faith goble/Flickr
St. Patrick’s day is Wednesday, Mar. 17. If you are planning to celebrate or hosting a party, keep costs down with these tips, courtesy of The Party Goddess.
- Wrap a wreath you already own in clovers.
- Hand out basic limerick guidelines as your guests arrive and hold a limerick contest after people have had a few drinks. Prepare a small prize for the limerick that gets the most cheers – a set of pencils, a bottle of Guinness, or a book of limericks.
- Create a vibrant green runner with sheets of wheat grass, rolls of sod, or vases of clover.
- Spray paint terra cotta pots gold and fill them with shamrock or clover plants.
- Serve a green cocktail. Start with vodka or tequila and add a splash of green juice, Midori, or Absynthe. Pre-make them in pitchers for faster service and garnish with fun green candy. Or make an Irish cocktail.
- Engage kids by having them decorate their own leprechaun hats. Provide plain hats and tools to decorate.
Here is a true or false quiz about St. Patty’s day that you can have guests take.
- A legend regarding St. Patrick is that he rid Ireland of snakes by ringing his bell.
- We celebrate St. Patrick’s Day on March 17th because that is when St. Patrick died.
- The holiday got its American start in 1737 in Boston.
- The shamrock was a sacred plant in ancient Ireland because it symbolized the rebirth of spring.
- St. Patrick used the shamrock to explain the Christian doctrine of the Trinity to the Irish.
- There are more Americans of Irish origin than there are Irish in Ireland.
- Delaware, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire Irish are the leading ancestral group.
- On St. Patrick’s Day, you can bring yourself good luck by finding a four-leaf clover, wearing green and kissing the Blarney stone.
Gwenypics/Flickr
I’ve been feeling generous towards a low-income friend lately. Not that he needs any help, but I am able to give it. I’m not interested in giving this friend a loan, but I’m considering subsidizing various activities with him, like picking up the lunch tab or treating him to a movie.
The prospect of giving gifts to a friend outside of Christmas, birthdays, and special occasions makes me nervous. Is this even appropriate? Will I hurt his pride? I called etiquette expert Nancy Mitchell for tips. Here’s what she advised.
What are the rules when it comes to giving gifts to friends?
I think the number one rule is to know the friend and know how to proceed. Would the person be wiling to accept things or is the person extremely proud and you’ll have to use subterfuge?
Let’s start with the person who may be very proud and not be willing to take what they think is charity. You can call them up and say, I got a gift certificate to a restaurant or theater. I would love to have you come with me, are you available? They might not have to know you went out and bought the gift certificate yourself.
Or say, Someone gave me two tickets to the hockey game. Would you like to go? If you had a friend who had children, give child care once and a while. I’d love to babysit sometime. Can I babysit and give you an evening out? Or say ‘I’ve got too much of a certain product. Pass things on, share some of the wealth. Offer to share frequent flyer miles.
Is it ethical to give gifts like this to friends who, if they knew the whole story, would say no?
I think it is because you don’t have an ulterior motive. You are giving from your heart and you are showing great sensitivity to someone’s situation. It’s not going to hurt anyone, it’s going to help.
What are the no-nos of giving?
You would never let anyone in on the secret. It’s between you and whoever is the recipient. Because if the cat got out of the bag there could be some hard feelings.
What about if your friend is open to receiving gifts? (more…)
Spring break is coming up and one way to save money is to earn a free night at your hotel. The Choice Hotels spring promo lets you do just that. The cool thing about the promotion is that once you earn your free night you can choose to stay at 1,500 hotels across the globe – gratis! Here’s how it works.
Stay two different times at any of the ten hotels in the Choice Hotels chain, including the Quality Inn, Cambria Suites, Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality, Sleep Inn, Clarion, MainStay Suites, Suburban Extended Stay Hotel, Econo Lodge, and Rodeway Inn. You can mix and match which hotels you stay at. Each visit has to be at least two nights.
Stay twice between now and April 30, 2010, and you earn a free night. You can find a great hotel rate on the Choice Hotels website, which searches the entire hotel chain for the best deal. Within any given city, you can search for hotels by radius or by proximity to prominent attractions, like SeaWorld in San Diego or Walt Disney World in Orlando.
Make sure to sign up for the Choice Hotels privileges reward program to get your free hotel night. You’ll need an address in the U.S., Canada, Mexico or eligible countries in Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe to qualify for the promotion.
I found 16 spankin’ deals and freebies related to chocolate, flowers, and other Valentine’s Day treats, including a free $30 bouquet of roses with chocolates when you sign up for eBates. Seriously, this is a one-of-a-kind deal!
Follow @CVS_Extra on Twitter and you’ll get a 25 percent off code for their entire website. What a way to attract new followers!
Get 33 percent off at Borders now through Feb. 11, 2010.
Restaurant.com is 80 percent off now through Feb. 14, 2010.
Do you surf? Get a free subscription to Surfer Magazine when you share a few questions about your job.
Here’s a Michaels coupon for 40 percent off, good through Feb. 20, 2010.
My frugal friends at Savings.com shared some fabulous coupons tailored for Valentine’s Day.
Get 20 percent off all orders at FTD. Expiration date unknown.
Exclusive! Get 20 percent off sitewide at SkinStore. Expires Feb. 14, 2010.
Exclusive! Get 15 percent off a purchase of $39.99 at ProFlowers. Expiration date unknown.
Get $15 off $100, $30 off $150, or $75 off $250 at Victoria’s Secret. Expires Feb. 16, 2010.
Exclusive! Get $10 Off $100 at Zales. Expires Feb. 14, 2010.
How many unwanted presents did you get this Christmas or Hanukkah? I got a pair of jeans that don’t fit and a sweater that isn’t quite warm enough for my needs. I plan to exchange both.
Most people don’t do anything! Three in five consumers hold onto gifts they don’t want, according to a survey from Kijiji.com, a free online classifieds site. The top reasons are:
- they don’t want to hurt the feelings of the giver (60 percent)
- they think they will eventually use the gift (51 percent)
- it’s too much effort to return them to the store (33 percent)
If you can get past these hesitations, here are five things to do with unwanted, ill-fitting holiday presents.
Use an unwanted gift card to buy a gift for someone else. Think ahead to any birthdays, parties, or celebrations coming up in the next six months. Anybody retiring? Getting married? Having a baby?
Re-gift! Sometimes you’ll come across an appropriate recipient a few days later at another holiday function, but more likely you’ll stash an unwanted gift in your gift closet (a designated area at home for evergreen gifts). Make sure you remove anything that would indicate the item was re-gifted and do not mention you are re-gifting to the recipient, which is extremely rude. Some people feel re-gifting is tacky, but I say it’s better to re-gift than let a present go to waste!
Sell gift cards you’re not going to use, especially if you think the store has a chance of closing. Here is the low-down on the best sites to sell gift cards.
Exchange the gifts for something you want. If you don’t have a receipt, head to the store ASAP. Without a receipt, you’ll only get credit for the current selling price. Macy’s is one of the few stores that embeds the sale price in a bar code sticker so you can get credit for exactly what the giver paid. A lot of retailers softened their return policies to make it easier on us consumers and some are giving as much as a month after the holiday to return and/or exchange.
Sell presents online. Craigslist, Kijiji, eBay, Amazon. The Internet is your oyster.
What was the worst gift you received this Christmas?
My Mom's Christmas tree
I’m taking off until next week to enjoy the holidays with my family and friends. Have a wonderful Christmas and I’ll see you next week!
~Julia
aka Bargain Babe
1. A magazine subscription. Amazon has a bunch for $5 for a year
2. A gift certificate to the recipients favorite restaurant (if you are not local have the eatery put it in the mail and explain what is coming in a card)
3. A CD or book. Borders has a 30 percent off coupon good through Dec. 24. If you are looking for holiday music, check out Duke Ellington’s Three Suites for a swinging version of The Nutcracker.
4. Framed children’s art.
5. A family object from past generations. Last year my Aunt Mary gave me a beautiful quilt made by my great-grandmother. It was the most touching gift I received.
6. A stainless steel mug filled with candy, a letter, or another treat. Walgreens has a set of three mugs for just $10!
7. Tickets to a concert, ballet, opera, or show. You can let the recipient chose from a variety of performances.
8. If you want a gadget, consider a Flip Camera or GPS. If money is not an issue, pick up a netbook or iPhone.
9. A neat homemade gift is Que Bella Body Scrub, above. Five ingredients. Two hours. $40 bucks. More than a dozen gifts.
10. What’s your best last minute Christmas gift idea?
My frugal friend Donna Freedman, who blogs for MSN’s Smart Spending, talked to a handful of shopping mavens (includings yours truly) and wrote up a post about how to make the most of post-holiday sales.
“Two excellent reasons to hit the after-Christmas sales,” Donna writes. “You can find some screamin’ deals. You got gift cards or money for Christmas, so you can afford to shop!”
A few of her tips:
Keep reading for more post-holiday shopping tips.
Consumer World has a great post up about which retailers are softening their return policies to accomodate people who want to return gifts. Here are the changes in return policies from six major retailers.
Best Buy lengthened its holiday return period for most items by one to three weeks until January 31, but computers still only have their standard 14-day return period. That means it is already too late to return any PC bought on Black Friday.
Target now allows gifts to be exchanged without a receipt, as long as the total of such unreceipted returns does not exceed $70 in a year. Merchandise can also be exchanged without a receipt for something else in the same department of equal or greater value.
Wal-mart added an extended holiday return period for items normally subject to its shorter 15/30/45 day return period, such as computers and cameras. Now those return periods first begin to run on December 26, rather than from the purchase date (November 15 or after).
Sears doubled its holiday return period for electronics, software and mattresses to 60 days.
Office Depot added a formal extended holiday return period until January 19.
The post also covers quirky return policies and lays out the return policies of 15 retailers, including Amazon, Best Buy, Buy.com, Costco, Kohls, Macy’s, Marshalls, Office Depot, Overstock.com, Sears, Staples, TJ Maxx, Target, Toys R Us, and Walmart. Keep reading on Consumer World to get those details.
I was wrapping up my holiday shopping at Walgreens yesterday morning when I noticed one man aimlessly wandering the Christmas aisle, hoping a present would jump out at him.
Yeah, I sympathized in my head, there’s not much selection. Or was there? I took a closer look and was shocked to find some really neat gifts.
A set of three stainless steel water bottles, above, was $10 – for all three of them!!! Usually these things go for $15 each. I’m kicking myself for not grabbing a set, which I could use as gifts in the next few months.
Large boxes of Thin Mints were 2/$2 – quite a steal of an office gift or stocking stuffer.
ChiaPets, which I have always coveted (perhaps because I have never owned one) were $16. I could see giving a ChiaPet to a co-worker (neat cube decoration), a grandparent (garden indoors!), or a young kid interested in how things grow.
For wordy/nerdy friends, the game Bananagrams is $15. If you’ve never played it before, it’s like scrabble but you can re-arrange the tiles to make new words.
Gift bags were $.25 each and santa hats were $2 each. Plus, a decent selection of toys were $7 each or three for $14. Bingo!
Where else do you recommend last minute gift shopping? Is there any one store that really has it all?
Related:
Reader Nancy shared an important insight about gift cards that I’m featuring as reader comment of the week!
I like giving gift cards and getting gift cards. It makes it easy for everyone. You can be creative with them. I am adding a cozy blanket from Macy’s with a Barnes & Noble card. Got the blanket for a steal, paid only 11.99 for a 40.00 throw. It’s called my cozy gift. Nothing like a good book and a cozy blanket. Next one is a Starbucks card with an Itunes card. Call that one “move it” gift. Music and Coffee. So you see gift cards can make a gift fun.
Nancy left the comment in response to my post about the perils of giving gift cards. My main point was that with some businesses teetering close to bankruptcy, you want to be careful where you put your money. Nancy provided a solution to another gift card dilemma, which is how to make a piece of plastic seem like a fun gift.
I am a fan of pairing gift cards with hand-written notes, homemade presents, cookies, or another gift item, especially if it ties into the type of gift card you are giving. For instance, give a spatula along with a gift certificate to Sur La Table or Crate & Barrel. Or an iPod accessory along with an iTunes gift card. You get the idea.
Related:
Get a $5 gift card at TGI Friday’s when you buy one for $25
Why do you hoard gift cards?
Sites to buy and sell discounted gift cards
Round up of gift card bonuses and perks
S.A. Young/Flickr
Are you among the 30 percent of holiday shoppers who are putting off your holiday shopping until the last minute, which happens to be this weekend? I got a jump start on my shopping last night and wanted to share a few things that worked for me.
1. Make a list ahead of time. You’ll either blank out or be overwhelmed by the massive selection without one. Need gift ideas? Check out my gift guide.
2. Plan a route that involves as little driving and re-parking as possible. Mall. Traffic. Is. Slow.
3. Eat first and bring a bottle of water. I like to pack a snack too, like string cheese, an apple, or trail mix. Don’t waste precious energy and patience waiting in line for food!
4. Wear walking shoes.
5. Stay on track by NOT shopping with a friend. Who needs another distraction?
6. Park at the empty corner of the mall (if there is one). Once you get inside, it doesn’t make much of a difference where you parked.
7. Save receipts in one spot to decrease the chances of misplacing one.
8. Always ask what the return policy is.
9. Ask for a discount if the item is damaged in any way, if you can pay in cash for a pricey item, if you are buying a number of items, or if there are other mitigating circumstances. Brush up on your haggling skills.
How do you prepare for last minute holiday shopping?
I’ve been blogging up at storm on WalletPop.com. Check out these deals:
Get O, the Oprah Magazine for $5 a year – that’s $13 less than the usual price!
Gymboree is 30 percent off with a coupon code here.
Grab new coupons totalling $50 on Shortcuts.com.
Restaurant.com has gift certificates for 70 percent off. So a $25 cert that normally sells for $10 is just $3. Ends today, Dec. 17, 2009.
Here’s a homemade Christmas gift that you can make for more than a dozen people in less then two hours, including the time it takes to go to the store and get the ingredients. It’s also a low-budget present that you can personalize with a card, letter, cookies, a framed photo, gift basket, or spa kit. There are lots of options!
Que Bella Body Scrub
The sugar and salt scrub away dead skin while the oil leaves your skin silky smooth.
2 c sugar
2 c epsom salts
1-1.5 c vegetable oil (olive oil and canola oil are kind of smelly)
1 T vitamin E oil
3-10 drops lavender or other essential oil
1-2 T finely chopped fresh rosemary (optional)
Cover a large table with newspaper and spread out all your ingredients and jars. Mix the sugar, salt, and oils for 1-2 minutes, until thoroughly combined. Test a small scoop on the back of your hand by gently rubbing for about 30 seconds, then rinse. If you’d like a more oily texture, add in a half cup more oil. Make as many batches as you have jars to fill. Punch a hole in a holiday card, write a sweet note and tie with a ribbon. Viola! Christmas cheer.
Making 18 presents cost about $42, including $3 for a 5lb bag of sugar, $5 for the epsom salts, $7 for vegetable oil, and $15 for the essential oil. We got the rosemary from the garden and already had the vitamin E oil, which you can buy at Trader Joe’s. A four pack of small glass jars from Ikea was $3 but you can also use mason jars or others found at thrift stores.
You can further reduce the price by using ingredients you already have, getting the items on sale, and finding cheaper jars. We had a lot of supplies left over so you could make even more if you want.
