Don’t waste money on gifts you can’t send – the post office will have a heart attack if you try and send gifts like perfume or items with batteries (both are considered hazardous materials). Don’t even bother.

Get one gift in bulk and go nuts – wine retailers, for example and other retailers who specialize in one item only (say chocolate truffles or poinsettia plants) will give you a nice friendly discount if you buy in bulk. Who says you can’t give your boss, your uncle, and grandma all a nice bottle of wine.

Search Craigslist – for free goods to make homemade gifts, free HUGE boxes from folks who just moved for packing strangely large gifts (like a trike), and oddball gifts for cheap.

Consider freestyle gifts – gifts are gifts even without the bows, ribbon, or official holiday tags, which all cost money. Write your to and from right on the wrap with a nice pen,or get creative. One year I had a bunch of those, “Hello: My Name Is” stickers left over from a work meeting, so I used those. If you’re dying for ribbon, try yarn, which per yard cost less than silky, satin ribbon, and looks cute.

Forget fancy wrap – plain old butcher paper protects gifts better than flimsy wrap and can be decorated by kids or with cut veggies and fruits dipped in ink or paint.

Quit buying disposables for the holidays – get a real tablecloth you can use year after year, real cloth napkins, and actual dishes. Holiday dishes may seem costly at the onset, but they’re really not, especially if you use them year after year. You can chop the price of nice non-disposable dishes by quite a lot if you buy from a restaurant supply company vs. the department store. Look in your phone book for a local restaurant supply company.

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

How to pull it off:

Give each child a set budget for gifts. I think it’s best if they use some of their own saved money too – from an allowance or birthday, but I’m not too strict on this because I know my son can’t get a job at eight years old. I usually give him some money and he’ll use $10-20 of his own (a lot for a little kid to give up if you consider the situation from their POV).

Have your child make a list of gift ideas. When Cedar was too little to write he’d draw his gift ideas, now he makes a short list. It’s often really hard for kids to think of gift ideas. Try the following to encourage them…

• Go through sale ads in the paper.
• Ask the right questions – “What does aunt Susan like to do for fun”, “Do you think your teacher would like homemade cookies or a nice pen?”, “What are your little brother’s favorite types of toys?” Leave the questions open ended so your child can come up with gift ideas on his own.

Have your child write down estimated cost per person before heading to the store – i.e. $10 for dad, $8 for his best friend, and so on.

Encourage meaning over the gift – for example, if your child buys the material for making a homemade picture frame will it be more loved than a flat out purchased gift? Could he help his grandma clean her basement? Get him thinking about how he can make the holiday gifts more meaningful and less $ related.

How do you handle holiday shopping and gifts with the kiddos?

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

PLAN AHEAD: Think about how you want your Christmas to look. Do you want piles of gifts of maybe a little more celebrating by planning family activities and making more meaningful memories. To get some ideas about how to have a less commercial, more meaningful Christmas read the following:

I’m Dreaming of a Green Christmas: Gifts, Decorations, and Recipes that Use Less and Mean More – a book that can help – look for it at your local library.

Give the gift of time this holiday season

Join the New Dream Community (all you need is an email). Once you join you’ll gain access to FREE booklets on the following topics:

• Tips for Parenting in a Commercial Culture
• Good Times Made Simple: The Lost Art of Fun
• Simplify the Holidays
• Back to School Buying and Action Guide
• Alternative Gift Fair Guide

PAY FOR CHRISTMAS NOW!:

If you charge Christmas, there’s a good chance you’ll be stuck paying for it all year. With interest, Christmas one year can be layered over and over for years – it’s better to simply buy what you can afford now OR in extreme cases buy a couple of items on credit but only if you can pay them off in total by the end of January.

Consider not giving gifts to everyone this year, cut back on expenses, save money easily on seasonal clothing, and stretch your holiday food budget wisely. You can even make homemade gifts to cut back (see below).

MAKE HOMEMADE GIFTS: You can easily plan ahead for less expensive, more meaningful gifts this year. Consider…

• DIY Green Toy – Nine Affordable Play Kitchen Sets
• Homemade Eco Gifts You Can Make for the Holidays!
• 24 Things To Make – A Crafty Christmas Countdown
• DIY Homemade Natural & Eco Chic Soap
• Quick Christmas Gift – Tea Cup Pincushion
• Organic & Natural Homemade Chocolate Covered Cherries

What are you doing to save money on Christmas this year?

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

Dayspring

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

Thanks to Dawn at Frugal for Life for the comic.

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

Shop at Big Lots and save big money.  I shopped at Big Lots tonight and was amazed at all the deals they had.  For instance, they have this Barbie house for only $40.  I also saw a Cinderella house on clearance for $40.  Christmas trees and Christmas decorations were 30% off.  I bought a 3 lb box of Cheez-It crackers for $3.99.  There were many other deals.  Stop by Big Lots and save.

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

I saw this somewhere else and couldn’t remember where I saw it and then I went searching for a good deal on Amazon and came across it again. So I thought I would let you know.

Click on the picture below to see the Dora doll and other great deals from Amazon.

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

I hope you enjoy these regifting tips.  Check out Regiftable.com for some laughable stories on regifting.  You may learn some not-to tips there as well.  If you don’t want to regift, but don’t want to hurt your pocketbook, try this certificate from Regiftable.com.  You can make a certificate for something you want to give someone, such as free babysitting.  I’d love for someone to give me some free babysitting or housecleaning. 

1.  Don’t give partially used gift cards.  This is a tacky one for sure.  I remember when my daughter was born, someone gave me a gift card for $17 and change.  That left me wondering if they returned something and just gave me the gift card from the return or if someone gave them a gift card and they used it, and were giving the leftovers to me.  By the way, I did return something to JCPenney yesterday without a receipt.  I got back $16 and some change on a gift card.  What I may do is add another $3+ onto the gift card to make it out to be an even $20.

2. Only give new, unopened gifts. If you have to dust it or clean it first, then don’t regift it.

3. Don’t just regift something to get rid of it. Make sure the person will like or appreciate the gift.

4. Remember who gave you the gift in the beginning. Don’t regift the item to someone who will show it the person who gave it to you.

5. Make sure all the paper, tape, etc. from the gift is gone. You don’t want evidence that the item was already gifted to you.

6. Be careful what you say. I’ve heard stories of people that laughed about the gifts they received from others and then regifted the item the next year. The people knew the item was a regift because they remember hearing something about the gift the year before.

7. Make sure you know what’s in the box. You may get a present that has a crock pot on the box, but that doesn’t mean that there’s a crock pot inside. Some people simply reuse boxes. It would really be a mess if you thought you were giving someone a crock pot, but you gave them something else. Or worse, there could be a card inside with your name on it.

8. If you don’t have money for a gift, then choose something that your friend has complemented in your home. Then tell them that you didn’t have any money to buy them something, but you knew they really liked the crystal clock you have on your dresser, and you wanted them to have it. Honesty would probably be appreciated and the person would actually get something they like.

9.  Don’t regift handmade items.  If you do, then it will be very odd when the person says, “Did you make this?”.  And you know they’ll ask.

10.  Only regift items that are up to date.  And what I mean by this is don’t give someone discolored cologne, a bath product that is no longer sold, out of date CD, 1990’s cassette tape, etc. I remember one year someone gave me some Bath & Body Works stuff. It was a scent I didn’t like, so I tried to exchange it. Bath & Body Works had new and different packaging from what was on my gift. To make things worse, when I opened the gift, there was an expired coupon inside.

According to Regiftable.com, 2 out of 3 people have regifted or are considering regifting.

Check out this book from Amazon about regifting.

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

If you’re looking for a new idea for someone on your Christmas list or if you’re buying for a baker, then you should check out her top 10.

Post from: Thrifty Mommy

Here are some tips for online shopping:

1. Whois.net is a site that lists the person or company registered the site and when it was registered.  Stay away from sites that were just registered.  They are probably phony sites.
2. Epinions.com and bizrate.com are sites that rate companies and their customer service.
3. Protect yourself by using checkout.google.com when paying.  This is the rival of Paypal.
4. Update your anti-virus and anti-spyware.  This will help protect you from hackers.  I do a spyware sweep before I enter personal information online.
5. Use a low limit credit card for shopping online.
6. Read the vendor’s privacy statement.  Some websites automatically sell your personal information to other companies. 
7. Shop reputable companies.  You’ve heard of Wal-Mart, Target, Amazon, and others.  Shop with well-known companies and you’re less likely to get scammed. 
8. Check and review a company’s return policy to avoid unnecessary or unauthorized fees.
9. Call the online company and place your order over the phone.  I have done this on several occasions.  Even if a website seems secure, I still feel better if I don’t give the information online.
10. Don’t give your checking account information.  If the vendor debits your account with the incorrect amount, you could face high overdraft fees.  Plus many of us have overdraft protection with our savings account.  Giving checking account information would allow companies to drain your savings account too.

Do you have any tips to share?

Post from: Thrifty Mommy