Nice Thoughtful Gifts that Are Kind to Your Wallet

Gifts go in and out of fashion. What's available now, may not be available later. By the time you're able to shop, the items may already be gone. Remember the Cabbage Patch Dolls? I came up with this style of shopping to get around that limitation. This style takes advantage of what's available at the time and in the area you're in.

The tips in this article aren't just about getting a single gift. But there are many suggestions in this article that would apply to finding just one gift. But if you want to take some of the bite out of all your gift giving this year, this article might be helpful.

I list several stores in this article, not so that you go to those specific stores unless of course they're in your area. But to give you ideas about looking in the stores in your area which may have similar opportunities.

When I go out on the road several times a year, I take my gift list with me and the gifts that I'm planning to give away. Depending upon whom I'm going to see, the list can be 150-200 names long. On a missionary's budget and with the tightened weight allowances, from 70 pounds down to 50 pounds per checked bag, I've had to get
creative with my gifting.

In this article I'm listing a set of guidelines that I follow for acquiring and giving gifts which will help you find wonderful, memorable gifts that won't send you to the poorhouse. I'm also listing how I go about doing this and some examples of past acquisitions.

But first my philosophy on giving. Many ascribe to the big bang or little bang theory of giving, as in one big impressive gift or one tiny gift. Either you will hit the mark or you'll miss the mark. There's nothing in the middle, since there's only one gift.

I prefer the bird-shot theory, as in many small gifts. Some are bound to hit the target either right away or later on. There're four classes of received gifts: 1-The dud that always remains a dud. 2-The apparent dud which later turns out to be a winner. 3-The one that appears to be a winner but later ends up being a dud. This is the worst one. Then there's 3-which starts as a winner and remains a winner.

Each year and season brings new opportunities and new selections. What has been popular the last couple years may suddenly disappear and you need to go in a new direction.

I have friends and family who's bank accounts can easily shop me under the table. So I've had to come up with other ways to give what they can't get. These are my guidelines and suggestions:

1-Keep each individual gift as near to $1.00 as possible.

2-Make sure that the gift is good quality.

3-The gift must be good value for the dollar.

4-The gift needs to be unique and/or unusual.

5-The gift needs to be attractive or especially practical.

6-The gift has to be desirable to the recipient.

Some of the Measures I Take in Shopping. This is the List of how I Fulfill the Guidelines:

1-Dollar Shopping

My cousin and I do what we call "dollar shopping". We shop Dollar Tree, the dollar section of Michael's, the $1.00-$2.50 area at Target, and one of our Goodwill's has a dollar section of new and unusual merchandise. We also shop Walmart. Throughout the store you can find bargains for $.97- around $1.00. Cracker Barrel's gift shop offers good sales on ornaments and also carries several around $1.00. They also carry small nostalgic magnet calendars for just over $1.00. Blokker in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands is also a good source of inexpensive, creative gifts. I've gotten Mexican frog figurines and hanging chickens for under one euro each.

We've found very nice figurines, decorative jars, nice toys, calendars, unique ceramic boxes gift tins, silver photo frames, crystal figurines and Christmas ornaments at Dollar Tree. At Michael's we've found nice note pads, calendars, gift boxes and tins, gift soaps and candles, magnets and gift bath supplies and very pretty decorative ceramic crosses. At Target we've gotten chocolates decorative plates and calendars.

Walmart often has wonderful ornaments that can double as wall hangings. For several years I've gotten their word ornaments and given them away. I especially liked the "Joy" ones. One year they were in a silver wash, another in brass and another in tin. One year we got these wonderful little finger flashlights for $.97 each, which were actually useful in small places. Another year, we got nice large decorative tins of butter cookies for $1.50 which we sent to our soldiers. World Market has a gift basket area where they have bins of small sized specialty snack foods that're very reasonably within the price range.

2-Multi-packs

I buy multi-packs whenever possible. This is a wonderful way to take advantage of stores with expensive merchandise for an absolute steal on excellent quality. Often, stores like Macy's carry gift packs of multiple items, which if given as a single gift would be expensive. But if the packs are taken apart and the pieces given away individually, they become a nice inexpensive gift. For example, NY's Macy's has the Museum store, which carries various museum gift items. Among them are their famous artist magnets. The package costs around $11.00 with 9-12 very nice miniature magnetic pieces of fine art which are given to 9-11 people. One year they offered very expensive small boxes of Godiva chocolate bars, if given as an entire gift. But divided up, they were around $1.00 apiece and went to a lot of very delighted recipients.

Dollar Tree and Walmart have both carried multiple packs of blown or spun glass ornaments with 3-6 per box. When divided up they're often much less than $1.00 and way less than the $5.00-$6.00 I've seen in gift shops for the same individual items. I've also found multi-packs of soaps and decorative candles at Goodwill, Hilo Hattie's
in Hawaii(They were on-line at http://www.hilohattie.com/and are coming back). and Cost Plus-World Market which is in California and several other states as well as on-line at http://www.worldmarket.com/home/index.jsp.

I've also found wonderful multi-packs of very nice ceramic bowls and nice chocolate stars at World Market
when divided up came out at $.50 apiece. I've also gotten multi-packs of hanging wooden birds for about 2.50 euros with about 24 birds in the box at Blokker, as well as multi-packs of 12 bear magnets, 6 heart candles and 6 spoons with hooked handles for around 1 or 2 euros. In Chicago I bought a box of 28 very nice antique map
magnets for about $11.00 in a poster shop, located in the Loop.

3-Special Gifts, Especially the Theme Collection;

This category helps when you know that your recipient collects certain things. This makes gift giving quite easy. My cousin collects angels, flags and eagles. My husband likes cows. Our son likes beer and his wife loves Tinker Bell and purple. Another cousin collects unique crafting supplies for jewelry making. And another cousin has a passion for needle crafts, so I collect balls of yarn for her from all over the world. They're cheap and fun to give because they're already wanted.

Another interesting theme is collecting character slippers. I found a pair of Bear Paw slippers for my husband, for 2.50 euros in Blokker and he found a pair of reindeer slippers for me, for $5.00 at Walmart.

4-Special Purchases

I've learned to watch out for special deals that are either unadvertised in my regular areas of shopping or out on my trips. I've gotten 2 for 1, buy 2 get 1 free, etc deals. I also use coupons whenever possible. World Market and
Hilo Hattie's regularly offer coupons and other specials. Walmart does clearances on items that haven't been in the store before.

5-A Note on Clothing, Jewelry and Perfumes

Having been the recipient of many items that didn't suit me I've learned that these particular gifts are better left for those whom we know well enough to know what they prefer. These are more personal and can be tricky. I only get these items for special requests or I know what the individual's preferences are.

What I do With the Gifts I Collect and How I've Presented Them for Different Occasions:

Allocation of the Gifts;

I take all of the gifts out and see what I have. Then I go through my list and set aside the items I specifically got for individuals. The rest, I go down my gift list and allocate the gifts so that each person gets around 5 or so gifts. If I still need some gifts, I make out lists of what I still need and keep watchful for the items when I'm out shopping. It's usually easier to get small gifts for women. So I'm usually out looking for more men's gifts.

Presentation and Wrapping of the Gifts;

Some of the Containers I've used;

Special Containers That Come With the Multi-packs;

A part of my bargain shopping includes different kinds of containers. Sometimes the multi-packs come with very nice containers which I can use separately. Some of the really nice decorative candles came in handmade paper boxes which I saved for special gifts. Others came in small wooden boxes, special tins or bottles or very nice hardboard containers.

Nice Plastic Party Goody Gift Bags or Fabric Goody Bags;

I started using these since I have to go through airport security a lot and the wrappings need to be kind of see-through, even though I don't wrap my gifts until I arrive.

Christmas Stockings, Dishes, Boxes or Tins;

We've bought the $1.00 stockings, Christmas mugs or special containers from Walmart, and the tins, boxes from Michael's and Dollar Tree.

The Wrap-up;

I test fit the items into the containers. Then I wrap each item in tissue paper and then fit them into the container. Then I wrap the container in tissue and place in a gift bag if to be presented locally. If out on the road, I pack the items in the container then place the container into a plastic or fabric gift bag. If I'm shipping the items I wrap the items in used wrapping paper, which is going to be beat up anyway, or in inexpensive wrapping bags from Dollar Tree which come in 20 count packs for $1.00.

Note-

This kind of shopping starts out small and builds up. I started with two influences: 1-My foster-mother who came from a poor pastor's family with six siblings. She was an expert at the yard sales and the secondhand stores, which she called hinkydinks. She was also an expert at converting others to her addiction. 2-Early in our marriage, I became addicted to couponing and refunding to the point that the entire under area of our queen-size bed was filled with labeled and sorted boxes of POP's(proofs of purchases) and I wouldn't buy anything that didn't have a refund and/or coupon attached. Yes, my husband can be very tolerant.

I don't refund anymore. But the couponing and the bargain hunt are definitely a basis for my shopping style. I love the hunt and the success of the hunt. I love coming home with my many very nice trophies with the itsy-bitsy price tags and seeing the pleasure on our many recipient's faces. Maybe you're not that kind of shopper, that's alright. However, perhaps some of my tips may help you find your own wonderful gift at a good deal.

Sources:

http://www.hilohattie.com/

http://www.worldmarket.com/home/index.jsp