Gift Giving...ways to save money and still give great gifts

I love giving gifts that other people will love to get. I don't like spending a lot of money though and if I wait until Christmas or Birthdays I end up spending a lot more than I had planned and sometimes can't find just the right thing. So I start right after Christmas buying gifts for the next year or last year I even picked up a few deals that were great to use for Scott this year when he will be big enough for them. January is a great month to buy toys. They clearance out all the extras they had in for the Holiday Season. So starting the day after Christmas you can get stocking stuffers for 1/2 off as well as some special holiday toys. Target especially will clearance stuff down as far as 75%. I kind of keep track of it on www.afullcup.com in the Target Forum. People post what they find. I got Scott some great stuff last year at 50% off and a few things at 75% off. I also buy extras to use as gifts for other kids as well. This I will continue when he gets a bit bigger and starts going to birthday parties. Brad (my husband) loves 70's TV so I watch for DVD sets for him. He doesn't mind if they are already opened so I pick them up at yard sales, Goodwill, and on www.half.com which is owned by ebay but you don't bid. You can however put in a pre-buy which means you tell them the price you will pay for the quality of item you are looking for and if someone is willing to sell it to you for that price the order will go through automatically. I have gotten some great deals that way. I actually have some pending now for gifts or just for fun. You can do it with books, movies, and CD's. I also watch ebay for things (they are not as cheap as they used to be because people tend to bid things up and shipping is so high now). The good thing there is you can put an automatic search on things and when someone lists what you are looking for it will email you. That way you don't miss out on a great deal. I also love searching online for great deals and try to keep up with other blogs and such so I see when great deals pop up such as stores going out of business.

Bottom line watch for deals all the time and you find the perfect gift at the perfect price.