If you’ve been reading Thrifty Mommy for a while, then you know that I enjoy buying birthday presents for my kids when they are on clearance.  I try to shop around for things I know my children will like, except I don’t have the guilt of paying outrageous prices for their toys and I don’t feel too much of a loss if the item becomes forgotten and ends up in the yard sale.

Alligator Girl’s birthday is July 4th and here’s a look at the cool stuff she got, thanks to her Thrifty Mommy! 

• MagNext magnet set - This was a last minute request from her.  Her older brother got a set for his birthday and she wanted a set so that they could play together.  Good thing I had bought an extra set when Target had them 50% off.  Now that she has a set, Cuddlebug has asked for his own set too for his birthday later this month.  We went to Target this weekend and they still had more of them on clearance.  I think we paid $11.98 instead of $23.99.
• WoofTown dog and accessories - All of these were 50-75% off.  The dog was $1.98 instead of $8, the large box of clothing and accessories was $3.24 rather than $12.98, the t-shirt was 75% off for $1.24, but the dog carrier bag was only 50% off.  It was $3.98 rather than $8.  This is one of her most favorite birthday presents.  Even her brothers like this toy.
• Silver star fanny pack - I saw this at Target last week.  I can see this coming in handy in the next few years.  It was $2.48 rather than $9.99.
• Hannah Montana necklace and bracelet set - On sale at Dollar General for $1, regularly $5.
• Precious Places dvd - A freebie from Fisher Price.  I received this just in time.  I hope the other dvd arrives before Cuddlebug’s birthday.
• Animal Jokes dvd and book - I actually got these in a 4-pack at Food Lion.  The entire set was $6, but I opened the package and just gave her one from the set.  This made her gift $1.25.  She is really into jokes lately so she was excited to get this.  She can listen to the cd while reading along in the book.

All of these gifts would have cost about $80. I never would have paid that.  I got it all for less than $30. 

Do you shop the clearance sales for birthday and Christmas presents?

image (c) Karen Weideman

No matter how pretty you wrap it up a bad gift is a bad gift. We’ve all gotten them before and although we sometimes feel bad that we don’t like it, it’s truly a waste of resources and money to keep a dud gift. You’re better off returning it. Here’s how to make it easier…

Check for a receipt. Some people get that not everyone shares their love of heart shaped dishes, and will thus, include a gift receipt in the gift box. If you don’t see a receipt try to figure out where the person got the gift, with a well placed, “Wow, where the heck did you find this!”

Don’t mess around with the gift. Either you want it or you don’t. If you open it up, untape the box, or install batteries, it can make it harder to return.

Return it asap. Waiting around means you might only get an exchange price that’s current, i.e. lower. Once I waited so long to return something the store had quit carrying it. Doh!

Ask for uppers. If a clerk gives you grief about a return, ask to talk to someone higher on the store food chain. If you keep on being persistent, you’ll get an exchange.

If all else fails - it’s re-gift city time. You won’t get a gift, but you will save cash the next time you need one to give. Check out Karen’s top re-gifting ideas for the thrifty.

[image via stock.xchng]

Group gifting can be an effective way to save some cash when there’s an event, party, holiday, or birthday coming up. Basically group gifting is just like it sounds. Instead of everyone paying for a gift for a particular person or event, everyone chips in and one collective gift is bought. This is not only budget friendly, but resource friendly too. Why get someone a bunch of smaller items they may not want that also waste packaging and materials when one nicer gift could be purchased instead?

Above: Monkey Business group gift idea for an organic baby shower.

Group gift idea:

Great seats to an event like a concert, sporting event, or play.

Day at a spa - good for mamas to be especially!

Group night out - for example, everyone heads out to dinner together and chips in to pay for the special person. You could also attend an event. Experiences make for better memories and gifts in my opinion because you get to hang with your pals.

Of course you can chip in for an actual material item too. For a co-worker a basket of office goodies is nice. You can snag some luxury beauty products for a girl-friendly basket or give a basket of CDs and an MP3 holder to a music lover. Gift basket options are endless - and you can lower your costs by making the gift basket up yourself!

From Group has some nice ready made gift items for group gifting too (easy to buy and give). Such as…

Love & Romance group gift for a wedding

Hearty Housewarming 12 cookie arrangement for new home owners

Coffee Break group gift for retirement congrats

Do you ever give group gifts? Or do you think it’s not as meaningful (something I’ve heard folks say but don’t agree with).

Many times we want to give someone a special gift, but our budgets are limited.  Gift baskets can make nice gifts without costing a lot of money.  Of course, you will need to make them yourself.

Here is a gift basket that I recently helped my mom make for a birthday present. Included in this gift basket is a mug with matching plate, two boxes of tea, a devotional book, $10 Target gift card, and some peppermints.

Even making this gift basket yourself, you could easily spend $50 or more on these items. Here are some tips on spending less:

1)  Look for used baskets that are in good condition.  You can find these at yard sales and thrift stores. 

2)  Shop for clearanced items.  Believe it or not, the coffee mug and plate were purchased at Marshall’s for only a few dollars.

3)  Use coupons to purchase food items.  You can combine a sale with a coupon to get boxes of tea or other items very inexpensively.

4)  Check out the selection at your local close-out or dollar store.  Sometimes theses stores get in close-out items that you can get at a fraction of the normal cost. 

5)  Use your prescription promotion coupons to receive gift cards which can be used in the gift basket or to purchase items to include the basket.  The card shown here was free because of a prescription promotion.

6)  Purchase clearanced ribbon or reuse ribbon from gifts you have received.  The ribbon shown here was purchased for about 75% off and only a small portion of the roll was used for this gift.

7)  Shred your own filler paper or purchase it at a dollar store.  You can shred colorful paper to go inside the bottom of your basket or you can purchase some for $1.  You will only need about half of the bag.

8)  Purchase the gift bag at the dollar store.  The dollar store where I shopped had two gift bags in a package for $1 which was half the price of the discount store.

9)  Use craft store coupons.  Your gift recipient may enjoy craft items, but you can purchase other items at craft stores.  Notepads, picture frames, flowers, and decorations are just a few examples.

10)  Add some baked goodies.  Just about everyone enjoys homemade treats.  Add some to a basket for an inexpensive personal touch.

What ways do you save money on gifts?

images (c) Karen Weideman

The following is a guest post.

So you’ve found a great deal on the perfect gift, but now what? Cards cost a fortune, considering they’re just sheets of cardstock, and normal gift-wrap isn’t so environmentally friendly. Well, here are a variety of ideas, from basic to more involved, to get you started.

Cards and Gift Tags:
The easiest, least expensive thing to do is to buy a gift card pack. I use this for thank you cards and quick notes. Target and other stores often sell big packs of colorful note cards with matching envelopes. I got a set of 200 for $10, with coordinating envelopes. I’ve gotten just plain bright colors, or sets that have embellishments on the edges (scallops, rounded corners, etc).

Another easy method is to print your own. Microsoft Office templates can be customized to fit your situation, and you can buy large sets of good-quality cardstock or photo paper.

A set of pinking shears and old greeting cards make great gift tags. Cut out part of the card, and write the name on the back, then attach it to the gift. My husband and I use this for all of our Christmas gifts.

Festive bookmarks can be used in lieu of cards or as a gift tag, as can reprints of photographs, which can be personalized and printed off very inexpensively.

Wrap:
When you get gift bags, save them! I have a clear tote full of bags. Every time we get invited to a special occasion, I pull out an appropriate bag. We used our wedding gift bags first, and now we’re using ones from our baby shower. Every Christmas we seem to pick up a couple, too, so they just keep going around.

Obviously, grocery bags and comics can be used, but you can use this idea with a little more creativity. Let your kids decorate some butcher-block paper with stickers, crayons, markers, or paint, and use that to wrap gifts.

You can also use gifts to wrap gifts. A handy idea for weddings or showers is to wrap kitchen items in flour-sack towels. Baby presents can be wrapped in burp cloths, cloth diapers, towels, or washcloths and tied with a bow. Christmas presents can be wrapped in a scarf.

In my family, we have a few seamstresses. My mom’s family now cycles around a couple dozen handmade gift bags out of festive cloth. They took some time and effort at the outset, but now wrapping gifts doesn’t cost anyone a penny!

Another option is to make the recipient search for the gift. The gift doesn’t even need to be wrapped in this case, since the search for the gift is fun by itself!

********************

Thanks to Bekah for today’s Frugal Friday post.  Bekah can be found at Motherhood Moment where she writes about freebies, coupons, money savers, time savers, environmental tips, and more.

As I am trying to wrangle the toys today, I got to thinking.  My oldest is 3 years old and we haven’t bought her a birthday present yet.  She has a really big extended family so she hasn’t missed out yet.  But I was thinking that instead of getting her a present, we should just keep giving her nice parties.  We would spend the same amount of money and she would still have gifts to open, but I would have one less toy to clean up.  This way, if you are really frugal, you can give your kids a really nice party for cheap and then not have to spend $ on a big gift.  That way you can save money and be the hero for giving a really cool birthday party.

Why do we, as parents, feel it is necessary to give a gift every year when we hate picking it up the next month? Am I crazy or do you think I am on to something?

Boston Market is running a Mother’s Day Special for all us mom’s.  If you sign up for their Mom’s Party, you recieve a gift certificate for a free dessert with meal purchase.  Chocolate Cake anyone?  What I want to know is why a 3 oz piece of cake adds 5 lbs to my butt?!?!?!?!?!

Thanks, Elizabeth for the tip.

Now that Mother’s Day is coming in a few days, I thought I would share a few thrifty ideas for Mother’s Day.

• Karen has already talked about a great craft idea of painting something for mom’s.
• A family portrait from Sears is very reasonable.  Just go to Sears Photo and find the coupons for free portraits.
• There is usually a small indulgence that mom wants like a box of chocolates or a pair of shoes she would never buy for herself.
• Babysitting is usually a great idea.  Surely you know a teenager that wants to earn a little extra money.  Offer to give mom a day out or a date night.
• Go out and find wild flowers to cut for a beautiful bouquet of flowers.
• Go to Michael’s or your local craft store to get a collage using a coupon and fill it with photos.
• Give her a basket of plant seeds if she likes to garden.  They are cheap and she can pick and choose what she wants.

These are just a few thrifty Mother’s Day ideas that you can use to make your mom feel special.  But whatever you do or spend, Just make sure you don’t forget her.  That will make for a very sad mom.  All I want is to sleep until 8 AM and then have my kids hug me and tell me they love me.  I’ll settle for a wet drool kiss from Little Man.  Who would have imagined I would want spit for Mother’s Day?

I recently wanted to thank my moms for Mother’s Day.  But then Mom of 14 made me think about what kind of daughter I was.  My conclusion… Read more

Be on the look out for great toy sales in your area.  Each year around January and February, retailers begin marking down their overstock from Christmas.  Each time I go to Target and Wal-Mart I take a quick walk through the toy department to see if the clearancing has begun. 

I try to take advantage of the 50-75% savings so that I can pick up gifts for my kids.  No, I don’t spend much, but those little gifts are helpful later.  Instead of getting my children an Easter basket each year, I usually give them a toy that I got on clearance.  It’s nice to give them a toy that cost me $7-10, knowing that it was a $25-40 item.  If your kids got money in the mail for Christmas, you can also use this time to get some toys that were on their list.

Have they began to mark down toys in your area?  If you spot any great deals, please let us know!