In a previous article, I had said something about gifts for general gift etiquette.
Here some light will be shed on what needs to be done to have a more specific occasion such as a holiday season gift. Although I must mention that I have taken lots of ideas from a book and I think they are worth sharing. Here is how it goes.
Let’s start with the big E… Expense
I started with a budget outline of what I wanted to spend on this occasion.
After I finished looking at my expenses from last year and created my new budget, I found some less relevant categories that needed to be removed for next year. I especially found a great opportunity to save money in our “gift” category. see more
First, I made the decision that my theme for this year would be to give gifts from the heart. Last year, when I had Christmas packages scattered around the living room and was trying to sort them for mailing, I found myself thinking like Scrooge. I decided it wasn’t really a very good way to get into the Christmas season!
This year I started preparing gifts early in January. At this point, it might be over by June. This also includes about 25 birthday gifts that I need to give throughout the year. It’s not hard to sulk when you’re the one taking responsibility for buying, making, wrapping, and sending so many gifts.
Trying to do this within a limited budget is even more challenging. If money weren’t an issue, you could buy 50 gift cards to the local Wal-Mart for birthdays and Christmas and be done with it. But I feel like my idea of giving from the heart will accomplish more in the long run, because I’ll feel more concerned about the gifts I’m giving and hope the recipients really enjoy them.
Here are ideas I’ve incorporated into my gift-giving this year to help stay aligned with my theme and smaller budget:
1. First, create a birthday list and a Christmas list with an estimated budget for each person.
2. Always keep a gift cabinet, and I highly recommend starting one if you haven’t before. I buy gifts throughout the year that I think will suit a particular person or could be a possibility for multiple people.
3. Spend an afternoon shopping in your very own gift cabinet! pulls out gifts you’ve already selected with certain people in mind and marks them as purchased on my gift list. That really saves a lot of time and money! I can find many gifts for the grandkids this way as I have always picked up new or like-new gifts.
4. I found some items in the supply cabinet that I decided weren’t a good fit for anyone on my list. I sold them on eBay and added that money to our household gift budget.
5. I keep a running list of gift ideas that I can create and do myself. I pick up many of these ideas by reading other frugal sites on the web. I love to create and enjoy certain hobbies such as beading, cross stitch and crochet. I selected several ideas from this list of gifts that I can do this year.
6. I have found many items that I can “gift” that will have special meaning to the recipients. Some of these are family heirlooms, jewelry we no longer wear, or other items we have that hold special meaning to one of our children or grandchildren.
7. I love giving gifts to younger children because they haven’t had a chance to set expectations or assign a monetary value to gifts! I give games with custom themes. My husband and I read the books on tape and add little personal stories and antidotes. I’ve made “cookie crayons” in muffin tins out of crayon scraps; these really are pretty with the color mix. I browse the museum gift shops at the various National Monuments in our state and select coloring books themed around our state. Museum gift shops offer other great gifts for children that are personalized because they represent where we live and are quite affordable.
8. If you find a gift that I think will be suitable for more than one of our children or grandchildren, make several in a year. For example, this year I made wool scarves with appliqués and a very neat backpack made from an old pair of jeans. Jeans pockets are a great addition to the outside of a backpack for pencils, erasers, markers, etc. These are ideas I can duplicate for other grandkids: Since we have twelve, it’s easier to not have to reinvent the wheel each time.
9. I have already wrapped the birthday and Christmas presents that are ready to be delivered and sorted them into bags or boxes by family. Save on postage by sending gifts in groups early; my children will keep them until the corresponding holiday. If we plan to visit during the year, I take the gifts with me on the trip and save even more on shipping.
Thus solving the gift expense dilemma for the festive seasons.
KP