping paper for just $1 per roll.
Recycle old bags – Gift bags make wrapping presents incredibly easy, but have you noticed how expensive they are? It hardly seems fair that you spend two or three dollars on a bag that only gets used and adored for a minute. That’s why I re-use my old gift bags. Anytime someone gives me a gift in a gift bag, I save the bag to use on someone else’s gift later.
Sew re-usable bags – I found out about this idea last year. Basically, you just use whatever fabric you have on hand and sew a basic bag to place the gift in. Then you save the bags for the next year! Kelly at Almost Frugal has a great tutorial on how to make these gift bags.
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I use the dollar store wrapping paper. I don’t need much so one roll or package works fine for me. Also, I don’t have the room to store wrapping paper for 11 months out of the year, so I’d rather just buy one package for a buck and use it all up.
Butcher paper and gift bags–the way to go. We have gift bags that we’ve used for several years now and nobody seems to know the difference.
we save the sunday comic sections every week & use them for birthday gifts year round. They could also be used at holiday time.