I’m sure a lot of you have started to believe I’ve forgotten about the series I started a few weeks ago called Be a New Shopper in the New Year. I haven’t, I just set it aside as the holiday deals and life started to get more hectic. A couple of the posts will teach you how to shop online to get the absolute best deal possible, which was one of my goals for the series. You can find the two main posts for that here and here. Whether you’re an online aficianoado or have only purchased through Amazon, these posts will teach you how to navigate your way through the online retailers to find the best deals and even get cash back on your purchases!!
A lot of you are probably wondering why I’m still posting online deals. I’m pretty sure you’re finished with your Christmas shopping, and you can’t get much here by December 24 now without paying a million bucks in shipping fees. Well, you can get these awesome buys and keep them for other occasions like birthdays, birthday parties, next Christmas, and any other occasion where a gift is warranted. Even if you just like to occasionally give your kids a present for being super sweet, why not get a toy for $3 instead of paying $15 for it when the time comes? Other things I post are also ideas for gifts, home decor,and just stuff I think are darn good deals. If I post it, it means I think it’s worth paying for, and I’m cheap. Seriously, some times I think Dollar Tree is too expensive 
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The moral of the post is that every bargain hunter should have a gift stockpile. Some people have gift closets, gift rooms, or gift basements. Me? I have a couple of drawers in a dresser with small items that I can throw together to make a nice gift bag for various people. Try to have a variety of items- cheap toys and stickers and kids’ items, toiletries for men as well as cheap socks and other things that are um…proper to give to someone else’s husband if you’re at an office party, and lady’s gifts like Bath and Body Works freebies, drugstore freebies..the list of possibilities is endless; just don’t spend a lot of money to create your stockpile. Last year I was able to create gift bags for about 15 people using items I simply paid tax on. Don’t start thinking it’s tacky to give someone toiletries for a gift, either. If you give them a $5 bottle of shower gel, you just saved them $5 and the gift cost you $.40 tax! People love to get nice gifts like that.
One question I’ve seen various places is centered around the etiquette of giving these gifts to people who know you get the items free or nearly free. Someone even had a person at a gathering spill the beans to everyone who’d received a gift (a freebie basket) from this person. Needless to say the gift giver was humiliated. First, I don’t surround myself with people like that. If you have no choice, perhaps tell that person a few days ahead of time that you’re giving everyone in the office/family/party the same kind of gift, and although she knows how you shop would she please not reveal your secrets. Something along those lines will keep everything friendly yet hopefully help keep you from feeling embarrassed about giving “Freebies” as gifts. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with it; just cover your bases ahead of time.
Do you have a gift stockpile established yet? If so, what do you include? Do you have any secrets for giving these items to those who know how you shop…a.k.a. that you’re a Bargain Queen?
