Simple Savings: Reuse gift bags and tissue paper.
How many of you already do this? Did you grow up with this frugal practice, too? To save money in the gift area, I am encouraging you to reuse gift bags and tissue paper.
We all get gift bags – and tissue paper – on a regular basis. Instead of throwing them in the trash (or recycling), take a moment to flatten the gift bag and refold the tissue paper. It doesn’t take long at all. Soon, you will realize that you have plenty of gift wrapping materials – without buying much of it yourself! I actually have so many used gift bags that I recently went through and pared down my gift bag collection. The tissue paper is still nicely folded in the bin, waiting to be used.
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If you would like, you can even save and reuse wrapping paper. My Dad always tells how his Mom (my Grandma) would save and iron the wrapping paper to be reused from year to year. I don’t save my wrapping paper. Instead, I buy it after Christmas when it is discounted at least 50% – and as much as 90%, if I’m patient enough. When I shop those after Christmas sales, I try to buy wrapping paper that can be used for other occasions. Gold works nicely for wedding gifts and solid colors are perfect for birthdays. No one will be the wiser that you purchased your wrapping paper at a deep discount, except for you. And you can smile when wrapping your gifts, thinking how frugally you are wrapping them all! (Here’s what else I buy after Christmas on clearance.)
On my husband’s side of the family we joke that we just rotate gift bags year round when we give gifts. It saves a lot of money. Gift bags can be so expensive. If I do have to buy one, I usually get it from Dollar Tree.
Why not rotate gift bags? We see the same bags being reused frequently, too. The only “problem” is when you have a surplus of baby bags – and not any birthday ones. I get creative then and look for the plain ones to reuse. Dollar Tree is a great place to buy bags when you do need them!
Yes! We stock up after the holidays too…except last time I stocked up so much that we still haven’t bought any wrapping paper…3 years ago!
Ha! Likewise. I haven’t bought wrapping paper in a couple years either. We have used up several of the rolls so this might be the year to restock my wrapping paper supply.