‘Tis the season to start thinking about holiday gifts. Have you noticed that gift wrap is getting pretty elaborate and expensive? My son brought home a school fundraiser that featured gift wrap for $12 a roll! And the stores aren’t too much better these days. But why spend so much on wrapping the presents? Use that money instead to buy bigger presents or to save toward other holiday bills.
Here are some frugal and creative ways to save on gift wrap, but still provide gift wrap that has impact.
The secret to great gift wrapping is to let your imagination run wild and use the materials that you have on hand. Look at things in a new light. I’ll share some examples, and hopefully, you will be inspired to try your own.
For kids gifts, or for anyone young at heart, you can save some money by carefully opening a cereal box and then reuse it as a gift box.
Small, medium or large, gifts can be wrapped in other types of food boxes and containers, such as jello gelatin or jello pudding boxes, oatmeal canisters, coffee cans, glass jars, etc. These are especially nice to use when wrapping gifts for a cook.
Look to recycle paper wherever it is in your home. Use the newspaper comic strip to wrap a gift. It is fun and colorful, and your recipient just might spend some time reading their gift before opening it. Other forms of wrapping paper that you might not think about include flour bags, magazines, brown paper grocery bags, aluminum foil, junk mail, school notices and more.
I know one person who actually used drywall to wrap a gift! He made a box using the drywall and some screws, sealing it with joint compound. He is a contractor, and that is what he had available. The gift was quite a conversation piece at the Christmas party.
What are some of your favorite frugal gift wrap ideas?
Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, technology in the Computing Blog, and creating a home in the Home Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.
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