By Malika Risley

I love giving gifts!  I feel good when I see the excitement on the recipients’ faces as they are about to find out what they got.

Mystery is an important part of gift giving.  We conceal the gifts before we give them away.  It’s the feeling of surprise and anticipation that gets everyone so excited about getting a gift.  Wrapping a gift is not a matter of practicality, it’s a matter of delivering emotion.

But paying for something that is going to get torn apart and thrown away just doesn’t seem right to me. At the same time I don’t want to look like a total cheapskate when my present is being unwrapped. So I still wrap my gifts and make them presentable. I just improvise on the materials.  Here is what I do to save money on gift wrapping:

• At times I run into gift bags for $1 or less at stores like Big Lots, Wal-Mart, Dollar Store.  I buy a few that don’t have any particular theme to them.  This way I can use them for any occasion, especially if I’m in a hurry and don’t have time for wrapping.
• I use free gift-wrapping service when available.
• I reuse gift bags that were given to me.  I remove the card that comes with the bag and make a new one using a hole puncher.  I attach a new card to the handle by untying the knot on the inside and then tying it back.
• I buy wrapping paper during after-holiday sales.  I find deals for 25-50 cents per roll.
• I pick up cardboard boxes at the retail stores when they are restocking the merchandise.  Hey, they’re free and they make a good gift box. I have to cover them with the gift wrapping paper though.
• I save paper bags from my groceries and use them as wrapping paper.
• Instead of bows and ribbons, I use yarn.  I pay $2 for 200 yards of acrylic yarn.  That covers a boat load of presents and then some!

Guess what, by reusing you’re doing a favor to the environment, since you’re generating less waste!

Happy Holidays!