It's the giving gifts part I like, actually. Sure, I like getting presents, but gifting to others is where I have the most fun.
Once the summer begins winding down, I begin the hunt for the perfect gift for everyone on my list. I'm not much of a gift-card-giver; I really enjoy searching high and low for a gift that my recipient will use and enjoy. A big part of the hunt is finding those gifts while staying firmly within my budget and, being a cheapskate, my budget is tighter than Robert Plant's jeans (look it up, people). This is not to say that I give shitty dollar store presents; I do my best to balance thoughtful gifts with a budget I can afford.
This Christmas I decided to put together a gift basket for each of my immediate family members. Of course, being that I come from a large, close-knit family, "immediate" really means like 10 people. There are also a handful of close-but-not-immediate family members that I wanted to include on my list as well, so staying in budget was even more important.
What goes in a gift basket? Well, most anything, really. They're easy to personalize and easy to scale.
Let's start with Andy's mom. His family is more low-key about the holidays and they only exchange small gifts. I put together this modest basket:
On the opposite end of the spectrum, baskets are good for kids too.
My 9 year old niece is at that odd age where she's just getting into the nearly-teen type stuff but not quite ready for grown-up beauty items. I filled her basket with some smaller bottles of body wash, lotion, and body spray along with a couple nail polishes, a fleece blanket in her favorite color, some hair bands, some candy, and the Despicable Me DVD. I tried to balance fun kid stuff (candy, Silly Bandz, hair bands in bright colors) with slightly more "grown up" items.
Behind my niece's basket you can see a veritable army of others all ready for the rest of my loved ones - each basket filled with various gifts from fancy lotions to scissors to mixed nuts depending on the recipient.
How to keep costs down?
- I found the baskets at the dollar store. They're small, sturdy plastic tubs (for lack of a better term) with handles that can be re-used in a million different ways. They cost, believe or not, one dollar each. Cuz I got them at the dollar store.
- The tissue paper and wrapping paper were free after sale & coupon, and I made sure to get enough that I can still use them next year.
- By combining coupons with great sales, I was able to get at least 90% of the items in the baskets for no cost to me but tax. When a quality body wash is free to me or better, like the Olay, I'll get as many as I can. If I can get six pair of scissors for free, I'll get all six pair because between couponing family members and crafty family members, I know they'll be welcome gifts.
- By utilizing coupons combined with sales as effectively as possible, this freed up a ton of room in my budget for gifts that I can't find for free. I've never seen a coupon for savings bonds, but because I saved so much elsewhere I was able to get my baby nephew a little something his parents can put aside for him to enjoy later.
- Small touches make a world of difference. A basket with random crap thrown in it isn't a great gift. A basket that's neatly arranged is a good gift. A basket that's neatly arranged and "filled out" with a handful of candy, an inexpensive & useful gadget (a wooden spoon or two for an avid cook, a small container of holiday sprinkles for a baker, a lip balm for winter gifts), and/or a heartfelt card is a great gift. You don't have to go all Martha Stewart, but a bit of personalization and a little presentation goes a long way without busting your budget.
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