ALT-3 How to Save Money on Holiday Wrapping Paper
Few things are more disheartening than buying expensive wrapping paper, agonizing over cutting it precisely and wrapping your special package, only to watch as it’s shredded on Christmas morning. If we have learned anything from this, it’s that, for the most part, people are more interested in what is inside the paper.Individual rolls of special paper can cost anywhere from three to six dollars and will only give you a few square feet of paper. Discount and dollar stores, on the other hand offer countless designs and textures of paper that generally come in packs of three or four rolls, and give you twice the paper for half the price.While it may seem tedious and cheap, saving your leftover paper from year to year just makes good sense. You will undoubtedly end up with partial rolls at the end of the holiday season, or at the very least, smaller squares and pieces. Even these small sections of paper can be used for small boxes. By the same token, even used wrapping paper can be recycled, assuming it has not been decimated. If there are any sections potentially big enough to wrap something next year, they should be straightened out, put into a box and kept. When wrapping packages, cut your paper only to a size large enough to cover your package. Place the package at whatever direction on the paper will produce the least waste.Plain brown paper, the kind that is used to wrap boxes for shipping is inexpensive and makes an excellent blank canvas if you are creative, as does white craft paper. You can easily create your own wrapping paper with a little paint and a brush or some colored markers. If you aren’t artistic, you can use rubber stamps, stencils, or discarded Christmas cards. Anything goes, and anything that can be glued onto your paper to personalize it will work.Some of the most unusual and most unique packages are not wrapped with wrapping paper at all. Newspapers, magazine pages, and even plain computer paper can be used, as well as leftover scraps of material.If you want to eliminate paper altogether, there are reusable options that come in handy all year long. Bags of every material from cloth to paper are quick, decorative and extremely convenient.If you do choose to use paper, and you have scraps that are unusable for packages, remember to recycle.
