Spending and Saving

5 Ways to Make Cheap Gifts Look More Expensive

We all wish we could spend a million dollars on our loved ones. But, this is certainly not the year for it. What we can do is make our budget-friendly gifts look amazing and personalized.

The way to do this is not to spend more money on fancy gift bags and wrapping paper.  Considering that each gift bag can easily cost $3 to $4 (or more, if it gets really fancy), and even a large roll of wrapping paper can be $18, it’s not hard to drop more than $50 alone just on wrapping supplies alone during the holiday season.

Don’t be that person. Instead, get creative and save some money.

Since the best gifts show careful consideration for the recipient, here are some of our favorite tricks:

Reuse Those Holiday Cards.

You don’t need to save every personalized holiday card. (Let’s be honest, you got too many). So, cut off the personalized message and reuse the front. Voila, beautiful holiday card!

Date It!

Pull out old calendars and wrap the present with calendar pages (the year is over, so you don’t need it anymore!). In practice, this looks very cute.

Recycled Newspaper.

Is your friend a movie buff? Try wrapping her gift in the entertainment section of the newspaper. Sports fan? You know where we’re going with this. Our favorite choice is for the kid-at-heart: the comics section.

Read the rest of the tips at LearnVest’s blog. And happy holidays!

Tags: holidays, shopping, spending, Spending and Saving