Tag Archive for Gifts

25 Oct 2010
Saving Money

As the Holidays Grow Closer – Frugal Gift Giving Strategies

The added pressure of making room for holiday gift-giving in a family’s budget can be very great. {That’s why homemade gifts are so great.} With mortgages, utilities, and average living expenses all vying for their place in your budgeting, you may have trouble finding room for luxuries like gift giving. Alternatively, you don’t want to be known among your family and friends as being the one who ruins the fun of gift giving for everyone. Participating in holiday gift exchanges is a fun party of any holiday celebration. Why should you miss out on the good times?

Before you resign yourself to giving up all of the fun that comes with gifting, consider utilizing one of several gift giving strategies in your holiday plans. By controlling the costs of your gifting, you can enjoy the best of the holidays without suffering the after-effects of overspending.

Draw Names
One of the biggest drains on a gift giving budget is often large groups. For instance, in our family, exchanging gifts with each of the adult brothers and sisters can become quite an ordeal. Why not suggest that you draw names and assign each member of the group the responsibility of shopping for one other member? Now, you’ll have the time to really select an appropriate gift for everyone on your shopping list. I’ll warrant that other people in your family will be relieved at the shortening of their shopping list, too.

Set A Spending Limit
If the idea of not getting a gift for each of your friends and family members appalls you, there is another way to keep your holiday budget in check. You can always opt to set a spending limit within the group. If everyone is on the same page regarding their gift giving budgets, no one will be caught spending an amount that can be conceived as too frugal or too extravagant. Now, the focus will be more on finding the best gift you can at a reasonable price.

Just Limit The Giving
Finally, one other way to keep the cost of your gift giving within the confines of your budget is to simply focus your gift giving upon specific parts of your family. Some families may opt to give gifts from one branch of the family to another. Giving family gifts allow you to shop for all of your relatives without spending too much. Another popular option is to only give gifts to the children in your family. After all, part of the magic of Christmas is watching children enjoy the revelry.

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09 Mar 2010
Frugal

Frugal and Inexpensive Gift Giving Ideas

With the approach of Spring comes the gift giving occasions of Easter, graduations, weddings, Mother’s Day, etc. If you love giving gifts as much as I do, you’ve learned to take advantage of all of the inexpensive gift ideas you can come up with. After all, the point of giving a gift is to tell a friend or family member that you’re thinking of them on their special occasion. No one expects you to blow your family’s budget on a gift. Giving a thoughtful, but inexpensive, gift is always a better idea than spending a ton of money on a gift you can’t afford.

Inexpensive gifts don’t have to be cheap, though. You can learn to get as much bang for your gift-giving buck by carefully selecting the items you choose to give. Here are some of my favorite ideas:

Tiny Luxuries – I’ve found that many of my girl friends don’t regularly treat themselves to the little luxuries in life. By shopping at discount places like TJ Maxx or Marshall’s, I can buy small treats like high -end chocolates, name brand perfumes, or decadent lotions.

The Gift of Creativity – Kids love anything that allows them to get their creative juices flowing. A smattering a stickers or a foam craft kit are both great gift ideas for youngsters. You can find both for a dollar or two at craft stores like Michael’s or Hobby Lobby. When all else fails a coloring book from the dollar store and a new package of crayons are sure to elicit a smile from the gift recipient.

Gadgets – If there’s one thing the men in my life can never get enough of, it is gadgets. Inexpensive things like a LED flashlight or a talking tire pressure gauge always make nice gifts. Tasty rubs or seasonings for use at a cookout or a six pack of assorted beers (the best ones are at World Market) are always popular, as well.

Gifts for the Impossible Recipient – No one is harder to shop for than teenagers. Teens have their own tastes, and they change their minds faster than anyone I know. A few gifts, however, always please the teenagers in my life. An assortment of eye shadows in a fun zipper bag can be a great gift for a teenage girl. I make the bag myself from scraps of fabric left from other projects. Jewelry or hair accessories are great for younger girls, too. Boys might enjoy a DVD of a recent action flick or an accessory for their mp3 players.

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23 Dec 2009
Saving Money

Think Ahead – Buy Next Year’s Gifts After Christmas This Year

I know that after the holidays many of you are just plain shopped-out. You may be thinking thoughts like, “I never want to see the inside of a store again!” Before you swear off shopping forever (or at least for a month or two) I want you to consider one thing: if you tough it out for a little while longer you might be able to avoid this feeling next year.

What do I mean? Well, remember those toys that you ran all over town buying during the last month? Maybe you are thinking about the gifts that were delivered to your doorstep over the last couple of weeks instead. However you got your gifts, you can bet that those same gifts are going to be on sale for a much lower price as soon as Christmas has passed.

Now, you can’t do much about the cost of the gifts you’re giving this year. After all, you have a hard and fast deadline coming up on December 25th. But what would you do if time weren’t a concern? You’d wait and make your purchases after the sales start, right? Although you can’t do that for this year’s gifts, you could always opt to start your holiday shopping for next year now.

Think about it for a minute. Will the set of towels you plan to get your mother-in-law look any different after you’ve stored it for a year? Will your daughter be any less excited about Barbie and her glittery dress next year? Of course not! The only difference will be the price tag that was attached to the gift.

So, after you’ve enjoyed your holiday with your family and loved ones, consider making one more venture out into the shopping world (or virtual shopping world). Start by listing all of the people that you know you will be getting gifts for next year. Your spouse, your children, and best friends, for instance, are probably permanent inclusions on your gift giving list. By shopping now you will find that you can get everyone on your list a really great gift at an even better price.

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