advertisement
The gift of photos. Have any doting grandmas or grandpas on your list? Knock it out of the park with a custom-made photo book featuring your tots. These are also great gifts to commemorate a special event, like a birthday, anniversary celebration, wedding or vacation. You can make photo books using one of the many Web-based photo publishers (Snapfish, Shutterfly and MyPublisher among them). A small soft-cover book with 20 or so pages runs about $10, or you can splurge with a $30 hardcover (sometimes less, with coupons). You pick the photos, choose the layout, write the captions and within days, the book's in your hand.
Regift -- carefully. The item has to be in perfect shape, you have to remember who gave it to you (heaven forbid you return it to the original giver) and it has to be a better fit for your recipient than it was for you. My colleague MP Dunleavey discloses the rest of what you need to know in "12 rules for regifting without fear." We're not wine drinkers in our household, so at every opportunity we brazenly regift wine we're given as hostess gifts. Fortunately (we're told), our friends have great taste in vino.
Don't turn your nose up at rummage sales. Get in early and you may find all kinds of gems. At a recent church-sponsored sale, I spotted a new-in-box Fisher Price baby mobile, several brand new hardcover books and some CDs still in their original packaging. I've also been to plenty of sales where the highlight was a seatless dining room chair, so if time is tight, focus on bigger sales and the ones in better neighborhoods.
More from MSN Money
Make a charitable contribution. Most charities provide a card or another acknowledgement that specifies you gave a gift in someone's honor, but not how much. Here it really is the thought that counts.
But be ever so careful. If you pick someone who really wanted a gift-gift, you may be seen as kind of stingy (after all, you're the one who gets tax deduction if you itemize). If your recipient is trying to downsize, bemoans the commercialization of Christmas, is environmentally conscious or has brought up the idea of gifting to charity before, you might broach the subject to see if your donation would be welcome.
Video on MSN Money
How to save on holiday shoppingDo like Santa does: Make a list and check it twice.
My husband's cousin and I felt like outlaws a couple of years ago when we did this. The extended family had finally agreed to draw names out of a hat, rather than everyone gifting everyone else (which led to daylong present-opening extravaganzas). He got my name, and I suggested a donation to Heifer.org, which provides animals to poor farmers in developing countries. He was delighted, I was delighted, and the raised eyebrows of a few relatives mattered not. Besides, it's enormously fun to say, when asked what you want for Christmas, "I'd like a water buffalo, please."
Got more ideas for inexpensive gift-giving? Please post them on the Your Money message board.
Columns by Liz Pulliam Weston, the Web's most-read personal finance writer, appear every Monday and Thursday, exclusively on MSN Money. She also answers reader questions on the Your Money message board.
Updated Nov. 19, 2007
< previous | 1 | 2 |
Rate this Article
High