Save on Gifts

Give Quality Presents without the Cost

Save on Gifts.

The holidays are coming (aren’t they always). Soon there will be a 2-foot long list of people to shop for: in-laws, parents, husband, kids, sisters, brothers, nieces, nephews, the dog and cat, 2nd cousins twice removed, your children’s teachers, the child your daughter plays with down the street, neighbors, husband’s boss and co-workers, the Angel tree children your family has adopted.



Does the list ever end?

So how on earth do you save money on gifts, without sacrificing the quality?

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Money Saving Family Gifts

Save on Gifts.

You know the drill.

Everyone gathers at Grandma’s house on Christmas Eve to open piles of presents from every member of the family.

There are cousins, and aunts-by-marriage, and Great Uncle Henry who can’t remember where he is.

And everyone has tons of what, if we are honest with ourselves, amounts to little more than junk.

For all of your extended family, that is, everyone related to you, that you usually give gifts to, aside from your spouse and children, try implementing some of these ideas to save on gifts this holiday season.

Though most families have certain traditions when it comes to holidays and gift giving, you may be surprised to find that others in your family might be in the mood for a change, and may want information to save on gifts.

Bring up some of these ideas at your next family get together, and talk it all out.


Gift Exchanges
To cut down on clutter and unneeded spending (and regifting, and GoodWill donations), suggest that all adult family members participate in a gift exchange to save on gifts. Instead of buying one small gift for each family member, set a dollar limit ($20, $50, or $100 limits work well, depending on your family) and buy for just one person.

Everyone places their name and the kinds of things they like or their clothing sizes on a piece of paper. For example:
Name: Aunt Rose
I collect chickens
I like bath salts and bubble bath
I’m a dress size 10 and a shoe size 7

Then each paper is placed into a hat, and family members go around the room drawing names. The only rules are you cannot draw yourself, and you cannot draw your spouse.

The children in the family can either participate in a special children’s version of the game, or you can continue your traditions with gifting to children in your family.

In our family, we draw names on Thanksgiving for Christmas. This save on gifts method allows all of us to purchase gifts inexpensively.


Large Items
Another method to save on gifts is to team up with other members of your family to purchase one larger gift. For example, if your mother has wanted an I-POD for a while, but it is out of your financial reach, consider teaming up with your brother and sister and making the purchase as a group.

Mom gets what she wants instead of a knick-knack she secretly hates, and you are able to spend a little less and save on gifts.


Adopt a Family
If you find yourself asking the question “What do I get someone who has everything?” in regards to buying gifts for your family, maybe you should consider adopting a local family in need.

Your entire family could pool their gift giving money together to purchase a Christmas or Thanksgiving Dinner for a family in need, along with presents for the children, and a larger item, perhaps a used washer, for example, for the parents.

This would not only feed the need for gifting in your family, but could also provide meaning for you this holiday season. Not to mention the values and lessons you would be teaching, by example, to your children.

If everyone in the family really got into the giving spirit, this could become its own family tradition, inspiring generations.


Family Newsletter
Is your family spread out? Members all over the world?

Consider gifting them this holiday season with a Family Newsletter.

Make up a beautiful newsletter on your computer complete with pictures. Feature a different family member each month (extended family) and give updates as to where they are, and what they are doing.

Present each family member with the premier edition of the newsletter, printed, in a box, with a note saying which month will be their featured month.

When their month arrives, make sure to gift them with additional copies for their friends and neighbors.

This way, each member of the family gets something meaningful and special, throughout the entire year, to enjoy for years to come. A great way to add significance to your family while you save on gifts.


Going No Gift
In some families, especially those whose economic situation might have taken a turn, sometimes it is best to simply have a talk with your family and let them know that you would like to stop exchanging gifts with the adults.

I have heard of several people who have done this, and have gotten a less than cordial response from the extended family. I have also heard of some families that smile and nod to this conversation, and then continue giving gifts anyway.

Only you know what’s best for your family, but honestly, holidays are about family and friends, and togetherness. They are not about a bunch of boxes under a tree.

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Money Saving Gifts for Children

One Gift Per Child
Probably the best way to save on gifts for children, especially your own children, is to give them only one gift per child. If that seems too confiding, then save on gifts with no more than 3 gifts.

I know that some of you are about to pass out right now, because you believe that gifting your children with everything their little hearts desire is the American Way, and that it is cruel to do anything else. After all, you don’t want your kids to think you’re poor, right? You don’t want the other kids to make fun of them, right?

Have you ever heard of the Gimmes?

My kids have had them a time or two in the past. I’m sure yours have as well.

The Gimmes are a horrible illness that plagues school-aged and teenaged children across the United States. (It rarely migrates beyond the boarders of the USA, though it has been known to happen.)

This illness causes nice children, from nice families, to become disgusting, self-absorbed brats whose sole thought is: “What’s in it for me?”

When visiting their aging grandmother in the hospital, instead of asking how she is doing, they ask, “What did you get me, Grandma?”

At the grocery store check-out line, they suddenly gasp, get wide-eyed and exclaim, “Mommy, I didn’t get to pick out an ice cream today!”

When you come home from the department store with new tidy-whities to replace the underwear your son has cut holes in, your daughter starts crying, “Why didn’t I get new underwear today?!”

While at a Home Show, your son starts complaining about the booth that only had green promotional pencils left, instead of the blue ones he saw some other kid holding.

Do you get the idea?

The Gimmes are alive and kicking in America today. A whole generation has them.

And there is only one cure.

Less.

Yep, that’s right. The only cure is to give your children less.

I found out about this interesting cure a few years ago, when I decided to “clean” my children’s room.

They had way too many toys. Everything from the Toy of the Year to cheap Happy Meal toys. They had blocks, and legos, and pretend food items and dollhouses and knights and baby dolls and Barbies and hundreds and hundreds of items accumulated over the years.

I was sick of the mess. No matter how much I tried, I could not get them to keep it clean.

So I purged 90% of it. Threw it away if it was junk, freecycled the rest of it.

They were left with a box of legos, a box of blocks and a handful of educational toys.

Then something amazing happened.

They actually played with their toys.

Before the Great Purge, they mostly wanted to watch a video, and when they did play with their toys, everything had to come out of the boxes before anything was played with, and by that time, the room was a mess and they were bored.

But after the Great Purge, they enjoyed quiet time playing with their toys. Things became fun again.

That was the first year we decided to go with the One Toy Per Child rule. Every birthday and Christmas, we save on gifts and get one main gift for each child, and then spend maybe $5-10 on other trinkets like stickers, pencils, soap, bubble bath, and the like. (My mom used to call the trinkets stocking stuffers.)

I’ve tried to convince the grandparents to just send the kids cash for their savings account, or an article of clothing, but its been hard convincing them that Less is More. So the kids do end up with several presents each holiday. But, they do not end up with too many presents, and do not become over stimulated with the process.

And the Gimmes have vanished. They no longer are so greedy. (Though I will admit that a mild case does rear its ugly head at one of their grandparent’s house still, as grandma and grandpa insist on giving them things every single time we visit.)


Set a Budget
If limiting the number of items per child is still too difficult of a concept to move past, then I would suggest setting up a budget per child to save on gifts.

Depending on your family’s circumstances, this budget could be as low as $20 per child, or as high as $100. (Yes, I know that many families budget much more, some upwards of $500-1000 per child for holidays, but this is so anti-savings to me that I cannot bear to promote it.)

Stick to your budget and plan ahead.

You might even create an annual budget for your child’s gift needs to save on gifts. This way, if you spend a little more on his birthday, you can make up for it at Christmas.


Entertainment
Gifts do not have to be a physical item. Entertainment and activities can also be used as gifts for children.

--Annual Passes
An annual pass to the Science Center, Zoo, or Children’s Museum can be a wonderful gift a child will treasure for the entire year.

--Dance Lessons
If you are having trouble affording dance, karate, or music lessons for your child, why not suggest that Grandma gift your child with this type of item as a present? This way, they get the wonderful experiences of the lessons, and grandma doesn’t buy another loud, battery-powered, dust-collecting hunk of plastic.

--Coupons
A very nice gift for your child, or for another child you are gifting to can be a coupon book, made by you. In it you have 12 certificates, one for each month. On each certificate is a promise of a specific outing, anything from going ice skating to going out for ice cream. The activities can cost money or be free, its up to you. The most important thing is that the child understands that you will be giving your time to them.

This can work especially well in a large family, where the parent promises the child a one-on-one outing. Also, this concept can be adapted as a “Get Out of Chores Free” coupon book, where the child can use his coupons to avoid a particularly despised chore.


Give to Charity
An important gift you can give your children this holiday season is the opportunity to give to charity. Whether they take some of their old toys down to GoodWill, spend some of their money on a charity, pick out a toy at the store for Toys for Tots, or even give of their time to volunteer at a soup kitchen, involving our children personally in our giving efforts will help them to grow into giving adults.

There is no better gift that we can give.

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Money Saving Gifts for Hubby

No Gifts
Probably the easiest thing to do if you are trying to trim gift expenses when it comes to your spouse is to not gift at all, or to gift on birthdays but not on Christmas.

This is something that needs to be agreed upon in advance, and both parties need to be in complete agreement. If you think you would become sad, or angry if you do not receive a present, then this is not the best way to save on gifts for you. Instead, set a budget.


Gift the House
Another method to save on gifts, while providing yourselves something you truly need, is to give the house a present.

This is where each holiday season, you take a designated amount of money, and purchase something together that will benefit your home.

This could be a new vacuum cleaner, a new bedding set for your bed, a new washer, or a new set of dishes. Whatever it is, it should be decided upon together.


Vacation
Other couples pool their gift money together to take a vacation, or do a special activity with the family.

Remember, 50 years from now, when your children have grandchildren of their own, they won’t remember the Easy Bake Oven you gave them for their 7th birthday, but I’ll bet they’ll be telling those grandkids about swimming with dolphins in Florida one Christmas.

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Money Saving Gifts for Friends, Neighbors and Coworkers

How do you save on gifts with the little gifts you give?

We have a tendency to go overboard when it comes down to gifts for friends, coworkers, and neighbors. Except for your very closest of friends, and perhaps your husband’s boss, usually you can duplicate one simple gift giving idea for all on your holiday list without trouble.

If you are making these gifts, it allows you to purchase your supplies or ingredients in bulk, saving you money.

And always make sure to have a couple extra items on hand for those on your list that you have forgotten.

Bottom line: KISS: Keep It Super Simple


Homemade Gifts
In this day and age, getting a homemade gift from someone can mean so much more than its store bough counterpart. Which would you rather have?

A 3-foot tall tin of popcorn with Santa on the side, or a plate full of Christmas cookies?

A generic Christmas card, or a hand-stamped one with glitter?

A bottle of store-bought bubble bath, or a bag of handmade bath salts?

In most cases, nearly everyone would prefer the kind of gift that comes from the heart. The one that shows us that someone took the time in this busy world to actually sit down and MAKE something.

Here are some ideas on homemade gifts you can make:

Excellent Living Guide How to Make Popular Bath and Body Items

101 Gift Basket Ideas

Need Gift Basket Supplies? Try Cello in a Box


Mason Jar or Canning Jar Gifts
Mason Jars, or Canning Jars, make excellent, inexpensive, and attractive, gift-giving forms. A great way to save on gifts! You can fill them with anything and make an instant gift. Some ideas:

Flavored Coffees
Flavored Teas
Beverage Mixes
Hot Chocolate Mixes
Brownie Mixes
Cookie Mixes
Cake Mixes
Bread Mixes
Oils and Vinegar
Muffin Mixes
Soup Mixes
Spices
Dips
Nuts
Bath Salts
Soaps
Potpourri
Craft Items (buttons or beads to make a project)

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Planning Your Gift Giving in Advance

The most important way to save on gifts is to plan in advance.

You know when the holidays are. You know when your children’s birthdays are. You know that your kids will probably be invited to a handful of birthday parties throughout the school year.

So make it your goal to plan in advance the gifts you will give to save on gifts.


The Gift Closet
If you do not currently have a Gift Closet in your home, you need to start one today. This is an excellent way to save on gifts.

A Gift Closet does not have to be an actual closet, it can be a box, or a shelf if you’d like, but it does need to be a place where you can store gifts to be given out throughout the year.

Each time you come across an item that can be used as a gift, even if you do not have a particular person in mind for that specific item, add it to the Gift Closet.

This way, when you are in need of a last minute gift, or you are tight on cash, you have your own shopping store!


Stocking Up
There are many good times to stock your Gift Closet.

--After Christmas
The best time of year to Christmas shop is right after Christmas! Hit those 90% off sales (Target has wonderful ones) and buy up all the Christmas wrap, decorations, and gifty items you can store. Many times the items on clearance don’t say “Christmas” on them at all, and can be used for any holiday.

Some sets, like bath or perfume sets can be removed from Christmas packaging and repackaged in a Gift Basket for another gift occurrence. A great way to save on gifts.

--After Other Holidays
Even after Easter, Valentines Day, Halloween, and Independence Day, check out the sales. A flag inspired dish set on clearance for $3 after the 4th of July might be the perfect gift for Aunt Suzie for Christmas, as her home is done in Americana.

Your strategies should be 3-fold:
--Save for Next Year
--Make it Work for Another Holiday
--Repackage

If you can do any of these things with it, and it is a good buy, get it!


Coupons and Refunds
The incredible world of Coupons and Refunds can give you a never ending supply of gifts.

You will need to start early in the year to plan for these types of gifts, as not everyone appreciates a lifetime supply of bar soap, razors, or tampons as a Christmas gift, but with a little foresight you can come out with some really great stuff and save on gifts!

For instance, one year I was able to get a Senseo coffee machine for free! Talk about a wonderful addition to my Gift Closet. Anyone in my family would have loved that!


Christmas Account
If you are not the best at hitting the after holiday sales, or if a Gift Closet sounds like too much work for you, the best thing you can do is to set aside a predetermined amount of money each month to use for gifts.

For example, if you have decided that you will spend a total of $1200 for all gift giving this entire year, then each month put $100 into a special savings account to save on gifts. As you buy gifts, take it out of that account. This will keep you on track.

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