It’s that time of the year again. Everyone is looking for gifts for the upcoming holiday season. Are you ready for it? Do you look forward to all the holiday shopping or do you dread it? Regardless of how you feel about shopping for gifts it’s likely that you want to get everyone on your list nice and meaningful gifts while also keeping your costs down as much as possible. That makes perfect sense. But how do you do it? Let’s talk about the best ways that have helped me over the years.
Start shopping in the summer
Yes that may seem weird, but if you can get in the habit of shopping early you’ll make it so much easier on yourself. This way you aren’t trying to cram in some gift ideas in the last week of shopping when everything is crazy everywhere. Do you really want to deal with all those crowds?
Plus, if you start early you’ll have that much more time to think about the gift and get something meaningful. It’s pretty easy to buy a gift card and give it to someone if you can’t think of anything, but if you can try to think of something meaningful then your gift will be worth that much more to whoever is getting it. It really is “it’s the thought that counts” when it comes to gifts. Give yourself some time to think.
What about saving money? Do you like doing it? Who doesn’t, right? The earlier you start shopping the more likely you are to find a sale for whatever you’re buying. You don’t have to do anything special when you’re starting early. Just keep it in mind when you’re out shopping for yourself. If “oh this would be great for my sister” is something you can keep in mind you’ll have all your shopping done before December even comes around.
Add a card
Sometimes gifts can seem like such a meaningful gift to you, but it doesn’t quite translate that way to whoever you give it to. One of the easiest ways to fix that problem is to include a note about your gift. If you want to keep it cheap you don’t even have to use a card. You can simply use a pretty holiday themed notepad and write in about the gift and include it.
When the person opens the gift they’ll read about the gift, and why you decided to buy it for them. This can turn a potentially mediocre gift into something really special. People like to be thought of. If you can really show them that you were thinking about them, and trying to make the gift meaningful then you’re going to score big points. Give it a shot and see how the gift recipient responds. It’s likely that they’ll love the note almost as much as the gift itself.
Check the deal sites
I like to shop online and I like checking deal sites when I’m looking for gifts. If you know what you want to get for someone don’t just buy it the first place you see. Unless you know you’re getting a great deal you should do some comparison shopping before you buy anything.
I like to check sites like Slickdeals.net for deals. If you search the forums there for an item you can look back at older posts where people will tell you what they paid for items in the past. You can also google the item to see what prices it has. This won’t show you any old advertised prices, but it’s a good start.
If you check the past prices and you find that your price is less, then great job. You can feel better about buying it at a good price. I like to use Amazon for shopping, but they don’t always have the best prices. They do sometimes though. If you want to check old prices at Amazon you can use a site called camelcamelcamel.com where they track past Amazon prices for you. Try it out, it’s a great site.
Make something for them
We did this for this year where we made something for each person. It’s a small item (don’t want to say what in case they read this) but it will add to the whole gift. It’s always thoughtful to make something for someone, and especially if it’s something you think they’ll enjoy.
There’s lots of ideas here, you can be creative. Are you good with wood? Maybe a nice small piece of furniture for them. Are you crafty? How about a christmas ornament that you made. If you want more gift ideas then just google “DIY gift ideas” and you’ll find lots of stuff.
Get together with others for something bigger
Do you have a great idea, but the item is too expensive for you to consider? What about getting together with your siblings and splitting the cost on a larger item? This will work if you get along with your siblings and they all have the same budget for gift giving, but it can be an idea to look into if you’ve found something that would be great, but you just can’t afford to buy it yourself.
Think, then buy
In the end you have to remember that it’s the thought that counts. Try not to get stressed out and keep in mind that the holidays are all about being together. If you can try to show a little meaning in your gift it won’t matter that you couldn’t afford to spend more on something “nicer”. Stay within your means and you should do just fine.