ALT-1 Christmas Gift Giving on a Budget
Bargain or Bust? There is definitely an Art to getting by on a budget during the holidays. My secret is making the holiday shopping spree take all year long. It spreads out the cash, not to mention you get to spend your holiday season almost stress free knowing that your shopping is already done!
Can you think of those hard-to-buy-for relatives that you know dropped hints about what they wanted for Christmas this year? Like your Uncle Bob, who has been saying for years that he would like to find a red radio-flyer wagon to fix up and display in his toy shed. The only problem is, when you go to buy his wagon during crunch time of the Holiday Season; it's either sold out, you can't find one, or worse yet you just can't remember what it was he called that stupid red thing he said he wanted. It happens to all of us. To solve this problem for myself, I began writing down anything I would hear others say they wish they had. I start my next year's list as soon as the gifts are opened on Christmas morning. The first thing you hear from everyone is what they didn't get. Whenever I'm shopping around in the penny pincher section at Walmart or on the street corners in our neighborhood, I take out my list of compiled family wishes to match up my perspective bargains. If nothing matches, I move on. When I find a great deal, I cross the item off my list and it goes straight up to the attic to the Christmas Gift Corner.
I like to shop around for bargains when things from the Winter season go on sale in order to make room for the new merchandise Spring rolls in. As soon as warmer weather hits, towns go mad with their annual City-wide garage sales. Careful though, look for items that still have the boxes and instructions. This way your family and friends may not even notice you paid pennies for their new gift.
As years went by, I began to be the talk of the family as we sat in a circle and one by one opened our gifts. Bright eyes and appreciative smiles, followed by the echoing "You remembered." became repeated response to the gifts I had given to my family. It seemed that even the smallest gifts received the same amount of satisfaction as those bigger ones. Looking back, I understand that it may not have been the gift at all but the thought. And when someone can remember you wished for a new set of oven mitts back in July, that means something. To me that's saying: they took the time to listen, to remember me in their daily shopping, and they came through for me in the end.
No matter how you look at it, even a old rusty radio-flyer red wagon from a second-hand consignment shop could mean more to your Uncle Bob (who by the way, has been looking to restore one for years) than that brand new set of golf clubs your rich cousin Tim bought him this year. Because lets face it, anyone with money can walk in, buy a set of clubs, walk out and never take the time to REALLY THINK about what would make your Uncle Bob happy.
