28 November 2019

Gifting on a budget

Christmas creeps up on us every year and unless you have a never-ending pot of money, it can require some planning.

Do you save all year round? Perhaps you will use your most recent pay cheque to cover the cost? Whatever the case, getting through the festive period without breaking the bank or spending way beyond what you can afford can be something we all struggle with.

Give experiences

Most people, especially children, will forget what they received from that massive gift pile.

People do, however, remember experiences, such as the time they went to a concert or the theatre. Giving an experience may well be more valuable in the long-run and can be bought for the entire family to do together.

Not only are you making memories, but it also saves you from thinking of present ideas for each individual person!

 

Make your own experiences

Speaking of experiences, you can even make up your own, such as offering to babysit someone’s kids while they have a day to themselves, or by offering to cook someone dinner.

For your kids, offer to let them have a sleepover party with their friends. You could pretend they’re going camping and string up some sheets for the tents.

Not only are these kind on the purse strings, but they are always memorable for recipients.

 

Secret Santa

In case you haven’t come across Secret Santa before, it involves plucking names out of a hat and buying a gift for the name of the person that you plucked. There's usually a set budget for gifts, and it'll often remain anonymous too!

Secret Santa is a fun game in the lead-up to Christmas, and it tends to be budget-friendly, because you will only need to buy one gift for one person.

If you don’t fancy the old-school approach of drawing names from a hat, you can also use a free online Secret Santa organiser.

With these generators, alll you have to do is enter the participants’ names and email addresses into the organiser, and the software will do the rest for you!

 

Be creative /Make presents

There are so many DIY instructions online for a range of different items that can be created for very little and given as presents, from making your own DIY marble mug to homemade soap. 

Even if you're don’t have a creative flair, there's nothing to stop you whipping up some simple creations in the kitchen.

You can kill a lot of birds with one stone by baking a huge tray of a specific dessert and give them to everyone on your list.

 

Second-hand gifts

Why not check have a look online or local second-hand shops to see if someone has what you’re looking for.

As an added bonus, second-hand toys are already assembled, saving you hours of blood, sweat and tears. The recipient won’t care that it’s not in a box. Particularly in the case of younger kids – as long as they can unwrap and play with it, nothing else will matter to them.

 

 

Published: 28/11/2019