Frugal Christmas

When I was a kid, we carefully opened gifts that were wrapped so mom could re-wrap the paper back onto the cardboard tube to use the next year! I grew up that way and initially once married, I did that too. But we moved to much to make that a necessity to pack so I stopped. But then I'd use that paper for lining shelves and keeping for packing paper when we did move or to wrap christmas stuff in when I put it away after christmas. Then once we settled a bit, I did try again to save it, but just didn't have the room. Then Dollar Stores came into civilization and keeping wrapping paper to re=use is more costly than economical so if I can't use it for something else...I let the kids rip it open! But...bows were something I always keep...even now. I have a problem in that I'd rather spend the $5 toward the gift than to spend that much to wrap it and make it look nice! So that little curly ribbon and stick on bows were what I used and just put in more effort to making it look nice. HOWEVER...last year, my daughter bought some beautiful fabric style ribbon with the wire sides. Gold, Silver, blue and silver...beautiful stuff. I made everyone save the ribbon and give it to me! The kids thought that was the funnest thing.."toss Nanny the ribbon!" and they had a blast. I was intending to keep it for scrapbooking or gifts through the year, but neither happened. Then this year for christmas I had a little extra money and was determined to NOT do the curly ribbon thing again!!! I searched and searched and it was just so expensive, I just couldn't make myself pay that for it....I was ready to pick up the ugly curly ribbon...again. THEN!!!! SUDDENLY!!!! It hit me!!!! "Hey dummy! Remember that ribbon you saved last year that you've done nothing with all year? HELLOOOOO!! Use that!!!!". So I pulled out the bag I had it in...and it worked perfectly!!! And no one realized it was last years and if they did, they didn't say anything! And the kids...without even being asked...tossed Nanny the ribbon again this year!!! So I am set for beautiful ribbon next year! Gift bags, yeah I keep those but I do use them for things during the year. When I have stuff to send home with the kids, or have things to carry from one place to another etc and I want something nicer than a plastic grocery bag! But I didn't get any this year, so at Target today, I bought 2 for 50cents each....neutral color so not to say Merry Christmas in May, but they are strong paper and handles...they should do the job!

Talk about frugal, how about we never spend too much for Christmas, especially decoration stuff, like trees, and lights. We simply going through Christmas like everyday, without any gift exchanges, without making our house extremely bright at night. We might be one of the frugal ones, and the one without Christmas spirit.

Nope, you're not the only one to reuse gift bags and boxes. They're far too expensive for one time use. I reuse wrapping paper when it's salvageable. You can iron the plain paper kind and it will usually look like new again. I have gift bags that I've had for years, too, and haven't bought wrapping paper for several years. I'd rather spend money on gifts!

I have quite a collection of gift bags and boxes, but my ultimate goal is to sew up little cloth bags. I love having things that have a history. I also have brown lunch bags that I can decorate for any occasion and hole punch or stamp. I think I should consider making handles for them as well.

I use to reuse gift bags and a box or two, but i have no room to put anything, as i have no loft.I think that it is a great idea that people re use things, as it can save a lot of money, as well as time getting these things.One of my friends re use hers each year for her children and she says it is like a kind of tradition in her family now.

I reuse gift bags as well, they have never lasted years and years though. Most of gotten out of a bag is three years, I also do this when the kids get birthday gifts in bags, not just for christmas. As well as part of frugal christmas we do not spend money on christmas tree ornaments, we make our own with the kids. It's a fun get into the spirit of christmas activity, saves money on decoration and has become a tradition that their nannys get to pick one of the tree as part of their homemade christmas gift on Christmas day!

We reuse gift bags and bows. We have for a really long time, so we actually recognize bags and remember whose presents have come in them, that kind of thing. My mom doesn't really think of it as economizing so much as it's better for the environment. When I got married and started doing events with my inlaws, I saved and reused bags so they started doing it too - they had always reused boxes, they just hadn't used very many gift bags. It's convenient. My sisters and I also save tissue paper but it doesn't seem like anyone else does. And now that I have a toddler, it's hard to save tissue paper because if he finds any, he rips it into little pieces and then throws it into the recycling bin.

I definitely reuse bags and boxes. I can get several holidays out of those boxes they sell in a 4 or 5 pack at the dollar store. Even though they have designs on the covers, I still wrap them though. I never, ever pay full price for giftwrap. I buy mine on the day after Christmas because we have Boxing Day sales in Canada (much like Black Friday in the US, for example). Gift wrap is always at least 50% off and sometimes more. I look for the thickest rolls, with the most wrap, and I really am not fussy about the designs. As long as I get a good amount, that's the important part. I also try to get rolls of plain, solid colors because I put those to use for birthday and other occasions during the year -- all I have to do is add a bow or some other little decoration. This year, I bought some sheet paper at the dollar store and that was great... 6 sheets for $1 and they were a really good size. I have a tall gift wrap storage bin for storing all the rolls so they never get dirty or crushed during the year and there's a top "flap storage" section for gift tags and small items. My sister loves gift bags because she hates wrapping... so any gifts received from her, I always keep the bags :)

certainly not! i keep boxes, bags and tissue paper from one year to the next. i have eve, in the past, saved old Christmas wrap to be used in my own paper making escapades.

Back when I was young, there was a saying among old folks that you must tear the wrapping on a gift to signify goodluck. They said it meant receiving more gifts in the future. Nowadays, gift bags are a more convenient way to 'wrap' a gift. And I do see it a bit wasteful if we don't recycle the bags. So, for us, we do re-use it. Not only Christmas bags, but also birthday ones. I have a big bag in the garage where all these used ones are kept. I just pick one from the bag whenever we need one to use for a gift.

Nope, definitely not! We reuse gift bags, boxes, and bows too. I don't usually save wrapping paper because I bought a huge lot of it on eBay several years ago and I still haven't used more than a quarter of the rolls I got. Everything else gets saved if it's in good condition, though. It doesn't make sense to me to throw things out when they've been very gently used.