This year one of my thrifty goals is to cut our holiday budget by 75%. Here's what I'm doing...
I subscribe to a few online freebie sites and I send off for things that would make good gift basket fillers. I also watch the couponing sites for items I can get for free with my drugstore perks.
I keep a bin in the hall closet full of free items. I also pick up cute storage containers whenever I see them for a great deal in the Target dollar spot. When it's time for gift giving I pull together a gift basket in a specific theme.
This spring I gave a graduation gift basket full of items I got for free. I themed it Dorm Room Survival Kit and added Avery labels, ballpoint pens, mini boxes of cereal, laundry detergent, shampoo, granola bars, toothpaste, notebook paper, and a mini journal.
Every year I do a beauty gift basket for my sister because she's really into cosmetology. I typically fill it with free lotion/perfume samples from Bath & Body Works and other makeup and beauty products that I get for free.
I also make a mini-craft basket for the kids in the family. So far I have some paints, crayons, and play-dough tucked away for this year's baskets. Drugstore deals are the best for free art supplies.
It does take some time/effort but it saves me lots of ca$h money
Here are a few of the freebie sites I visit a few times each week:
WomanFreebies.com - great for beauty freebies although you do have to subscribe by email to see the deals on this site
That Freebie Site - this is my favorite site, they post a lot of deals where you have to like something on facebook to get it free. Those deals go fast but they are normally full sized samples so I subscribe to the site in google reader and then set it on my i-google homepage so that I can always snag a deal as soon as it's published. I'm crafty like a fox. Slight digression: I keep thinking that if I'd kept my maiden name, Crafty Like A Fox would be the MOST AWESOMEST BLOG NAME EVER.
Freeflys.com - the nice thing about this site is that you can choose what categories you want to see freebies in, such as food, baby, or beauty. Which is great because I'm all like "Free healthy protein bar, vitamins, whatever, OH LOOK FREE CANDY BARS!"
I visit Southern Savers because she lists exactly what items you can get free each week. Target.com also has a great freebie sample section. And check out this link for free printable gift basket labels from Creating Keepsakes (source of the photo above).
Also, sign up for birthday freebies because they are typically full sized and make great gift basket fillers. This year I got Philosophy shower gel from Sephora. And you can sign up at Aveda to get a full size $24 beauty product for free on your birthday. Confession: I totally kept that one for myself.
(disclosure: since I use these sites frequently, I signed up as an affiliate for some and those links are included in this post. If you prefer not to use them, it won't hurt my feelings if you bypass my links and go directly to the sites! In any case, I hope you find them helpful!)
