The gift catalogs are filling the mailbox en masse, the piped-in Christmas music fills the stores, and the desperate holiday advertising clamor grows louder by the day. And Halloween is only a week gone! It must be time for... the Frugal Gifts Holiday Edition for Frugal Friday!
My thanks to sarahnity, regular author of this column, for inviting me once again to contribute. In her words:
Welcome to Frugal Fridays where we share money saving tips, discuss living frugally and generally talk about personal finance issues.
This diary is a spin-off from my original Frugal Gifts diary back in June, in which I explored the concept of frugal gift-giving more broadly. Today's diary will focus on holiday gifts, but in the spirit of frugality I'll recycle heavily from the previous diary, especially from the many excellent comments.
I'm calling it the winter holidays (Christmas, Hanukkah, Solstice/Yule, Kwanzaa, take your pick) but the biggest consumerist bombardment this season of course comes in the name of Christmas. The themes are familiar. We see image after image of smiling faces, pure joy at receiving the latest expensive goodies, the perfect smiling happy family in the perfectly decorated home. Make this Christmas the best one ever, runs the undercurrent. Hang the cost, you owe it to your family and yourself to fulfill their wildest holiday dreams!
Of course, come January you're going to owe it to the credit card companies, and you'll have to find space in your life for all that STUFF.
There are a number of ways that the principles of frugality might apply to holiday gift-giving, and how you go about it will depend in part on your motivations. Think about what a frugal approach to gift-giving might mean to you:
- Do you want, or need, to spend less?
- Are you fed up with the consumerist rat race?
- Do you want to avoid creating clutter?
- Do you want your gifts to do something more than line the pockets of some large corporation?
- Will de-emphasizing the gifts help you to focus on more important meanings of the holiday?
In my humble opinion, the first step to frugal gift-giving, whatever combination of the above motivations might be yours, is:
PLANNING.
Make your list, check it twice. To whom do you want to give gifts this year? Write them all down, every last one! Maybe the length of the list itself is what's gotten out of control. (Does your extended family need to think about drawing names rather than a gift for everyone? More on that below.)
If spending less is the biggest issue, your next step may be the money. Do you know how much you want to spend all together? Good, then think about how that divides out across your list. Or maybe you work more comfortably with assigning a budget for each recipient and checking the total later. Either way, don't let yourself be guilted into thinking this is too mercenary an approach -- the money aspect doesn't disappear if you ignore it, it just sneaks up on you later. Make your budget, and take it seriously!
Or maybe you're more concerned about selecting non-cluttery or consumable gifts, or you'd rather scale down to smaller yet carefully-selected gifts, or you want gifts that benefit someone else besides just the recipient. In that case, by all means start by writing down gifts on your list before estimating the cost! Again, more ideas are below. But once again, make your plan and use it well.
In all cases, keep that list with you and record what you actually buy for whom, and how much you spend. Don't make the mistake of losing track and buying just one more thing, and one more thing! (I find that this is especially easy trap to fall into when buying for kids...) Write down each purchase, and take note of how the numbers add up.
Then, save that list! Put it in a folder next to other important annual papers -- tax documentation, perhaps? Then you'll have the list to pull out next year and see what you did, what worked and what didn't. Maybe you'll decide that next year you'll need to start earlier (write down a note of that, too!) either for homemade gifts, or better clearance shopping, or more effective purchasing of fund-raiser items.
Here's a planning tool I mentioned in the last Frugal Gifts diary:
For the Christmas extravaganza, I have also appreciated the Flylady approach from Marla Cilley -- it's part of a bigger system for decluttering and getting organized, but for Christmas she has a neat tool called the Holiday Control Journal. (a 25-page pdf). The gifts section includes a table for not only planning & budgeting your gift-giving list, but also recording what catalog order you placed when with whom. Follow the system scrupulously, and you'd be done with holiday prep by December 1.
Once you have a detailed handle on how much you're spending on gifts (and perhaps other holiday expenses as well), you may want to let it inspire you to get a head start on socking away some money next year for the 2008 holidays. Seasonal debt is a wretched thing, and of course always so much harder to pay off than to rack up.
OK, are we ready to talk gifts and shopping strategies?
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Careful Clearance / Sale Shopping
Who doesn't love to get a great deal? Getting the goods at a markdown price is a classic frugal tactic! When it comes to gifts, here are some things to consider:
Sale-shopping can mean fewer dollars but almost certainly means more time. It takes planning and persistence and may well mean you need to get an earlier start. All the more reason to keep that list, and keep track of your purchases! Some folks like to spread their holiday shopping throughout the year; others find that they'd rather not let the winter holidays invade their entire year. Your mileage may vary!
While the sales circulars that hit your newspaper and mailbox may be annoying as all get-out, they can be very fruitful too. If you let the circulars do the suggesting for you, then combine it with the kind of "$10 off of a $75 purchase" coupons that many include, and keep disciplined about not getting seduced into the full-price purchases that the stores want to lure you into, you can score some fine deals indeed.
Of course there's always Black Friday, the mad rush that is the day after Thanksgiving. Thanks to the Interwebs, there are now multiple sites that let you do early comparison-shopping among the sales circulars; one example is http://bfads.net/. I hear that the early bird catches the worm, both online and in the stores; personally I'm always travelling on Black Friday so I don't have much first-hand shopping experience to share.
When shopping online, make sure to compare prices. Consumer Reports lists a number of comparison-shopping websites: BizRate, DealTime, Google Product Search, Shopping.com, and Shopzilla. Be sure to check for coupons too: FatWallet, DealTaker.com, CouponCabin, or just put the product into Google and search it together with the word "coupon".
Starting early and staying disciplined are two big keys for both brick-and-mortar and online sales shopping. The more rushed you feel, the more likely you are to get seduced into buying full-price items you weren't planning to get. When it comes to online sales, shopping early helps you take advantage of the lowest-priced (or free) shipping. Don't get stuck paying for express shipping, thereby cancelling out all the gains of your careful sale-shopping!
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Homemade
And now toward the other end of the consumer spectrum (where I more frequently reside)!
Again quoting myself:
Homemade gifts sometimes get a bad rap, and sometimes it's even deserved. Most of us, I'm sure, have at least one story to tell about some holiday gift like a Kleenex-box cover cross-stitched in clashing colors of yarn on plastic mesh. And now that I've gone and offended the plastic mesh artists, I'll add the qualifier: if your recipient is an aficionado of plastic mesh cross-stitch, then go for it indeed! The major trick with homemade gifts is to have an extra care for what your recipient might actually like to receive and be able to use. In fact, shouldn't that be front and center with any gift you give, no matter the pricetag?
In addition to keeping your thoughts on the recipient, be sure too to consider yourself. Do you enjoy making gifts, or do you find it yet another source of stress? Do you have the time available to do homemade gifts, or is that stressful as well? If it's too much stress, just don't do it. Maintaining your own health, physical and mental, is an important gift to give yourself for the holidays.
And finally, sometimes materials for homemade can add up to the point that the gift is no longer particularly frugal. Be aware of what you're spending on materials, and consider recording that on your gift-list as well. I like to shop the sales at craft stores like Michael's or JoAnn Fabrics -- check your local circulars or search online for their printable 40%-off coupons.
Forthwith some linky goodness for homemade gift ideas:
Here are some suggestions from commenters in the previous diary:
Please add more! What frugal homemade holiday gifts have been notable successes for you?
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Back Away from the Excess, with Smaller/Fewer Gifts
The excessive overwhelmed-ness of the holiday machine has struck such a chord, there are even self-help books out there! One that's been around a few years (since 1991) is Unplug the Christmas Machine: A Complete Guide to Putting Love and Warmth Back into the Season. For a more recent take (2006), try I'm Dreaming of a Black Christmas: A Holiday Survival Guide by April Nunn Coker (tagline: "It's time to take control--control of overspending, overgifting, overdecorating, and overtiring yourself and your family.")
Then again, why spend the money on a book when you can get free advice from diaries and comments right here at Daily Kos?
As inevitable as the holiday extravaganza seems to be these days, it's still well within living memory in many families that everyone used to get ONE gift, or very small treats. Chez AnnieJo we read the Little House books this year, and I was struck anew at Laura and Mary's delight in receiving one tin cup and a peppermint stick and a shiny new penny apiece.
A more modern mantra that I've found helpful in taming the urge to overbuy for my own children is this:
Something they want,
Something they need,
Something to wear,
Something to read.
And then there's that Christmas list that I keep harping on. It's such a vital tool in avoiding excess: decide what a scaled-back gift-giving would look like for you, make a plan, and stick to it!
Another tactic that many extended families (and offices and other groups) use to keep the gift-monster under control is the practice of drawing names. Every person has only one other person for whom to buy a gift, which reduces the pressure and the pile immensely. If you want even more controls on it, set a dollar limit so that the budgets aren't too uneven.
I'll also mention again a tactic that Mr. AnnieJo and I implemented some years back in regards to our nieces and nephews:
I married into a family where the kiddos were a small group in the extended family, and they got absolutely buried in gifts from all directions at the holidays. Mr. AnnieJo and I not only couldn't compete, we didn't really have the urge to contribute to the excess. So we went the gag-gift route instead, setting ourselves up as the corny uncle & auntie who were always good for a laugh. The first year we did this, all the kiddos got Snowman Poop. (They still giggle about this a decade later!) We got several years out of edible insect gifts. Last year we got them all air guitars (i.e. inflatable, all of $2 apiece). All this doesn't mean we don't love our nieces & nephews dearly! It just means that we opted to give laughs instead of getting lost in the shuffle of expensive "stuff."
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Dollars Doing Double Duty
I think it's fair to extend the definition of frugality here to include the concept of getting the most for your gifting money by supporting an ideal or a cause at the same time as giving pleasure to the recipient. Some of these are gifts that the receipient can own or consume, others are essentially donations in the recipient's name (which is, of course, only appropriate if the recipient will appreciate it!) Here are some ideas for double-duty dollars:
- Buying items from the local kiddies' school fundraisers as gifts
- Shopping at fair-trade shops
- Shopping at gift shops benefiting local organizations (the museum, the botanical gardens, etc.)
- Honoring someone with their name on a brick on a fundraiser walkway
- Donating books to a library, to be bookplated with the recipients name
- Donating a flock of chicks or a goat in the recipient's name through Heifer International. In a slightly different international vein, one year my extended family chose not to exchange gifts and instead created school kits for overseas distribution via Mennonite Central Committee. It made quite an impressive pile under the tree! Suggest your favorite charity in the comments...
- Eco-friendly gifts -- a tip of the hat to first-time diarist Are We There Yet for suggesting an eco-friendly approach in What to Give this Holiday Season. The diarist announced plans to give DVD copies of An Inconvenient Truth, along with boxes of compact fluorescent bulbs! (ablington added a comment suggesting giving strings of LED bulbs as a festive touch!)
- Purchase locally-produced (& consumable!) gifts such as honey, maple syrup, nuts, artisanal cheese, wine.
- Again only when you know your recipient will appreciate it: consider giving works of progressive thought for the holidays. In addition to An Inconvenient Truth, mentioned above, SICKo is out on DVD now too. How about a book by your favorite primary candidate or that candidate's spouse? Or perhaps you'd like to check out sarahnity's list of Books by Kossacks! (I love giving books as gifts. I may be giving more than one copy of Three Cups of Tea this year...)
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Re-gifting
Here's what I had to say last time around about re-gifting:
My take on Re-Gifting and Second-hand Gifting is the following: only advisable when done very, very cleverly. As in, if you can think of any reasonable way that the recipient might discover the re-gifting or secondhand nature of the gift and feel offended thereby, then don't do it. But, if there's zero connection between the first giver and the second recipient, or you've found something way-cool, vintage, or New With Tags at some secondhand shop or garage sale AND you think your recipient would find it as ultra-cool as you do... sure.
However, 1864 House pointed out in the comments another angle I had missed: re-gifting is also cool if you and the recipient both agree it's cool! The comment referenced a family re-gifting tradition wherein "You can only re-gift items that you actually love, and you know a family member would love as much or more."
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So, now it's your turn.
What's the best frugal holiday gift you've ever given, or gotten? And don't forget to answer the poll!
Frugal Tip of the Week
Thanks to Amy over at Mother Talkers for alerting me to Catalog Choice, a new service that allows you to create a free account and opt out of receiving dead-tree catalogs from any vendor in their database. I've been entering them, catalog by catalog, as soon as they hit my mailbox. I'm looking forward to much less catalog-junk-mail next season!