When I was growing up, my mom’s friend would bring over a platter of homemade treats at Christmas.  I fondly remember the lemon bars and gooey chocolate bars.  She only spent money on ingredients for the sweets, but her time and delicious gift were well appreciated.

Here are a list of ideas to use as family gifts:

• dvds
• board games
• movie passes
• homemade goodies
• gift certificate to a favorite restaurant or ice cream shop
• tickets to a show, zoo, museum, etc.
• theme basket such as snack items or ice cream toppings

This year, I went shopping on Black Friday and found some great dvds and board games at fantastic prices and I thought these would make nice family gifts.  This money saving idea would would work for extended family too.  You might want to check with the person first to make sure this idea is ok with them.  Don’t wait until the last minute though because they may have already purchased gifts for your family and you don’t want to cause hard feelings.

Do you have any ideas for family gifts?

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I however, do not think re-gifting is evil or even slightly bad. WHY hold onto something you’ll never, ever use? Why not give it to someone else who may like it. What’s evil is having all sorts of junk around your house just because you think you’ll hurt someone’s feelings or because you feel obligated to hold onto stuff. That said, one fun activity you can plan for after this holiday season is a re-gifting party.

According to the book Penny Saving Household Helper, a re-gifting party in January is the perfect way to end the season – much better than allowing gifts to “Languish in a shopping bag until next year.”

Tips for a successful re-gifting party…

Only invite people who are really on board with re-gifting. This means word of mouth is a good plan.

Plan your party for mid-January so everyone can relax a little after the holidays before attending yet another seasonal party.

Have guests wrap their gifts then have folks draw numbers and choose gifts. Basically you can run it like a white elephant gift exchange. Or you can have a swap party where no one even bothers wrapping gifts but everyone just negotiates. One last idea is to charge a small amount for each gift then give all that money to a proposed charity.

Serve cool leftover or a  pot-luck style lunch to fit the occasion.

Also see 10 tips to make re-gifting easy.

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Tiffany from Stuff Parents Need commented with a great question.

Do you have any tips for how to tactfully remove people from your list? We have a few aunts and uncles that I’d like to stop buying presents for, not because I don’t love them, but because I think us continuing to exchange presents is really unnecessary at this point. But I don’t know how to stop because they always get us something, too!

I just went through this issue a few year’s ago, so here are some tips to make it through the Christmas list cuts.

1)  Suggest a gift exchange.  You could say something like, “I know that many of our budgets are tighter this year.  Rather than us spending money that we don’t have, could we have a gift exchange?”  Suggest making a want list for each person and drawing names.

2)  Suggest a gift game.  Some of you may have heard of Dirty Santa.  This is where you decide who goes first.  That person picks a gift. Then the next person picks a gift. They can keep their gift or take another person’s gift.  A gift can only be taken twice. 

3)  Make a charitable donation instead of gift giving.  Tell your family that everyone is so blessed and you think it would be great to give to a needy child or charity instead.  Perhaps everyone could go in together and purchase some goats, chickens, or something similar through World Vision for an impoverished country.

4)  If you still feel like you can’t completely cut someone out of your Christmas list, cut on the amount you spend.  Purchase each person a gift that costs $3-5 rather than a $10-15 gift.  These could be homemade gifts or something simple like a mug or basket with candy.  I’d certainly be happy if someone gave me a mug of Dove or Ghiradelli chocolates.  It wouldn’t matter if it only cost a few dollars.  

What do you think of these ideas?  Will you be cutting back this year?

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There are plenty of these gift card exchange site around, but at this site, customers buy, sell, or exchange gift cards directly with Gift Card Rescue. Which saves time and helps reduce fraud that may occur when you try to sell or exchange gift cards. This company also has a Return/Guarantee policy that helps to provide site users with more peace of mind. Payments for gift card purchases can be made through PayPal or Google Checkout.

There are minimum and maximum value for gift cards that can be sold or exchanged with Gift Card Rescue. Your card must have a current value of $20 or more and can be worth up to $500. Another service of this site is value savings. You can buy cards worth more than what you’ll pay. For example, on their cards for sale page right now they’ve got an Abercrombie & Fitch worth $65.33, but to get the card you pay only $58.79.

Visit Gift Card Rescue to learn more.

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Set a realistic goal for yourself: IF you’re like my sis and you know that you get invited to dozens of weddings a year set goals at the start of the year to be thrifty. Set an amount that you’ll spend on weddings for the year then RSVP accordingly. Maybe you’re saying yes to too many darn weddings. Is the brother of your best friend’s husband really going to notice if you can’t make it?

Get personal: For couples you’re close with homemade gifts like a scrapbook or CD of their favorite tunes may be more appreciated as a vase they’ll never use.

Group gifts are ok: Go in with another person or more on one nicer gift vs. a bunch of smaller less cool gifts.

Re-gift: Re-gifting is frowned upon by some, but others, especially thrifty folks like you don’t mind the idea.

Give something on-going: Like a magazine subscription to something the couple will both enjoy, or a monthly coffee subscription. These gifts are cool, but can cost less than one expensive dish-set.

See an awesome slide show of great wedding gifts that don’t cost a lot.

[image via stock.xchng]

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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

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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.

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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).

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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

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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!

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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.

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