Holiday Shopping Without Breaking Your Budget

Gift giving for the 2005 holiday season has been even more of a challenge than it was a year ago. With layoffs, plant closings, manufacturing outsourcing becoming now the norm rather than the exception, it's becoming harder and harder to express your love at the holidays with gifts that you won't end up paying off in June of '06.

Of course, you have a written list of those for whom you need to present a present. Whether it's eight days of gift giving or one huge day of presents, it is imperative that you have a written list. You can add to or delete from the list, of course, but you must be armed with something in writing, almost like a pact with yourself. It is also necessary that you include a price range for each and every person or entity on that list. Otherwise, if you run across an impulse item that you think would be just so absolutely perfect for Aunt Jane, someone else on your list will suffer!

Basically, your system breaks down into three types of gifts that you should consider, and I'll explain why for each: Gift cards, clearance items and homemade gifts.

Gift cards are a wildly popular item. In my own family, I started giving my daughters gift cards during the holidays and they were thrilled! It gave them a sense of their own destiny, so to speak, in that they were able to select just which pajamas, jeans, dresses, slacks, earrings, makeup, etc. that met their own individual needs and styles. There are two benefits to giving a gift card: the recipient is able to fill in those rather gloomy, let-down days after the holidays by making their purchases with the gift cards, hunting down exactly what they want to get in the cold, gray days of January. Also, in most cases, you will literally double the amount of the gift card's face value because nearly all items will be deeply discounted following December 25th.