Finding the perfect (priced) Christmas gifts this year!

| Dec 07, 2007 | 0 comments

bow.jpg With the holiday season fast approaching, don’t abandon your frugality that you’ve worked so hard for the whole year!  Yes, it would really say a lot to someone to get those diamonds they’ve always wanted (if you’re a diamond digger and on this blog anyway, you’ve clearly got a conflict of interest anyway), but is that worth sending your portfolio back a few thousand dollars?  Remember what that few thousand now can be in 40 years!  Buying sensible gifts can really make you and the gift receiver feel much better about it; but the key is finding the RIGHT gift.  Nobody wants the multicolored, penguin embroidered, flowery tie, unless the kids are the ones giving it to you.  :)

So how do I find that perfect gift?  There are actually a lot of gift finders out there I’ve ran across so far this year.  Oddly enough, the gift I got my wife last year was one of the first gifts that came up when I ran through the Giftfinder from Gifts.com.  It’s funny, but it really does have a lot of good ideas.  It runs through a list of about 10 things your gift-ee would rather do, and then sorts the results by most often viewed.  It works pretty good.  A dumbed down version of it, that still produced some decent things was found on FindGift.com. 

The next key is the big one though.  Yes, they’ve found the gift that you’d like but don’t take it at that value!  Shop around!  Where should you shop for the perfect gift once you’ve found it?  Well, if you’re like me, you DON’T want to go out to the shopping mall…  That’s no fun.  Occasionally you can find a good deal on Ebay.com still, but I check out Froogle.com to narrow down my selection price these days which INCLUDES Ebay posts.  Be sure to sort by PRICE – Lowest to Highest to find the best deal on it! 

Once you’re there and have found the cheapest price for the gift, get even MORE frugal!  Many online retail stores offer discounts on shipping via online coupons, codes, or gift certificates.  Search Google for your business an coupon codes.  So for instance if you’re buying from Target, search Google for “Target.com gift certificates or coupons“.  Often times you’ll find a code that’ll save you a few more dollars on the gift.  Sometimes it won’t, but it never hurts to look!

Anyone else have any good tips for finding the best deals out there this year?

Filed Under: 401K • Compensation • Debt • financial education • Frugal

  • http://shauna26.wordpress.com Shauna

    I’m blogging about my experience doing just this! Check out my blog to add your tidbits/advice/etc at http://shauna26.wordpress.com. After all, we need all the help we can get!

  • fatherjolly

    thanks for thats, how are you doing for this xmas? i took your reccomendation and purchased a
    for the for my wife

    http://mydadsanasshole.com/story.php?title=cheap_xmas_gits

  • http://iluvcontest.blogspot.com Sherry

    I can say that children are clever today, my friend saying that kids will choose the present themselves. Ebay is a great place to shop but also must check if they are willing to ship international.

    Sherry’s last blog post..Advance Christmas Giveaway@Wonderful Things in Life

  • http://alkimist.si Prevajalci

    IT’s always hard to find gifts and every year harder to limit them to some budget. I wouldn’t recomend Ebay for Chiristmas gifts. I don’t know why just bad felling.

  • Fancyfree

    Hi, I always overspend because I am someone who cannot pass up on any good deals throughtout the year, which is why I end up buying multiple gifts for people. This is a problem that I am trying to cure, even though I am too late to do it this year. But my sister is very sensible, and the way she accomplishes making her gifts fit her budget is that she does “theme” gifts. She chooses a theme for each year, and everyone gets the “same” or “similar” present. So, last year, she gave everyone humorous graphic t-shirts from a website that sells them for $10-20 apiece. That way, she does all her shopping at one place at one time.
    I have thought of adopting this practice and shopping for everyone from one website.

  • http://www.creditgetwealth.com Edwin

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