How do you guys Save $$$$ during the Holidays???? Ideas please??

[Aubrey London {Madam}]

Hey Everyone, just wondering how you guys go about saving money during the busy Holiday Season? It's so hectic and we all seem like we're in a tight crunch that shelling out any extra money besides bills sounds crazy, but we still do it....year after year.

I personally like to buy a lot of smaller items and get everyone on my list instead of just a few people with a heftier price tag on their presents. I also purchase on Ebay to save money. One of my favorite things to give are books, which are cheaper and have great value to them, plus they provide the reader a valuable lesson. What do you guys do? I'd love to find out some new ideas that could possibly help me and any other PL members for the 2011 Holiday Season!!! Thanks in advance!!!

[Roxy Tart {PL Team / Comm. Mgr}]

The last two years I have had a good amount of money to spend on presents, so I have gone a bit over board.. but before that, when I had NOTHING to spend, it all about being creative. I am guilty of re-gifting, all year long, whenever I got something that I thought "this would be perfect for *blank*", I kept it in a closet and saved it for Christmas. I've made things before, like scrapbook style framed pictures of me and the person. And I've also done books. You can find some great stuff on clearance at book stores. Thrift stores can be a good place to find personal, unique gifts (especially if the person is into vintage).

I spent many many years with no money for the holidays, you just gotta get real creative!

[tatsnguns]

I hide my wallet from my wife ! No credit cards in our home so we stay decently safe from too much temptation. Oh we also have 5 year old twins so all extra cash some how ends up going to there needs ..GRRRRRRRR it sucks to be a responsible adult sometimes ... Just standard day to day I shop the goodwill personally it kills me to pay retail on clothing LOL ... is that legal to say on this site ?

[KIKI VARGAS]

I love etsy, their prices are pretty decent sometimes.

This year for extra presents I bought flower bouquets at the 99 cent store. Take the flowers off, give it a few coats of some bright nail polish. Buy some cheap hair clips there too, glue those on the back of the flower. There you have at least six hair flowers!

I put them back on the wires and wrap the stems in tissue paper, it makes an awesome bouquet of love.

[The Trousseau]

My family is funny, we don't really buy for each other, so I am off the hook for the most part. I do, though, tend to buy or make something for them when the mood strikes me.

I agree with Aubrey, books are great. I hang out in used bookstores and will look for special oddities for those I love. I have found first editions that were well-underpriced in thrift stores and garage sales. I also make things, I might find something on clearance at Target that turns into a one of a kind cookie tin or something like that. I used to make dried flower wreathes that took hours and hours to piece together for those who were important to me.

My guy is terribly hard to buy for, as you could have guessed from his Christmas wish, but thankfully, he also likes Hamburger Helper and Jello, so that one is solved.

[richardwangphotography]

According to Professor Joel Waldfogel of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton Business School in his book Scroogenomics, you should NOT buy presents for Christmas since it causes a net loss of the economy.

He found that gifts that people buy for other people are usually poorly matched to the recipients' preferences. What the recipients would willingly pay for gifts is usually much less than what the givers paid.

The measure of the inefficiency of allocating value by gift-giving is the difference between the yield of satisfaction per dollar spent on gifts and the yield per dollar spent on recipients' own purchases.

By calculating the difference between the consumption of holiday goods (e.g., jewelry, but not gasoline) in December as opposed to November and January, you get a rough estimate of Christmas spending.

Waldfogel's conservative estimate is that in 2007, Americans spent $66 billion on gifts and produced $12 billion less satisfaction than would have been produced if the recipients had spent the $66 billion on themselves.

Here's an everyday example.

Someone buys you an extra large periwinkle sweater with a embroidered clown on the front. The sweater cost $50. What would you pay for the same sweater? Certainly not $50. More likely you'd pay nothing for it, since you would never wear it.

Thus the sweater represents a net loss for you and the buyer since spending is good only if the purchaser, or the recipient of a gift, values the commodity more than he does the money it costs.

Even gift card are suspect.

Let's say you buy a $50.00 gift card to Neiman Marcus. The recipient may not want to go to Neimans and $50 won't buy much at Neiman's. Plus Prof. Waldfogel found that up to 10% of all gift card value is never redeemed. For example the gift card is down to $1.00, you don't use it up because it too much of a hassle. Of worse the gift card is forgotten or lost.

What does Prof. Waldfogel recommend? Either cash which represent the most options for the recipient or a donation to a charity in the recipient's name.

[Ashley Lindroth]

LOL I just stop spending on myself... that seems to clear a lot of extra $$ up. But yes, amazon, and ebay are great, plus taking the time to find good deals, coupons, and discounts.

[Billie May]

Ashley Lindroth said:

LOL I just stop spending on myself... that seems to clear a lot of extra $$ up. But yes, amazon, and ebay are great, plus taking the time to find good deals, coupons, and discounts.

hahaha I do the same thing...Time to stop buying clothes! haha I totally comparison shop. Before I buy someone something i search like crazy to see if I can get it somewhere cheaper...and usually i can!

[Betty Red {PL Team / Madam}]

I love to bake...so I usually make little goodie bags for everyone who I can't afford to give a gift too. This year I am making Kahlua! One batch makes about 12 bottles!

[Aubrey London {Madam}]

OOOOHHHH...nice...I wish we lived close because I love me some mudslides!!!!

[havokxinxthebox]

When i was younger I'd knit scarves, cute stuff like that, put together little packages of little inexpensive items I knew the person would enjoy.

[Betty Red {PL Team / Madam}]

Who said you needed to be close?!

Aubrey London {Madam} said:

OOOOHHHH...nice...I wish we lived close because I love me some mudslides!!!!

[Aubrey London {Madam}]

AWWW....you're sooo sweet ....like kahlua....if you're serious, lemme know wassup...haha

Betty Red {Madam} said:

Saving…