More gifty stuff, this time some bargain shopping

Yesterday was yet another one of those very busy days. The morning found me running errands for several hours. While I was out, I stopped by Kohl's to use my latest $10 off coupon.

Here's what I bought:

In the back, that's a candle lantern. It was originally $39.99.
To the left are 2 7-oz Lindt milk chocolate bunnies, originally $9.99.
And to the right is a lavender-colored pair of women's panties, originally in a package of 4 for $26, so $6.50 for the one pair.

After discounts and coupon applied:

The lantern became 70 cents, the Lindt bunnies became 9 cents each, and the pair of panties became 9 cents. What I love about the receipts, though, is this:

The lantern may become a gift at Christmas. With a candle inside, I think it would make a nice hostess gift. Or, I may use it in our own decor. The chocolate bunnies, I may keep as is, and use in Easter baskets next year, or I may use the chocolate in candy for gifting during the holidays (like on English toffee). At 18 cents for 14 ounces, that's a steal for good quality milk chocolate. A cheap 12-oz package of chocolate chips is about $2 in my area, on sale for $1.50, at best. And the panties -- I needed to spend 3 cents to reach my threshold to use the coupon. I decided a check on the lingerie clearance rack was in order. A dollar is a great price on a pair of undies. This pair will go into one of my daughters' stockings, at Christmas. The other daughter will get a pair of knee-hi socks I got on clearance a while back. All works out evenly.

Also while out, I stopped by Michael's to use my 40% off coupon. I bought the goats milk soap base that I plan on using for gift-making. It is regularly $9.99. With coupon, the price came down to $5.99, for 2 lbs. This is a better deal than Amazon for melt and pour goats milk soap, in every size package. So, if you plan on making soap, as I am, you could save a lot of money on the soap base by buying at Michael's or other local craft store, using a high value coupon, such as 40% off. Of course, check your prices against Amazon's, yourself.

That's the progress I made on gifts yesterday. I've got a couple more posts on gifts that I plan on making, that I'll share early next week. 

I hope you're having a lovely August week. The sun feels like it's shifting already, here. It's lovely.

Do you keep a gift closet?

It doesn't have to be a full closet. It can be a dedicated shelf in a closet or cupboard, or a storage trunk, or a box under the bed. Just a place where you stockpile gifts as you buy, receive free, or make.

My gift closet is a small section of my bedroom closet. In it I have items suitable for birthday, Christmas, Valentine's, housewarming, weddings and bridal showers, and group gift exchanges. At Christmas, I raid the gift closet for stocking stuffers for my kids. And at Easter, I do the same for basket fillers. In my gift closet, I also keep components of a gift, such as jars that I plan on filling with something yummy, to use as a gift, or containers that I'll use to nicely package a hand-crafted gift.

When I have specific items for specific people, I put those items into plastic shopping bags, with handles, and hang them from a hook on the inside of the door to that closet. Just a way to insure I don't accidentally gift something intended for one person, to another, or for me to check my bag for a specific person and see if I'm about done and ready to wrap and box for shipping.

Which also brings me to this, I collect shipping boxes  and mailers, year round. Mostly I'm looking for small and lightweight boxes or mailers, trying to match the size of box as closely as possible as the gift, itself. And in some instances, when I have all the components to one person's gift, I wrap, pack and label the box, ready to drop at the post office near the occasion.

I often shop, long in advance of an occasion, for specific people. When I find a great item on clearance, for someone in particular, I pick it up, even if I won't be gifting it for close to a year. Last year after Christmas, I picked up several Christmas gifts for this year. Those items are in the gift closet.

I also have several people on my gift list with spring birthdays. I shop for their gifts in the after Christmas clearance sales, too. It's a real convenience to have their gifts already bought and waiting for the actual birthday. The bonus is that I make fewer trips to stores to buy gifts. I buy for several birthdays at a time. And then I don't need to even think about it until I'm wrapping the gift.

Sometimes, this backfires on me. Like the sweater that I bought for my dad, planning on gifting it to him the next Christmas. But he passed away the June before. It still sits in a box in the closet. If I don't give it to someone this next year, I'll donate it to our church's giving tree (you find an unnamed person -- someone in need that year -- on the tree branch, with info like male/female/what they need/want, then buy their gift, and a group from our church delivers all of the gifts). But most of the time, when I find I no longer need a gift that I've pre-bought, I simply choose to gift it to someone else.

Maybe this all sounds too planned, and takes the fun out of gift shopping. But, for me, it helps me to just relax and enjoy special events and occasions.