Following Wal-Mart’s announcement in late September that stores across the country would expand last year’s holiday come-on of ten toys priced at $10 to 100 toys this year. The list includes such desirables as the New Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Deluxe Action Figures, board games including Monopoly and Battleship, Tonka trucks with light and sound, the Play=Doh Burger Builder Set (for those young wannabe burger-flippers in your family, and even a Nerf sword. Among other items.

So it was probably to be expected that competitor Target would come up with an alternative plan to get shoppers into the stores during what is expected to be a dismal holiday shopping season. Target’s come-on is to offer a selection of toys discounted up to 50%. Whether that offers more savings to cash-strapped parents than the guaranteed low prices at Wal-Mart remains to be seen.

For parents who really have to buy a few ‘regular’ toys for young children this may be a good deal, as there are unlikely to be any new Transformers or Nerf swords at Goodwill. But definitely keep the resale outlets in your planning, for such things as winter coats, dress-ups for girls, trikes and bicycles, those ubiquitous plastic child cars and play sets, etc. And it’s always possible to find one-of-a-kind items they just don’t make any more that would be perfect for someone on your list. Kitchen canisters, spice racks (may have to give empty), wooden utensil sets and many other things that are more opportunistic than planned as gifts.

The whole 50% off thing sort of reminds me of when I got a 2-day job in North Chicago while my husband was in A-School (Navy) many long years ago. I had small children and he was only there for 10 weeks, so getting a regular full-time job was very unlikely. It was at the area’s Carson Pirie and Scott department store for an upcoming late summer half price sale. One day helping prepare, and the opening day of the sale as floor help in Women’s Wear.

I showed up at the appointed hour, the store was closed in preparation for the sale. Turned out our job as temps was to replace the price tags on all the items in our departments – with the ‘original’ price doubled so the sale price underneath was exactly the same as full price was just yesterday. What a scam! Then the next day we braced ourselves against the huge crowd of revved-up shoppers who had been waiting for hours on the sidewalk. Nothing can really prepare you for watching a bunch of frenzied women with credit cards literally fighting over bras, sweaters, skirts, dresses, jeans and other items they only THINK they’re getting cheap. Clothes were flying everywhere, some things got ripped in half. It disgusted me enough that I never have trusted sales gimmicks ever since.

It wouldn’t hurt to check up on the going prices for some of those items you’re supposed to think you’re getting a great price on before you go to the big box stores to spend hard earned money. You might really be saving on that $20 item now going for $14.99, but you could be making it up on that peripheral item that’s been marked up to double. It might be a really pretty candy plate with angels and Aunt Ruth would love it, but if your experience suggests you could get the same useless item at the Dollar Store for $2, $9.99 is way too much. Retail is a little like a gambling casino. Sure, there are occasional winners, but the house always wins in the end.

Autumn is well upon us, and people who have been struggling to stay afloat in this lousy economy all year are now faced with the prospect of the coming holiday gifting season. Which can be daunting in the best of times, but can be positively depressing for those not used to not having cash or credit for the consumerist frenzy. This post is about helping to trim the gift list if you haven’t done so already, plus how and where to find gifts for loved ones that they may cherish forever, help maintain and spread the joy of the season, and not cost an arm or leg.

Previous Posts:
Christmas in a Depressed Economy
‘Tis the Season: Gift Ideas

1. Analyze your gift-giving habits, trim the tree.

In our free-wheeling consumerist culture the Christmas shopping season represents half or more of retailers’ annual intake and an average middle class family’s greatest expenditures on unnecessary items for the year. If your family is struggling, the credit cards with their usurious interest rates have already been cut into small pieces and thrown away, consumer loans have been paid down or frozen in place, and promises to self not to spend more than you’ve got have been made. Don’t change a thing just because the holidays are coming!

If you have a lot of friends and extended family for whom you’ve bought gifts in years past, networking with them early is a good idea. See if doing something other than gifting this year could be a thankful relief to them as well as you. Pot-luck holiday get-togethers are fun, and no one person has to provide all the food and drinks. “Re-Gifting” parties can be great fun too, where you give some trinket you got from someone else in the past (it’s been just taking up room in the closet or on the shelf ever since) to someone else. Chances are someone will remember who gave Fred that hideous tie he’s never worn and laughs will ensue. The holidays are for fun, so have some!

If you’ve got children, find out what they want most instead of just gathering their wish lists of every toy they’ve seen advertised on TV. For children old enough to know Santa isn’t Bill Gates, one big gift can be better than ten little ones. Items like bicycles, roller blades and other sports equipment can be purchased second hand and refurbished, maybe personalized with glitter paint and trim. Go for things they’ll really use and enjoy, stay away from basic junk.

2. Seek out mainstream and even obscure second hand, consignment and/or junk outlets in your area.

There’s nothing like serious holiday shopping among the hugely varied items at a resale outlet, where the perfect something for someone on your list could be found. Often area churches, animal rescue outfits and civic organizations host thrift shops. In many places there are great private resale shops that offer amazing items from art to furniture, crockery to costume jewelry. Don’t overlook those even if you also plan to shop at Goodwill or Salvation Army.

I’ve found beautiful handcrafted chess sets and boards, totally unique hand-whittled puzzle boxes, antique glassware and china, beautiful jewelry boxes, hand-crafted doll houses, etc. in some unlikely haunts. Sometimes something just needs cleanup and a couple of touches, sometimes you can put a lot of yourself into it with a new paint job or fixes, and again you can always personalize. Commercialized junk doesn’t tend to become someone’s most treasured keepsake. Remember it’s all about the thought and effort, not about the price tag.

3. Know your local resources.

If your area has a Freecycle club, think about joining. You can get rid of some of your closet-clutter and maybe get items for gifting. Great for baby furniture and accessories, bicycles and such, often tools, household items, yarns and needles, fabric and sewing machines, books, clothing, home repair and building supplies, etc. All free.

Keep up with your area’s want ads and garage/yard sales as well. Spending Saturdays thrifting and bargain-hunting can be both fun and rewarding as you add to your collection of things “perfect for…” whoever will most love that gift. Your time and effort adds to the value of any gift you give!

4. Think Creatively!

Many people don’t know that you can make a wonderfully colorful and snuggly warm blanket out of a stack of old sweaters. They make great stuffed animals too, if you’re handy with a sewing machine. Purses out of old jeans, sparkled up with some craft store jewels and studs are always welcome presents to the teen set. For younger girls a box full of sparkly costume jewelry is great, as is a laundry basket chock full of fancy dress-up items (including high heels and hats!). For already-creative young’uns, a bunch of items from which they can salvage feathers, beads, trims, etc. may be just the thing. Art supplies can often be found second hand in areas where artists are, I always buy up as much paint, brushes, pastels, pencils, charcoals, canvases, sketchbooks and whatever else as I possibly can.

5. Have Kitchen, Will Travel.

Consider pouring your heart into food for family and friends this year. Make batches of yummy fudge, lots of Christmas cookies, try your hand at hard candies, etc. Such things are always most welcome during the holidays even if they don’t tend to last long in a crowd! If you have to go to the company party and are expected to bring a gift, fudge always works even better than some cheap soap or cologne or tie, and you don’t have to worry about whether you’ve drawn a man or a woman’s name from the hat.

6. Gift of your time and talents.

Have a friend or relative working two part-time jobs, barely getting by and who could really use a night out? Know a caregiver who is stressed to the max? Stumped for something for the teenagers? You can make some beautiful cards (post on that upcoming) and include ‘tickets’ for babysitting, house or pet sitting, a home-cooked meal (at their convenience), even a movie night in your den using your big-screen TV and DVD player. To be redeemed later.

Whatever your talents are or time you can spare, it can be gifted. If you sew, you can gift that. If you cook, gift that. If you have a vehicle, you can gift chauffeur duty. If you paint or craft, you can gift those too. There’s no reason to spend money you don’t have on things to give away to others who may not need or appreciate them just because it’s the holiday season. If you plan wisely and aren’t shy of new adventures, this could turn out to be the most holiday fun you’ve had in years! Even better, once the real spirit of the season infects you, it’s hard to get rid of even when the economic situation isn’t so tough any more.

So start planning, see how much fun you can turn this into by involving your kids, your spouse, your friends!

For those of us on the short end of the recent and ongoing mass looting of the economy by the kind of ant-populist robber barons who make Jesse and Frank James seem like do-gooders The Hardy Boys, there is now a historical record of the Fortune 500 CEO Hall of Shame in what could be printable trading cards outlining the shameful accomplishments of the Worst of the Worst.

Check out the card for Lehman Brothers’ Richard Fuld, whose stats list a total loss of $29 billion, while his personal take for the efforts comes in at a cool $71.9 million. Look at that punum… does he look suspiciously like a lizard? Then there’s Countrywide’s Angelo Mozilo, with a face only a mother (or a Sicilian Don) could love. Stats: in the loss column, a total of $22 billion. It’s the personal take that’s truly impressive – $225.7 million. This guy was good at being bad!

So if you’re overdue for an out-loud chuckle in the midst of economic meltdown designed to do the most amount of serious harm to the most number of honest, hard-working citizens, don’t miss this offering by BusinessPundit. It’s well worth the waste of card stock and color toner.

And while you’re busy surfing for news, giggles and brain-novocaine, go on over to CNNMoney to get the previews of the upcoming Super Bowl Ads, if for no other reason than to have them pre-listed and ready for votes at your Super Bowl Party this year. To be honest, that E*Trade talking baby gets me every time, even if it sometimes seems a little creepy what they make him say. Is this the CEO’s kid, or just some baby from central casting whose stage mom doesn’t mind his gratuitous sexualization?

Oh… and if you want a good conversation-starter for game night when both the game and the commercials get boring, check out GameJabs’ post about The 15 Most Controversial Superbowl Ads of All Time. Some of these aired and some of them didn’t, see how many of your football watching buddies remember the worst of ‘em.

Finally, if you’ve still got a job, at least one credit card, and are serious this time about getting your financial life in order, you may learn some useful strategies from Credit Card Matcher’s Plan for Paying Off Holiday Credit Card Debt. This site also offers reviews for the best card offerings for things like travel rewards and gas rewards to make traveling for fun and business a little cheaper.

Finally (last but certainly not least), if you or someone you know is planning to take the lemons of a tanking economy to make lemonade by starting a new business, you’ll definitely want to check out Brainz’s article offering 33 Ways to Fund Your Startup Business. Some of the traditional sources are drying up, but even as that’s happening some non-traditional, more creative methods of raising money are increasingly viable.

Links:

Fortune 500 CEO Hall of Shame
Super Bowl Ads: From Clydesdales to koalas
Travel Rewards Cards
Gas Rewards Cards
33 Ways to Fund Your Startup Business

As we move into 2008’s extended holiday period, more than a few families are wondering if there will be a Christmas this year. Sure, some retailers are going all out to stay open long enough to see if anybody’s buying this year, but with consumer credit at a virtual standstill, international trade languishing on the docks and jobs being lost by the thousands every week, it’s a no-brainer that this Christmas isn’t going to be ‘the usual’ consumer spending orgy of Christmases past.

Presuming that your family still has a home, can heat it, and enough income to put food on the table, there are ways to have a festive, meaningful Christmas without going further into debt and without ending up with cheap Chinese junk that nobody really wants or needs.

The best thing you can do for your family is Make Your Own, and involve the kids! We save old Christmas cards in a box in the closet, pull them out around Thanksgiving and use them, plus various saved papers, made papers, trims, sequins, glitter, buttons, studs, etc. to make brand new Christmas cards for the people in our lives. Scissors and glue, a paper cutter, maybe some cutsey hole punches and lots of odds and ends, these cards inevitably get saved by every Mom, Grandma or other friend/relative who gets them! And kids are especially creative in this area. Sure you’ll have to clean up the mess, but a great time was had by all.

There are schedulers, list-keepers, budding writers and artists in just about every family. So another great gift are notebooks, journals, sketchbooks and schedulers you can make or buy. My friends over at Casual Keystrokes have compiled a worthy list of the best of the best journals, notebooks, sketchbooks and schedulers available online, some of them offer great deals and discounts.

If you really want to put some ’self’ into it, the ideas and designs of some of those items Keystrokes suggests can be used as models for do it yourself gift projects. My grandson learned how to make leather bound notebooks in school, has really turned it into an art form. He collects old used leather jackets from Goodwill and other thrift shops, and recycles that leather for bindings. The neatest looking ones are patchwork of different kinds of leather, bound together with leather glue (can be purchased at a craft supply store).

Paper can be bought or made, but making can be fun. Did you know that you can make fine paper from collected dryer lint? Frugal Living offers the recipe and details on how to do this. Fine handmade paper bound in a fine handmade leather bound book can be the most delightful gift under the tree for anyone who loves to write, doodle, or keep meticulous notes.

You might be surprised at how useful that dryer lint can be to the dedicated crafter. PlanetPal offers recipes and instructions for how to make lint paper mache and lint clay as well as lint paper. And if there are very young ones on your Christmas list, there are some great patterns and instructions for how to make stuffed animals and dolls, and that dryer lint makes great stuffing too!

There is also the tradition of “Hobbit Presents” that some families find so fun. This is the practice of re-giving a previous year’s gift to someone else. When it’s unwrapped, the family can remember where it came from, who has enjoyed it, and who gave it to whom. These sort of gifts need to be more substantial than cheap plastic stuff from China, but quality items handmade with skill and care make great Hobbit Presents. Pride in craftsmanship is something children miss out on too much these days. Teaching them, encouraging them and helping them learn to value such things from themselves and others won’t hurt them a bit.

So it’s November. Get busy!!!

Links:

‘Tis the Season: Gift Ideas
Casual Keystrokes
Making Paper from Dryer Lint
Lint Craft Recipes
Stuffed Toy Patterns

While those of us in the less-than 95th percentile of the American income scale celebrated a long Labor Day weekend with family and friends, the 2008 Presidential race heated up, took a bizarre turn, and looks more like a “North Country”-like sit-com every day. The New York Times published some Labor Day editorials that are as remarkably honest as they are politically timely in this era of double-digit inflation for basics like food and fuel, the mortgage crisis tossing millions of families out on the streets, and ever-faster distancing between ‘rich’ and ‘poor’ that can positively cause major depression if you think too much about it.

Why? Because things are getting worse, not better. Our shoestring budgets can no longer be thought of a a temporary condition, but something we’ll have to work with all our lives. This is what op-ed contributor Dalton Conley commented on Tuesday in his opinion piece, Rich Man’s Burden.

Conley begins by noticing that less wealthy Americans actually took the weekend off and were happy about it, while wealthier Americans mostly fretted over their BlackBerries and laptops and worked anyway, as if frightened of being left behind if they weren’t working constantly to get ahead. He describes a sort of “red shift” – like that of light reaching us from distant galaxies rushing ever further away from us ever faster – between the middle income group [~$200,000 a year] and the actually rich. The disparity between the middle and the bottom rungs on the economic ladder is not so great and isn’t accelerating much. But once you reach the middle, the rungs get further and further apart.

Princeton economics professor and former vice-chair of the Fed Alan Blinder offered a contrast between the political parties and their economic plans over the weekend that is well worth reading and digesting. He lays things out clearly and simply in what he calls the Great Partisan Growth Divide. The US economy has, on average, grown faster under Democratic presidents than under Republicans.

I call this the Economic Ag Cycle. Where Democrats grow the economy during their ascendency, so that Republicans can move in and reap the money crop (i.e., rob the country blind). Which one might think would balance out over time, but it doesn’t. And that’s why we find ourselves where we are today. From 1948 to 2007, Republicans occupied the White House for a total of 34 years, while Democrats held it only 26 years. There’s simply not been enough wealth grown for the amount of reaping the rich folks have been doing, so we are now worse off than we have been at any time since World War 2.

Income inequality has been on the rise for 30 years. It gets greater and greater the higher up the ladder you go, and Blinder went all the way to the 95% vs. 5% level. Which, btw, is well below the $5 million income level John McCain set as his idea of when people become “rich.” In fact, it’s under $200,000.

Finally, Bob Herbert offers his advice to Head for the High Road and not let ourselves be swayed or fooled by ‘the usual’ political distractions and overblown pandering, but to pay attention to reality on the ground after the last 8 years of Republican reaping. Just as school districts all over the country are suddenly having to deal with huge increases in the number of officially poor and homeless children, those school districts have had to cut funding for programs serving those children due to concurrent huge increases in the costs of food and fuel.

So while I hope you all had a happy Labor Day and enjoyed yourselves immensely, do check out these editorials. They’ll put this political Silly Season into some realistic perspective. Many of us enjoy our lives way too much to be desirous of 24-hour workdays 7 days a week 365 days a year. It’s a rat race that would detract from our quality of life significantly, we only want ‘enough’. Yet if we’re not careful this November, we’re going to get another 4-8 years of less and less, until the American philosophy and the American Dream will become something most citizens can never even hope for. Their children will be less well-educated, they’ll make less money, they’ll have to work harder, they’ll suffer more, and suddenly there won’t be anything left to protect and defend. We must not allow this to happen.

Links:

Rich Man’s Burden
Head for the High Road
Is History Siding with Obama’s Economic Plan?

During this 2007 holiday season, it seems the children are all nestled asleep in their beds, with visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads… oh, wait. You say the “children” are all teenagers now, terminally bored with Christmas and expecting a 10-gig iPod loaded with every album too objectionable to be played in public, plus keys to your a car and $400 worth of “Prison Chic” pants that hang somewhere around the thighs and show off their underwear?

Did the fudge never set, so you had to run to the store to buy enough ice cream to disguise the un-set fudge as super chocolate syrup? Were those tollhouse cookies hard as a rock, breaking grandpa’s dentures with the first bite? Did cousin Jim finish off the entire bottle of rum you’d brought for eggnog before passing out under the tree? Did the dog eat that perfect glazed ham before you could get it into the oven to heat? Did it snow during the night and hide all the firewood you’d stacked somewhere in the yard for the Christmas Eve fire? Are the in-laws insisting on watching Enemy of the State as a “Christmas Movie” instead of It’s a Wonderful Life for the 16th time?

Be of good cheer, enjoy yourself anyway, and…

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Yes, the holiday season is upon us again, just when we are trying to adjust what the government does to our internal clocks twice a year (just to mess with our heads, I am convinced). It’s a time of get-togethers and feasts with family and friends, and the sometimes scary specter of gift-giving that puts such a huge dent in people’s tight budgets these days.

So I thought this is probably a good time to talk about gifts that cost little to nothing, but are always gladly received and mean more than just some trinket you could buy at the store.

Does that sound kind of strange in this era of conspicuous consumerism, where even 5-year olds brag to each other about how much their gifts cost (and how that means Santa must love them more?). Probably not to those of us who have given up conspicuous consumerism and found that we like it. Yet I am talking about gifts that hold enough thought and effort on your part to impress even the richest, most disdainful member of your family, who has always considered you a true failure of Capitalism for your choices in life. In my case that would be Aunt Edna and Uncle Francis.

Strangely enough, both Edna and Francis have come to look so forward to whatever I’ll come up with this year that they don’t even tut-tut my homemade Christmas stockings, kudzu-vine wreath or duct-taped tree anymore. We usually cut 2 or 3 scraggly scotch pines from the property, duct tape them together, then trim them to tie up against the wall in the corner from floor to 15′ ceiling. Even tape filler branches where necessary, then decorate. Doesn’t last but about 3 weeks, but it burns big and bright on New Year’s Eve in the back yard fire pit. Works for us!

If you’ve got a few seasons in on the homestead garden and are getting pretty good at putting up foodstuff, gifts of your homemade jellies, jams, fruit compotes and butters are always welcome. I make a brandied blackberry concoction my sophisticated older sister thinks is the most gourmet thing ever – she saves it for ‘important’ occasions and spoons it onto French vanilla ice cream, and has told me at least three ambassadors have begged for some to take home! You can dress up the jars with fabric circles under the rings and ribbon around the neck. Holiday hostesses like this sometimes better than wine! Of course if you make wine – or wine vinegars and herbed vinegars – these are also most welcome hostess gifts.

Gifts fresh from the kitchen are also popular. I bake huge batches of Christmas cookies and brownies in wide variety to send out to distant family and dear friends, including the younger set serving in the military. I also cook up nut brittles (including hickory nut brittle – you can’t believe how good it is!) and fudge. Chocolate fudge, cherry vanilla fudge, pumpkin fudge, peanut butter fudge, chocolate mint fudge, maple sugar fudge. This is also individually wrapped. I collect holiday tins which are great for the cookies and candy you’ll be keeping at your house for guests, or to go ahead and send to loved ones. You can pick up these tins in all sizes for pittance at garage sales, neighborhood yard sales and second-hand stores.

If you like to sew, making quilts and comforters can go quickly if you use the machine for most of it, and these can be baby or lap size to king size depending on what old clothes, blankets, sheets and such that you have on hand to recycle into it. If you knit or crochet, hats, scarves and mittens are nice to get.

You can even get the kids in on the act and let them help you make homemade Christmas cards with scrapbooking goodies – very fun – as well as gifts for their own friends, family and teachers. Sand candles are always fun to make, sachets, artwork and picture frames, sock dolls, painted flowerpots, cute cell phone covers… the list is endless.

Check the ideas in some of the links below, see what you’ve got to work with or can get easily, and start setting aside days on the weekends for family gift-making projects. There are dozens of great ideas there, with links to full instructions for each of them. The kids will get into the spirit in no time, and the holiday season will seem less like a consumerist nightmare while becoming a time of heartfelt giving. It’ll be fun again!

Links:

Not Made Of Money: 50 Homemade Gift Ideas

Pioneer Thinking: Gift Ideas

Easy Homemade Gifts

Amazing Moms: Christmas Gifts Kids Can Make