With my Dad retiring, our family growing and everyone on a tight budget, my immediate family decided a few years back to just give $10 gifts to one another. $10 for each person, from each couple, not from each person. At first, I bucked at the idea, as I am a stickler for tradition. (I am the annoying family member that as soon as something is done two years in a row, it is considered tradition and if we veer from said tradition, I throw a fit that “Nobody cares, blah blah blah”. I LOVE my traditions!) Once we started doing the $10 gift, I came to fully appreciate and in fact relish in finding $10 gifts for everyone. As I am a frugal being, I wanted to make sure I got the most bang for my buck, and in doing so this has become a fun challenge for me.
Caution: This is a lengthy drawn out story describing, in pain staking detail, my shopping trip last year. I like to take a short story and make it long ;)Last year I waited until December 23rdto buy my family’s Christmas gifts. This is the longest I have ever waited to finish my Christmas shopping and it drove this neurotic little Type A personality up the wall. I like planning. I like lists. I like being prepared! I waited because I knew that Old Navy was having a sale starting December 23rd: Jingle Jammies for $5 a piece. This was a great price! I knew the risk of waiting until the last minute that I might not get all of the sizes I wanted. Ideally, I wanted plaid, flannel, matching pyjama bottoms for my family. I pictured everyone rolling themselves away from my Mom’s scrumptious, Christmas Eve, button popping meal, and opening gifts. Everyone would open my gift first so they could all quickly change and be cozy in matching PJ bottoms! Quaint, cozy, and cheesy; right up this quaint, Christmas Loving, cheeseball's alley! PLUS they would be super practical because everyone can always use new PJ bottoms. Cute, no? Therefore, I took the chance and waited until December 23rd.
On top of the $5 PJ’s, I had a card that would get me 10% off, AND I had a Groupon that I bought, $10 got me $20 worth of Old Navy Products. I needed seven PJ bottoms and pictured buying three other items for my Mom’s birthday gift in January. Have you followed the math? That would work out to $3.50 a piece for 10 articles of clothing at a $5 sale price.December 23rd, I got up bright and early and headed to Old Navy. I got there just as the doors were unlocked. I raced in, (there was no body else in the mall at that time, there was no need to race, but I am impatient and had been planning for this purchase for the previous two months.) My racing was for naught, as there were NO jingle jammies. Ok, that was a lie. There were three, all different patterns and the wrong sizes. I walked forlornly through the store wondering what my backup plan was going to be. I always have a backup plan, but for this, this I put it all on the line refusing to believe I wouldn’t achieve my goal. Then I spotted in the men’s department blue fleece pants. Cozy, super warm, I suppose you could wear them to bed, but you could also use them as lounge pants, a huge rack of them! For $5, regular $24.99. I was leery. The price worked for my budget as they were the same price as the jammies, the only thing was they were Superman blue. While this may not be a huge concern to some, the goal of the gift was not only a cute family photo with everyone in matching bottoms, but that the gift be USEABLE when the holidays were done. Would everyone like the odd colour?
I wandered around, and around. After about an hour of glaring angrily at the near bare, Jingle Jammie rack, I finally started rooting through the blue fleece pants. There must have been 50 pairs of the blue fleece pants on the rack. (This also made me leery as that meant to me that other people weren’t sure about the colour either. I am neurotic. I digress.) I managed to find the exact sizes I needed. I had my parents, my two sisters, my brother-in-law, my husband and myself. They were all men’s pants and I knew the sizes I needed for the men and for the women I just went a size smaller then I would have bought for them in women’s sizes. These pants all weighed a ton. I carried them up the counter (also with the three fleece sweaters for my Mom, $5 each as well.) With all my items my pre-tax, after the 10% discount and after the Groupon was applied, I paid $25. However, you have to add the $10 I spent on the Groupon, so $35 ALL TOGETHER for TEN BRAND NEW ADULT ITEMS. Seeing the actual price at the register made me feel better about my decision.
I hurried home and wrapped my finds.
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| Double sided paper is worth it's investment when wrapping gifts like a Christmas Cracker. In the top right hand corner you can see my cat who supervised all of the wrapping :) |
Shown here like big Christmas Crackers. I LOVE TO GIFT WRAP. There is a good chance a Gift-wrapping post will show up in the next few weeks, not to toot my own horn or anything, but people look forward to receiving gifts from me as I LOVE to wrap the gifts as uniquely as possible. (Martha Stewart eat your heart out!) I need a gift wrapping room, maybe two like Candy Spelling. My younger sister once said she is most excited to receive my gift just to see how I wrapped it.
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| Super cozy Blue pants. (They are brighter in real life) |
What’s your family’s gift giving tradition?
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