Black Friday is only a week from today, so it’s just about time spend spend spend on gifts. And while some frugal sites may suggest things like making things like a gift basket of cookies or handmade candles, my friends already think I’m cheap enough. I give them cookies and I’ll get coal shoved up somewhere.
But that doesn’t mean you have to overspend. In fact, my observation is quite the opposite. Last Christmas, one of my friends got me a portable DVD player. It must have cost at least $100 bucks. I’ve used it… once. I always just travel with my laptop, I can watch DVDs on it too, and it has a 500% larger screen. And I don’t even collect DVDs. Obviously, very little thought went into it, and they compensated with an expensive gift.
On the other hand, another friend sent me a magazine subscription to Car & Driver. I was having a hard time getting my curren subscription forwarded to my new address (and too cheap to buy the current copy retail), and so she just bought me another sub. It cost… $10. And I read it cover-to-cover every month.
So the moral of the story is to actually buy something that fills a void. If they like the Rams, get them tickets. Real fans don’t mind nosebleed seats. They like poker? Get them a buy-in at a local or online tournament. Or get something unique on eBay, like an old fraternity pin or early edition book.
Ok, that’s it for my gift-shopping tips. I hate shopping =)
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I like shopping…for myself! It’s easy because I know what I want, but it’s hard to buy something for someone if you don’t know what they want – and for me, asking makes it pretty obvious. I just get gift cards to stores I know they like, (eg, Best Buy) so that they know I care, but also so they can get something they know they’d like. I know people often say gift cards aren’t personal, but personally, I love to get them; I save them for a rainy day or when I finally make a decision to get something I’ve wanted. That’s how I got my TiVo!
Send me the DVD player, I won’t tell anyone. 🙂
“my friends already think I’m cheap enough. I give them cookies and I’ll get coal shoved up smewhere.”
Thanks for brightnening up my friday! Everyone in my office is wondering why I’m laughing 😉
shopping sucks, I’d only buy gifts for kids if wife would let me have my way.
Gift cards are really really lame for numerous reasons (they expire, there are fees to buy them, they show zero thought).
The funny thing is young people think they’re great.
Even Simon Gift Cards cost $2 to pick up. They’re great if you’re laundering money, but not much good for anything else.
Anon – Glad I could help 😉
Clic – I totally agree, here’s my experience:
For people under ~30 – Gift cards are great, we love them. I have a stack of half-used ones, though.
For people over ~30 – Gift cards are tacky and impersonal. Could never get my parents or in-laws a gift card.
Actually clicclic, I live in CA so all gift cards purchased here do not expire. Additionally, I’ve never had a gift card that charged a fee to buy it. All but good experiences for me.
I have recently found a cheap and thoughtful way to give gifts. Online photo processors, such as imagestation.com, ofoto.com, shutterfly.com, etc… have unique gifts relating to photography; purses, mugs, greeting, cards, baked goods (all with photos imprinted on them)
This year, I sent my sister a customized photobook, and plan to send my mom cookies with pictures of the family printed on them. both gifts were under $20.
Michael makes a great point, the most stressful part of gifts for me is trying to come up with something meaningful. This year everyone is getting a t-shirt, which grant you is not that exciting however I’m using zazzle.com to make eveyrone their own customized t-shirt. This way everyone gets a t-shirt with something meaningful to them on it, and I get all my shopping done in one place and with a discount for buying in quantity.