photo credit: Caro Wallis
At the beginning of each new year, my wife and I sit down and develop our gift giving guide for the upcoming year. Our Christmas decorations haven’t even been put away for a week and already we are starting our planning. This annual exercise between my wife and I is similar to a budget planning meeting. We write down how much we want to spend on Christmas gifts and for whom, birthday gifts, upcoming weddings, anniversary’s, etc. This is a working document that is constantly being updated and modified throughout the year. I am a firm believer in planning ahead as much as possible. While this gift giving guide may change throughout the year, it gives us a plan to work from. That plan allows us to then figure out where this money is going to come from. This is a necessary ritual in our lives that allows us to live comfortably off of one income.
Here are some tips of things we do to plan ahead and save money to support our gift giving guide. Please feel free to comment on how you plan ahead on gift purchases and save money so everyone can benefit!
- Credit Card Rewards – I love to redeem our credit card rewards throughout the year to support our gift giving guide. We have two credit cards that earn us cash back or rewards that can be used to redeem gift cards. Approximately 90% of our yearly expenses (excluding our mortgage) are paid through these credit cards. We simply let our rewards and points accumulate throughout the year and then redeem them when we plan to purchase a gift. I estimate we will accumulate around $400 this year through our credit cards rewards to use on gift purchases.
- Shop Clearance – Throughout the year, we hit the clearance aisles at the retail stores looking for some good marked down items. Our oldest son is now 5 and has started going to a lot of birthday parties, so these types of purchases come in handy. We specifically look for items like backpacks and other school supplies as well as educational toys and board games. Stocking up on these types of gift items really helps save money. For example, last year a store was running some really great prices on the board game Candy Land. We picked up several of these and put them away to be used for later. If you are worried about not using these gifts, then you can always look to donate them to a charity.
- Special Promotions – We also keep a lookout for special promotions throughout the year. A great example of this is the special savings that Restaurant.com typically offers. Certain times of the year they have been known to run discounts of 70 – 80% off their promotional gift certificates. We tend to snatch these up and then use them for anniversary gifts for our parents.
- Extra Change – We also try and throw any lose change laying around in a jar and use it to purchase gifts later in the year. Any small amounts of money that we have goes into this jar. It is actually fun for our oldest son to look for lose change and add it to the pot. Another thing to try – some states have a deposit on soda (pop as I call it) cans. Use this extra money to put away for your gift giving guide budget.
- Be Creative – This point is a little vague but the most interesting. I believe that I am a very creative person – not artistically, but financially. After we create our annual gift giving guide, I have a dollar amount that I need to come up with for the year to fit with our budget. Figuring out how we are going to pay for these items requires some creative thinking which I think is fun! Looking for little pockets of where we can save money or come up with some extra money can help you meet your goals and stay within your budget.
- Product Rewards – Think about using product rewards to redeem gift cards or other products. We have used the My Coke Rewards program to redeem points for special gifts. Look for these types of promotions on items that you frequently purchase.
- Re-Gift – Some people don’t believe in re-gifting, but there are times when it makes sense. Every once in a while I may get a gift card from work for a certain project I worked on. In the past, my wife and I have received gift cards for restaurants that we don’t really like. I think it is acceptable in these situations to pass along the card to someone who would use it.
Do you plan ahead on yearly gift purchases?
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I also put a premium on getting “just the right” gift, if I can. Frequently, if you can find something that really fits with someone’s hobbies, it doesn’t have to be expensive. For example, a friend of mine loves tiki. I found some vintage drink stirrers from Trader Vic’s for him at an antique store for less than $10. He loved them!!
But, I am with you on picking up clearance generic gifts – I like to do that for holiday parties where you have to do gift exchanges. It is also good to have a few things tucked away just in case I forget a birthday or need a little “pick me up” gift for a friend who is blue.
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I want to add another suggestion. We have a very nice Good Will store in the area close to our home. We went there today, for example, and picked up a very beautiful Bombay Company jewelry box for our 7 year old daughter’s birthday: the price? $2.99 I would encourage everyone to get over Thrift Store revulsion. If you look long and hard enough, you will find buried treasures for pennies on the dollar!
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@Dawn – It doesn’t work for all gifts, but we have narrowed down the things we can pick up and store away – toys mostly. Then if we don’t use them or give them away, I have no problem donating them to Toys for Tots.
@Steve – Nice one! Some of those Good Will stores are very nice. I have also been in some Value Village stores that are a little scary. Regardless – I think people will be using thrift stores a lot more now.
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