In "The dollar food pantry" I showed how to build a stockpile of delicious and (mostly) healthful foods without spending more than a buck at a time.
Now your cupboard is full. How's your gift closet?
Yes, the holidays are more than six months off. But why wait until then to look for deals?
- Quick quiz: Estimate your credit scores
Besides, birthdays, anniversaries and new babies happen all year long. A gift closet means you're ready for any occasion -- and you don't have to break the bank to build it.
You really can get gifts -- nice ones! -- for a dollar or less. Here's how.
Giving 'important to me'
Post-holiday clearance sales are an obvious choice. California resident Elise Griffith bought $100 worth of on-sale clothes and gift items just before Christmas in order to get a $20 store voucher. At the store's after-Christmas sale she bought six bath sets and three decorative picture frames with the coupon plus $1.74 in cash.Illinois reader SonyaAnn, who blogs at A Mom, Money, and More, picked up three plush Snoopy dolls and a whimsical Christmas centerpiece for $3.11 total at CVS. Her family's budget is tight, but gift giving "is something that's important to me."
Don't forget end-of-season sales online either. Winter clothes and accessories are going for a song right now. They cost more than a dollar, but some aren't much more.
Better than clearance?
Coupons + clearance = frugal nirvana. Using $5-off coupons, a northwestern Ohio reader named Julie got two necklaces, a cheese plate and knife, a pair of music boxes and an Ohio Buckeyes jackknife absolutely free from a Hallmark store.She got the coupons from magazines, and she didn't pay for those either. Instead, she scored subscriptions from online freebie sites.
Julie has gotten free items such as batteries and a flash drive by recycling ink cartridges at Staples. (I "bought" several gifts this way myself, as part of last year's frugal hack Christmas.) And right now Julie has "a shoebox full" of card games that cost nothing, thanks to a really good toy sale and some $5-off coupons she found online.
"It stretches your dollars," says Julie, who makes sure "everybody has something to open" at her extended family's annual Christmas gathering.
Recently, J.C. Penney mailed out a coupon for $10 off a purchase of $10 or more. Lynn D., who lives in upstate New York, applied it toward the purchase of two men's zippered sweat shirts, originally $68 but marked down to $8. In other words, one was free, and one cost only $6.
"I always look at clearance tables," Lynn says.
(Gift) card games
If you belong to any gift card reward programs or online survey sites, cash in some points for gift cards to use at post-holiday or end-of-season sales. Sharon A., a Tennessee reader, scored $275 worth last year with relatively little effort and has redeemed two cards this year to help buy wedding and baby gifts.Or use gift cards that you've been given. SonyaAnn requests a Cracker Barrel gift card for Christmas each year, just so she can hit the post-holiday sale in the restaurant's gift shop. This year she bought 15 baskets with the gift card and 90 cents cash. She and her husband will fill the baskets with flavored popcorn, which costs very little to make.
If you received a gift card you can live without, simply re-gift it. I did this three times last Christmas, and the recipients were delighted.
Unwanted cards can be sold on eBay or traded on a gift card swap site. You should be able to get an even-steven swap, but you'll likely get less -- possibly significantly less -- than face value on eBay. However, because you didn't pay for them in the first place you're still ahead, and the money can be used for gift buying.
Continued: Is that your best price?