Beating Broke

Personal Finance from the Broke Perspective

Easy Ways to Earn, Make, and Give Free or Cheap Gifts

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With Christmas less than two weeks away, you may be feeling the crunch to get the perfect gift in time. Or perhaps, your gift budget is running low, yet you still have quite a few people on your list to give gifts to. Here are easy last minute solutions to earn free or cheap gifts for the season.

1. Swagbucks:

Many people have mentioned the fun and ease of Swagbucks. Have you signed up already? Are you participating every day to get bucks? Spending just a few minutes each day searching, doing the daily poll, and other small and fast tasks will add up quickly. You will easily receive more points for every person that signs up under you. Once you have someone sign up under you, every time they earn a Swagbuck, you earn one too. For easy earning, sign yourself up and then have your spouse or family member sign up under you. My husband and I spend minimal time on Swagbucks and earn at least a $5 Amazon gift card each month. I know you may be thinking, “What can $5 buy me on Amazon?” With no taxes (in most states) and a prime membership, $5 can choose from a lot of small and affordable gifts for kids and friends. Also, the Amazon gift card available on Swagbucks can be combined in your Amazon account to add up to a greater amount.

2. Coinstar:

While Coinstar does not exactly reward you with free cash, it can turn your huge coin collection into real hard gift cards. When you cash in your coins to Coinstar and redeem them for gift cards, including the Amazon e-gift certificate, you do not have to pay any extra fees that are usually associated with cashing in coins for cash. Coinstar recently added gift cards for Chili’s Grill & Bar, Maggiano’s Little Italy, Papa John’s, and Toys”R”Us. You may be surprised by how many coins you have. Even cashing in enough to earn a $5 gift card puts you $5 ahead in your spending budget.

3. Homemade:

Homemade gifts can be wonderful gifts. They are thoughtful and usually cost more time than money. So if you have the time, try making things from scratch. Here are some ideas for fun gifts to make under $5:

  • layered cocoa in jarsMake homemade caramel sauce and pair it with homemade hot chocolate mix. Place them in small glass jars with a cute note saying, “Have a sweet Christmas”.
  • Pair a small bag of gummy worms with a notebook full of quotes from books, a pen, and perhaps a book (check the local thrift store for great deals). Attach a note saying, “To my favorite book worm”.
  • A bag of popcorn with a handmade ticket that says, “Admission to One Free Movie Date with me” (Of course, this may cost more than $5 when they do wish to see the movie, depending on what time you go).
  • Cover a wooden letter (check your local craft store) with yarn for a home decor gift great for the whole family.
  • Fill a tea cup with several bags of tea and pair with a side of homemade scones or tea cakes.
  • Bake bread from scratch and pair with homemade or store bought jelly.
  • Homemade play dough for children.
  • A big tin of homemade cookies or brownies.

Just because your Christmas budget may be tight this year, there is no reason to stress out over gift giving. Most people are appreciated at the thought behind the gift. Always pair the gift with a special card or note to really show the gift receiver how much you appreciate and care for them.

photo credit: shimelle

Frugal Christmas Tips

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Close Up of Christmas TreeI don’t want to panic you or anything, but Christmas is just around the corner.  Inf act, it’s only a hair more than 10 days away.  Some of you are way ahead of the curve and have had your presents bought and wrapped for months.  Others, like myself, are still finishing up your shopping.  For me, it’s a procrastination problem.  Others, it’s a funding issue, and they just have to wait until they have the money to spend on all those presents.

If you ask me, the presents are the worst part of the season.  I enjoy the holidays, but I truly despise the commercialization of them.  I’d rather not do any of the presents schtick and merely enjoy the time off work spend with family and friends.  Never mind that it would save us all from having to endure the marketing blitz that is the month of December, or the horror stories of those who risk life
and limb to get that super cool toy at 3 a.m., only to have their children play with it for five minutes and then go off to build a fort out of the box.

But, unfortunately for most, that part of the holiday has become so ingrained into the holiday that it is impossible to remove.  For those, I offer a few tips to help lessen the burden.

  • Give Homemade Gifts.  Maybe you are an excellent baker, or a scrapbooker extraordinaire, or maybe you’re handy with a tool.  Not only will making your own thoughtful homemade gifts be cheaper, but they also show that you put more thought into the gift than just perusing the circular and finding the latest thing.
  • Go in on gifts.  Many people, including myself, don’t have a very long list of smaller priced items that they want or need.  But, most have at least a thing or two that is higher priced that they either want or need.  Go in with a group of relatives or friends and buy that one big item.  You’ll get away with paying a lesser amount, while the person will receive a bigger gift that they want rather than a bunch of smaller gifts that they don’t really want.
  • Go dutch.  Instead of hosting a big meal and cooking it all yourself, make it a potluck.  Not only will you get the best that your friends and relatives have to offer as far as holiday food goes, but it will significantly reduce the amount you’ll spend on groceries.
  • Fill the holidays with activities.  It sounds silly, but the more down time you have to ponder the lack of presents, the worse everybody feels.  If everybody knows they’ll only have a little bit of free time before going off to play board games, they won’t notice a few less presents.

Whether you take advantage of ways to save money this holiday season or not, do try and keep in mind that the season is about spending time with those that you care about.  Try to overcome any of the usual holiday squabbles and enjoy their company, and enjoy the season!

photo credit: Tatiana12