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Monday, October 25, 2010
Friday, October 15, 2010
How to have Frugal Holiday Season, Part One
How to have Frugal Holiday Season, Part One.
The Holiday Season will be here before we know it. This is the first of a series of articles designed to show how careful planning & saving money will stretch your money farther.
Are you a super frugal shopper?
Do you request Freebies and sample's?
Do you buy great deals? Do you buy items to send away for rebates?
What do you do if this is not a product you use?
What do you do if you do not use or like the product that is a great deal or has a try-me-free rebate?
Do you have unused gift cards that you have not and will not use?
I am sure many of us answered yes to these questions.
One Frugal Idea is to give the items you do not want away, donate to charity, which of course is a nice thing to do. But I will take this a step further and say. Give them away as part of a gift or as a gift. Let me clarify this, if I give away a cosmetic bag, small travel bag or a handbag I stuff it with samples, gift cards, magazine's, cookbooks etc.
I give you a reason I do this, several years ago when money was very limited. My husband was still taking full time night classes while both of us were working full time. No matter how much I stretched the budget I could not find any extra money, for anything. Before I knew it Christmas was here, after a long conversation we both decided to not exchange gifts. But we felt bad about not exchanging gifts with our families, I can't explain why because given the circumstances I am most certain they would have all understood this. But it was a issue we could not get past, and we both like to give gifts, we love to see people's reaction. One day at a local outlet mall, we ran into a store that was about to close, they had cosmetic bags, travel bags, small suitcases, suitcases and handbags. We wanted to pick up a few gifts, because the prices were cheap, really cheap. So we said after we had walked the mall, had a light bite to eat (our treat for that month) we would go back. Going back later saved us even more money, we walked in just as the mall was closing for the day. The owner was about to pay a person to rent a van to haul all of the left over merchandise over to Good-Will because he had to vacate the store that night. WOW! We lucked into a huge find, items that at normal retail prices would have cost hundreds of dollars, but had only cost us less than 15.00. We had purchased gifts and had saved money.
I had a over abundance of samples, items I had gotten at super great buys, items I had gotten with try-me-free rebates. MY stash was plentiful and to be honest I knew what I would use, but I had no idea what to do with the items I would not use, so they sat in plastic bins in a closet in my home.
We went home that night, as I sorted my great buys samples and freebies, I thought there are items here, I will not use, maybe I should donate them, but then I had a idea. We had a party to go to the next day I went and got a cosmetic bag I was going to give as a gift, and after removing the stuffing from the inside, I started adding shower gels, shampoo, conditioner, mini deodorants, toothbrush toothpaste, moisturizers, and lip balm. The recipient absolutely loved the gift. Her reaction gave me the go ahead to do this with all of the other handbags, and travel bags! These gifts given for Birthday gifts and over the Holidays were all well received and cost me nothing or practically nothing to add the items inside.
Careful planning will get you Close To Finds Like the handbag and luggage we found.
How you say, walk to the clearance fixtures of every store you shop at First before you go anywhere else in the store, make this a habit.
That great beach bag, found in the middle of Winter for 80-90% off will make a great gift a summer get-a-way bag that You can give at Christmas time! You can stuff the bach bag with a beach towel, hat, that you will also find on sale. Add a few books, check for a book sale, or closeouts on books, maybe even the local GoodWill store. Add sunscreen, look for end of season sale, Try using CVS and Walgreen sales, Extra Bucks, coupons. That water bottle you received as a freebie would be great addition.
Another area to look for great buys is Kitchen Gadgets, also look for cookware, serving platters, serving bowls. Look outside of the box, the red bowls with stars, star shaped bowls found on clearance fixtures after July 4th are appropiate to use for Christmas gift giving, and similar bowls at Christmas time will be 4 times the price of the clearance price. Always check after season clearance sales, chances are you will find many items that will make great gifts.
Look for great buys on gift baskets, Goodwill is a great source for gift baskets. I usually find gift baskets for .50 cents. Suff the gift basket with bath, spa or hair care products. Fill a baket with discounted cookware, bakeware, recipe box (filled with recipes). Make a movie night themed gift basket, candy & popcorn purchased on sale, add a DVD, or movie rental gift card. Fill it with food items Mexican dinner kits and salsas, pasta and pasta sauces, really the list is endless. Just make sure you purchase All products, items on sale or BOGO, this will make your money stretch farther.
Thank you for reading this, I hope you enjoyed reading this. In the next article I will show how to make gift baskets and show photo's of several gift baskets I put together for Well Under 10.00. I will list cost of basket, and items included.
The Holiday Season will be here before we know it. This is the first of a series of articles designed to show how careful planning & saving money will stretch your money farther.
Are you a super frugal shopper?
Do you request Freebies and sample's?
Do you buy great deals? Do you buy items to send away for rebates?
What do you do if this is not a product you use?
What do you do if you do not use or like the product that is a great deal or has a try-me-free rebate?
Do you have unused gift cards that you have not and will not use?
I am sure many of us answered yes to these questions.
One Frugal Idea is to give the items you do not want away, donate to charity, which of course is a nice thing to do. But I will take this a step further and say. Give them away as part of a gift or as a gift. Let me clarify this, if I give away a cosmetic bag, small travel bag or a handbag I stuff it with samples, gift cards, magazine's, cookbooks etc.
I give you a reason I do this, several years ago when money was very limited. My husband was still taking full time night classes while both of us were working full time. No matter how much I stretched the budget I could not find any extra money, for anything. Before I knew it Christmas was here, after a long conversation we both decided to not exchange gifts. But we felt bad about not exchanging gifts with our families, I can't explain why because given the circumstances I am most certain they would have all understood this. But it was a issue we could not get past, and we both like to give gifts, we love to see people's reaction. One day at a local outlet mall, we ran into a store that was about to close, they had cosmetic bags, travel bags, small suitcases, suitcases and handbags. We wanted to pick up a few gifts, because the prices were cheap, really cheap. So we said after we had walked the mall, had a light bite to eat (our treat for that month) we would go back. Going back later saved us even more money, we walked in just as the mall was closing for the day. The owner was about to pay a person to rent a van to haul all of the left over merchandise over to Good-Will because he had to vacate the store that night. WOW! We lucked into a huge find, items that at normal retail prices would have cost hundreds of dollars, but had only cost us less than 15.00. We had purchased gifts and had saved money.
I had a over abundance of samples, items I had gotten at super great buys, items I had gotten with try-me-free rebates. MY stash was plentiful and to be honest I knew what I would use, but I had no idea what to do with the items I would not use, so they sat in plastic bins in a closet in my home.
We went home that night, as I sorted my great buys samples and freebies, I thought there are items here, I will not use, maybe I should donate them, but then I had a idea. We had a party to go to the next day I went and got a cosmetic bag I was going to give as a gift, and after removing the stuffing from the inside, I started adding shower gels, shampoo, conditioner, mini deodorants, toothbrush toothpaste, moisturizers, and lip balm. The recipient absolutely loved the gift. Her reaction gave me the go ahead to do this with all of the other handbags, and travel bags! These gifts given for Birthday gifts and over the Holidays were all well received and cost me nothing or practically nothing to add the items inside.
Careful planning will get you Close To Finds Like the handbag and luggage we found.
How you say, walk to the clearance fixtures of every store you shop at First before you go anywhere else in the store, make this a habit.
That great beach bag, found in the middle of Winter for 80-90% off will make a great gift a summer get-a-way bag that You can give at Christmas time! You can stuff the bach bag with a beach towel, hat, that you will also find on sale. Add a few books, check for a book sale, or closeouts on books, maybe even the local GoodWill store. Add sunscreen, look for end of season sale, Try using CVS and Walgreen sales, Extra Bucks, coupons. That water bottle you received as a freebie would be great addition.
Another area to look for great buys is Kitchen Gadgets, also look for cookware, serving platters, serving bowls. Look outside of the box, the red bowls with stars, star shaped bowls found on clearance fixtures after July 4th are appropiate to use for Christmas gift giving, and similar bowls at Christmas time will be 4 times the price of the clearance price. Always check after season clearance sales, chances are you will find many items that will make great gifts.
Look for great buys on gift baskets, Goodwill is a great source for gift baskets. I usually find gift baskets for .50 cents. Suff the gift basket with bath, spa or hair care products. Fill a baket with discounted cookware, bakeware, recipe box (filled with recipes). Make a movie night themed gift basket, candy & popcorn purchased on sale, add a DVD, or movie rental gift card. Fill it with food items Mexican dinner kits and salsas, pasta and pasta sauces, really the list is endless. Just make sure you purchase All products, items on sale or BOGO, this will make your money stretch farther.
Thank you for reading this, I hope you enjoyed reading this. In the next article I will show how to make gift baskets and show photo's of several gift baskets I put together for Well Under 10.00. I will list cost of basket, and items included.
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