I was cleaning out my wrapping paper today and had a ton of “pieces” of wrapping paper. You know all the ends you cut off and hate to throw away.
Well, since I have been cutting back on doing Living On A Dime work I have been getting everything organized again. The wrapping paper has been driving me nuts so I decided to tackle it.
I was trying to figure out what to do with all the those scraps. Yes, you can use them to wrap small gifts but it seems like they just mulitiply.
Well, the kids are getting a large gift from their grandmother in Colorado that I will need to wrap. So I’m going to take all those pieces and make a quilt type wrapping with all the scraps. That way they will get used up and out of my hair! Yeah!!!!
The other tip is when purchasing large items like coats or bigger toys be sure to ask for extra large bags to bring them home. These make great trash can liners! You will be able to save on buying trash bags!
Tawra
Have you ever had a wrapping paper that you just loved and only have a small piece left? It is often too small to wrap much with. I will take a large package and wrap it in tissue paper or solid paper of some kind then carefully cut out the figures or part of the little piece of wrapping paper I loved and glue it to the tissue wrapped package.
I also once had a little piece of snowman paper I loved but not much of it so I made what I call “Santa” sacks for my grandkids. I take a small brown paper sack and I cut out the snowmen from the wrapping paper. I just enough to glue one on each one of my sacks which I then filled with goodies for the kids.
I don’t do this with all my scraps of paper just my special ones.
Jill
If I have a scrap piece of paper left over and I LOVE it, I have a 4×6 frame and put the paper in there for the holiday season. Easy to change as well.
My Dad was abandoned by his abusive, alcoholic, adulterous father during the great depression, so he stayed with whoever had food, time and money for him. When Dad grew up he gave back, and even taught his kids to do so. When I was a little girl, he took me with him to deliver food boxes to the poor. Once I saw something in the box that made me ask “Dad, why are we giving them books?” He replied “So their children have something to open for Christmas.”
As I matured, it seemed that society forget that CHRIST’S MASS was a celebration of Jesus’ condescension from being worshipped by the angels in heaven to dying on the cross to pay for our sins. It seemed we spent time and money on everything but him, and where he would have us pay our time and attention.
So instead of wondering whether my sister needed another pair of gloves, I started buying gifts for “Jesus in all his earthly disguises” as the hungry, homeless, poor, sick, imprisoned, etc. For example, last year I purchased “Heifer Project seed animals” http://www.heifer.org/site/c.edJRKQNiFiG/b.204586/ for poor communities overseas in the names of my loved ones. This charity gives a few female and a male animal to the poor so they can become self sufficient. The recipient is required to pass on the first born to another needy family so they know the joy of giving too. Now my “300 Sunday School children” sell the Heifer Project Cards in the fellowship hall every Advent.
As an Wife/Daughter/Sister/Auntie, please be assured that I don’t need another material gift from you. However, I would be greatly blessed by receiving a donation to charity in my name, or knowing that you sent a care package to one of our deployed soldiers, etc.
Here are the names and address of a few that don’t receive much mail. In order to ensure that each receives some mail, please write by the beginning letter of your last name:
RANK, NAME (LAST/FIRST) (e.g., SPC PHAN, COREY)
5/2 SBCT, 4-23 INF BN, A CO PLT
FOB WOLVERINE
APO, AE 09355
A-B PV2 Stanton Thomas-doesn’t get mail
C-D SPC Jacob Hall-doesn’t get mail
E-F PFC Jason Fingar
G-H PFC Alidjan Garcia
I-J PV2 Michael Brown-doesn’t get mail
K-L PV2 Brian Henries
M-N SPC Juan Rocha-doesn’t get mail
O-P SPC Bradley Plugge
Q-R SPC Joshua Sylvia
S-T SPC Ryan Wilmot
U-V SPC Louie Tabangay
W-Z SPC Corey Phan-doesn’t get mail
Just a quick idea to share the wealth…I always buy extra Christmas paper when it’s on sale…I use a theme paper for our daughter’s gifts from us. Afterwards, I’m left with partial rolls….Same thing with Christmas cards…Many people have cookie exchanges, so why not a paper/card exchange??….Gather all your extra cards and paper, and get together with friends to exchange all the surplus stuff…Everyone gets ‘NEW’ paper and cards for their house, and everyone SAVES some money in the process!! We also might save a few trees in the process as well!!!…..Merry CHRISTmas one and all!!!
i must be a scrooge/ba humbug of a person bc years ago when we worked in our paper business lots of hours, over the yrs i always had bought lots of wrapping paper that one yr (this is the last yr i bought wrapping paper) i ended up with about 50 rolls of wrapping papers (many of them still in the wrapped containers too, never used)… well, after seeing all of the wrapping papers, i decided that i was not buying anymore wrapping paper … instead i was going to use those colorful gift bags (they were starting to become very popular by this time) … i then set out all of the rolls of paper with a free sign on it in our warehouse for anyone to come and take away (and yes they were all gone after about 20 mins and this was jan!)… after that, if i bought a gift bag for the gifts ok, and if not then they were wrapped in the old standard of either the comics or even the coupons or those flyers (store ads) that come in the sunday edition or if i wanted to be really frugal (cheap is what my kids called it!) the walmart or supermarket bags that the groceries were bagged in… and add a bow and voila! … hehee…
i know, very cheap but when you are working lots of odd hours and just want to enjoy the holidays and well have less stress in ur life, after a while you do what you think you have to do …
and now, bc we are not still in the paper business, i guess old habits are hard to change, i just use the walmart/supermarket bags to wrap presents in…
and as far as baking for gifts too.. yes i used to do that too .. and then after being so stressed out bc of those papers … i decided to end the baking and just buy the mixes and give that away …
i figured that at the holiday times, everyone was giving baked goods and you can only eat so many cookies and fudge until you are really sick to your tummy that maybe in a few weeks you would like to have one of those treats … and yes, i have gotten lots of compliments over the yrs bc of that…
and one yr all i gave away was gift mixes of the jiffy muffin mixes (i dont know anyone who doesnt like those! just add egg and milk and then bake adn there you go!)…
yes, it was frugal (cheap as my kids say) but still its the thought that counts…
and for the seniors in ur life, like we do with mom, make a gift basket with shampoo, soaps (find out first if they use any special kind bc of allergies), toothpaste, toilet paper, cleaning supplies etc… i know my mom loves when we do this… it helps stretch the dollars for her… and less she has to worry about to buy…
just a thought here to share…