Giving Archives - Smart On Money

5 Ways To Save On Gifts For Tweens And Teens

If your budget’s tight, or if you just don’t like to spend more than you have to, you may be a bit frustrated buying birthday or Christmas presents for your tweens and teens.

When your kids are small, buying presents on a budget is easy—simply buy a toy on clearance that you know they’d love. But as kids get older, they get fussier, and their wish lists becomes more expensive.

Finding a deal gets harder and harder as kids get older, but luckily, it’s not impossible.

There are several strategies to get your tweens and teens gifts they love for their birthdays or Christmas while also saving money.

Buy Groupons For Experience Gifts

Sign up for Groupon’s email list for your city. Then, when you see an activity that you know your teen would like such as laser tag or mini golf or late night bowling or any other activity they’d like, snag the deal.

You can go with them sometimes (if they still let you!), or they can take a group of friends if you buy the Groupon for four.

Buy Gift Cards During The Holiday Season

My friend’s daughter, once she reached the age of 15, only wanted specific gift cards for her birthday and Christmas.

Starting in January, her mother started saving about $25 a month in a special account just for gift cards. Every December, the local grocery store had a gift card sale for Christmas—buy $100 in gift cards and get $15 off your next grocery order.

She would buy approximately $300 in gift cards for her daughter, and she herself would get $45 off her future grocery order.

Likewise, if you’re a Costco member, they often have gift cards at steep discounts around the holiday season. Most are $100 in gift cards for $79.99.

Want to do a little work? There are ways to get free gift cards that just cost a little bit of your time.

Buy With Target Red Card And Save 5%

If you have a Target Red Card, use it when you purchase your gift cards, clothes or other gifts for your teen, and you can save 5% automatically.

Buy Books

If you have a child who loves books, you can use some of the strategies already mentioned, such as buying them at Costco for a steep discount or using your Target Red Card.

If your child doesn’t mind reading ebooks, consider buying an e-reader or an Audible subscription. Amazon typically has both of these on sale around the holidays.

Buy Food Gifts

If your child would like something other than gift cards and experiences, consider food. This is a great gift if you have a child with a big appetite—teenage son, I’m looking at you!—or a child who is in college.

In the weeks before Thanksgiving and Christmas, many grocery stores have specialty foods on sale such as nuts, crackers, cheese, chocolate, all of the things that make a wonderful gift basket of food. Consider putting a basket together for your teen.

Buy Craft Gifts With Coupons

If you have a tween or teen girl who loves to craft, keep an eye out for deals. Fairly frequently, Michael’s typically will send 40% off one item coupons to members of their email list. Use these every time you get one to slowly build a discounted Christmas stash for your child filled with her favorite crafts.

Stick To Their Wish List – Save On What They Want

Final word of advice—tweens and teens are very fussy when it comes to their presents. Although you may find great clearance deals on other items, if you’d like a happy child, try to stick to their wish list and find ways to save on the gifts they want, not the generic low-cost ones you stumble upon, as you might have done when they were little.

What are your favorite ways to save when buying gifts for your tweens or teens?

Dave Ramsey’s 7 Baby Steps: Step 7 – Build Wealth And Give!

By Mr. Money 1 Comment

In the last post we talked about Baby Step 6, where Dave Ramsey suggests that you pay off your home early.

We looked about both sides of the argument, talking about how a paid off house can give you freedom, and allow you to save, invest and give more.

We also talked about how some suggest that it isn't the best way to go, but that you should try investing and making a better return on your money.

Ramsey suggests that the positives you get by paying off your house early far outweigh the alternative.

In today's post I'll look at the final step of the 7 baby steps – building wealth and giving to others!

I think this is one of the most exciting of the baby steps because it allows you to do something for others – using your wealth to help others.

Baby Step 7 – Build Wealth And Give

Steps 1-6 of the baby steps are focused on getting together your financial life, paying off your debt, planning ahead for the future by saving and investing.

There are men who gain from their wealth only the fear of losing it. – Antoine Riverolli

In step 7 Ramsey talks about how many people have a mistaken belief that the way to have more is to hold on tightly to what they have. In reality, it doesn't work that way he says. Instead he puts forth the idea that generous people tend to be more prosperous.

Why are generous people better off? Giving to others makes you less selfish – and people who are less selfish tend to do better in both relationships – and in wealth building.

Dave Ramsey gives the example of the open fist and the closed fist.

If you have a closed fist your money is safe and it's not going anywhere. The problem is, you can't take in any new money either. With an open hand when you give – your hand is open already, and you're able to receive blessings – as you give!

The idea of holding money with an open hand might seem to violate common sense. We feel that if we don’t hold on tightly to our money and our relationships, they will slip away. I’m not saying literally hold your money with an open hand – it represents our attitude toward money. When you give, you open yourself up. You allow the dollars to leave and the freedom to enter.
Giving works because it is in your personal blueprint to be a giver, and you unleash good things in your life that you will never see until you learn the art of unselfish giving. Giving lifts us out of ourselves; we take our eyes off our rights, our problems, and our stuff. The new view gives us renewed vision and hope. Giving is powerful. – Dave Ramsey

So when you have paid off all of your debt, and you've been able to save and invest – it's time to start giving as well! Not only will you be giving blessings to others, but you’ll be receiving blessings in return (and not always in a monetary sense).

Why Do I Give?

There are a lot of great reasons to give. Here are a few of mine:

Surplus wealth is a sacred trust to be managed for the good of others. – Andrew Carnegie

I'm a Christian, and I believe that I'm only a steward of everything I have – it all belongs to God. Psalm 24:1 says “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof”. And since the money is all God's it sure makes it easier to give away doesn't it?
Giving is good for you! It makes you less selfish, and helps to be more Christ-like.
We are happiest when we are serving and giving.
Giving helps me to live out my life purpose of helping others.

Get Creative When You Give!

Giving doesn't always have to be monetary – you can also give of your time and talents. In the end you're only limited by your creativity. Some ways you can help:

Help a single mother buy groceries or pay a couple of bills.
Volunteer time at your church serving others.
Give an extra large tip to a waiter or waitress.
Spend time with people at a local nursing home, talking and listening to them, playing music for them or just playing games with them.
Pay for someone’s meal behind you in line at the fast food restaurant.
Serve meals at a local food shelf, and eat with them when you’re done serving.
Give to a local charity.

What are some ways that you give? Give us some suggestions in the comments!

Giving A Gift Card? Make It Personal!

By Miranda Marquit Leave a Comment

One of the easiest ways to give a gift, particularly during the holiday season, is with the help of a gift card.

Gift cards are rising in popularity because they are easy to give, and the recipient can, to a certain extent, get what he or she wants.

The downside to giving a gift card is that it can seem so impersonal. Giving a gift card doesn't have to be impersonal, though.

“Gift givers worry that they seem impersonal,” says consumer expert Andrea Woroch. “However, you can personalize a gift card by going beyond the traditional picks like Starbucks or iTunes.”

Ideas For Personalizing Your Gift Card Giving

gift card for christmas One of the first things you can do is find out what the recipient wants. There are numerous places to share a gift registry or wish list.

Amazon has wish lists that others can browse. Woroch points out that there are gift card registries that allow recipients to designate preferred stores so that gift givers can offer something they really will use.

When you know what the recipient wants, it's easier to get an appropriate gift card. It can be to a favorite store, or for an experience that the recipient might like.

My brother and his wife like to try restaurants in their area, but they don't always feel like they can spend money on a night out when they are struggling graduate students. I buy a gift card to a local restaurant, and they appreciate it, since it allows them to do something out of the ordinary.

Woroch also has other creative ideas around the way you present the gift. I usually tuck the gift card into a colorful Chinese money-holder, but Woroch has some great ideas that can make the gift fun. “Go one step further in the personalization process by wrapping it with a unique and relevant item to make it fun to open,” she says. “For instance, a spa gift card could be wrapped with a soothing eye mask or body butter, while a golf store gift card can be wrapped with a sleeve of golf balls.” These fun gifts are inexpensive, but it adds to the fun of the experience, and can enhance the gift card.

Get Your Gift Cards At A Discount

One of the ways you can make your gift giving cost efficient is to use discount gift cards. I often get restaurant gift certificates on City Deals, where you can save money off the face value of the gift. Woroch suggests GiftCardGranny.com as a resource for discount gift cards. “You can find discount gift cards to popular stores at average savings of 12 percent,” she says.

This is a great way to give something the recipient will really enjoy — without breaking the bank. You can get everyone what they really want and save money on your holiday shopping to boot.

What do you think about giving gift cards during the holiday season? Do you try to personalize these gifts? What are your tips for saving money on gifts for the holidays?

New Year’s Resolution: Giving More

By Miranda Marquit 1 Comment

This time of year, we think a lot about New Year's resolutions, and what we can do to improve ourselves — and our lives. While these resolutions can be helpful in improving your financial situation and your lifestyle, you might be surprised at what you can accomplish in your own life if your resolutions focus on someone else.

Giving can be a great way to help others, while at the same time improving your outlook on life. As you contemplate the way you want your life to look over the course of the next year, consider making a resolution to give more:

Goal of Giving More

Money

The easiest way to give more is to donate money to a cause or a charitable organization. Look around your community and see if you can find worthy recipient of your money. In some cases, it might be as simple as increasing your regular donation to your religious congregation, or upping your donations to the local food bank. In any cases, being generous with your money helps your own finances in a couple of ways:

Increased contentment: One of the interesting effects of giving money away to good causes, or even to help loved ones, is that you tend to look at what you have in a new light. When you help the less fortunate, you are reminded of what you already have — and it can help you feel more contentment with your situation. The more content you are with what you already have, the less you feel the “need” to buy more stuff to augment your situation.
Better money management: A regular policy of giving forces you to better manage your money. If charitable giving is a financial priority, then you have to properly manage your finances so that you can meet your regular obligations while meeting your goal of giving.

And, even though many people don't give with the tax deduction in mind, it's still a consideration. You can reduce your tax liability through charitable giving.

Stuff

You don't always have to give money, though. Some of us just don't have the resources we'd like to write big checks to our favorite charities. Instead, you can consider giving some of your stuff away. Look for friends and family who might need the stuff, or give it to charity. Chances are that you have a few things, in good shape, just sitting around, not fulfilling any purpose. Give it away, and someone else could get good use out of it, and, on top of it, if you get a receipt from a charity, it can also count as a tax deduction.

Time

Many charities just need your help. Make a resolution to volunteer more often. Go once a month, or every two months, or whatever you have time for. Helping others can provide you with a healthy mental state, and it can also give you something worthwhile to do. Your time is a valuable commodity, true, but you might find that you are making a good investment by volunteering your time, expertise or talents to those who could benefit.

What are your New Year's resolutions? Are you planning to give more in the coming year?

Gift Cards: Watch Out For Scams

By Miranda Marquit 1 Comment

One of the best gifts you can give to others is the gift card. I'm a big fan of gift cards. Unfortunately, no matter what you are buying, or where you are buying it, it always seems as though there's some scammer out there trying to take advantage — and the same is true when it comes to gift cards.

There are gift card scams out there, and you need to be ready. Be careful this holiday season, and carefully scrutinize your gift cards ahead of time.

Discounted Gift Cards

One of the most obvious places you need to look for scams is with discounted gift cards. I love discounted gift cards. They can make great gifts — and you can get more for your gift-giving buck. However, not every purveyor of discounted gift cards is honest. Major sites, like City Deals, Groupon and Living Social can provide you with legitimate gift cards at discounted prices.

gift card scams Where you need to be careful is on gift card exchange web sites. In some cases, the gift card exchange site is simply a marketplace. The site that facilitates that transaction doesn't guarantee the gift card. That means that you could pay money for a gift card, and then not receive it. Or, perhaps, the seller has an expired gift card. You pay for the card, and when it arrives, it's useless. When shopping gift card exchanges, it's important to check the conditions of the site. Find out whether the site guarantees the gift cards sold on the site, and what recourse you have if things aren't as they are represented.

Buying Gift Cards in the Store

Some scammers are really smart about their gift card perfidy. Golden Gate BBB warns that some scammers actually go into stores and write down gift card numbers — and PINs. It's then possible to wait until the cards are activated. There are web sites that offer information about gift card balances. Scammers just have to check regularly to see when the cards are activated, and then go on an online spending spree with your gift card.

Before you purchase a gift card, Golden Gate BBB recommends that you check to make sure the package hasn't been tampered with, and that the PIN is still covered — not scratched off. It is also recommended that you avoid grabbing the first gift card you see prominently displayed; ask for the cards stored elsewhere, since they haven't been available to the public and there is less chance that they have been tampered with.

Bottom Line

Increasingly, you have to be careful about how you go about buying your gift cards. As technology and convenience grows, so, too, does the ingenuity of scammers. You need to be on top of things, and be vigilant, even when purchasing gift cards from a store. With a little caution, though, you should be able to find gift cards that are safe to give, and that might even be discounted to a point that saves you money on your Christmas shopping.

Appreciate What You Have, And Enjoy It!

By Mr. Money 3 Comments

As we all begin recovering from our Thanksgiving feasts, and possibly a Black Friday shopping trip or two, I thought today I'd take a step back and reflect on what's truly important in life this Holiday season.

In this Christmas season it can be so easy to forget about what's important in life and start to get caught up in all the consumerism that is so rampant in today in our culture.

So while we move into December and start to focus on our upcoming Christmas gatherings, what can we do to have a happy holiday?

Appreciate Your Blessings

I was reading a post over at Money Talks News where Stacy Johnson was talking about his Thanksgiving wish for everyone (more on that later). In the article he quoted Bob Lotich of ChristianPF.com, who when asked for his best frugal tip responded in essence to “appreciate what you have and enjoy it“.

We live in a time where we all have so many cool things that we didn't have even 100 years ago. Things like tablet computers, GPS, wireless phones and airplanes. Still, we can't keep ourselves from complaining. Reminds me of a comedian Louis CK on Conan O'Brien a while back and his rant that “everything's amazing, and nobody's happy!”:

Instead of complaining about why we don't have the things we want and why things aren't working the way we had hoped, why not try this instead:

Just be thankful for all of the blessings – material, spiritual and relational – that we do have?

Focus On What's important

So while I may not have the extra money this holiday season to go out and buy an iPad, at least I already have a working desktop and laptop that work great still! And while my home value may have dropped 70k in the last few years and I don't have enough for a down payment on a new home – at least I have a nice home and a job, and a family that loves me.

The Christmas season should be a reminder of the things that are important in our lives – our faith, our family and friends, and giving to others who haven't been as blessed as we are.

Earlier I mentioned I said I would get back to what Stacy Johson's Thanksgiving wish was for everyone, and I think it applies not only to Thanksgiving, but to Christmas and all year round!

Shop till you drop, but remember that when you’re on your deathbed, you won’t be remembering the things you had, you’ll be remembering the times you had. So as often as you possibly can, surround yourself with the people you love and savor those moments.

Ok, maybe the shop til you drop part of it doesn't apply all year round, but the rest of it does.

Be with the ones you love, appreciate what you have and just enjoy!

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