Be The Best Gift Giver! Anyone Can Be Thoughtful and Intentional With These Easy Hints!
It’s not hard to shop for people, you just have to be intentional about it. DO NOT just wander aimlessly at the mall, it will be detrimental to your wallet and psych. Let me give you some of my tricks to being thoughtful and intentional towards gift giving!
1. Always Keep a List
This is hands down the most important rule: ALWAYS keep lists. Intentional Gift Givers UNITE! Have a running note in your phone, a planner or a journal with everyone’s name for that year, whether it be for the holiday season or birthdays. Make notes when you come across something that you think they would like OR something they mention off hand. When it comes birthday or holiday shopping season (which for me usually starts in October) just go down the list and pace yourself! Also keep a list throughout the year for yourself! Then when your Mom or Aunt asks “What you do want for your birthday?” you can just send a screenshot (my family also shares our Amazon lists and seems to be transitioning to favoring google sheets).
I also have an ongoing list of my friend’s food allergies and dislikes. That way whenever I host dinner it makes it easier to plan!
2. Affordable and Adorable Wrapping
Wrapping paper is everyone’s guilty pleasure. My hint for you, always buy at TJMaxx. Check your similar discount brand stores but in my little town outside of Savannah we have a TJMaxx and they have the CUTEST wrapping paper for $2.99 or $3.99. Glittery wrapping paper of little pups wearing sunglasses?! Adorable citrus slices?! My closet has multiple floral designs that were perfect for mailing our parent’s their copies of our wedding album (happened to match our wedding colors!). These are great because they are very high quality, small-ish rolls so you don’t get stuck with one print forever! Christmas paper at TJMaxx also wins. I can’t wait to see what they have this year!
Costco and Sams Club have massive rolls of ribbon (that are already out on display in October) always have a roll of white decorated ribbon on hand for gifts. Can’t forget the bow! White goes with most papers, or intentionally buy paper that a sparkly white bow won’t clash against!
3. Keeping Cards on Deck
The definition of “intentional” is done on purpose, deliberate. One of your biggest intentional gift giving tips doesn’t even have to be a gift! Do you live near a Trader Joes?! Well you’re a lucky duck. Buy a couple of their 99 cent cards each time you aimlessly wander the wine section and before you know it you’ll be stocked up on every occasion! Keep a photo box full and always in the same spot so you never miss an opportunity. Their cards are beautiful and have many different genres. Make sure to remember birthday cards for males, I have plenty for females and always keep some congratulatory cards, get well soon, and grief on hand. Now the trick I need to work on myself is actually sending them OUT on time.
4. Shop Local
People love getting gifts from places they don’t live. This is a great way to be a special and intentional gift giver. For example, in Savannah we have endless options of local places selling goods – Savannah Bee Company, Salt Table, Savannah Candy Kitchen, Byrds Cookies. Most all towns have local breweries which work well AND Savannah has a new distillery that opened called Ghost Coast and their gift shop (and alcohol) are awesome!
5. Save Money!!!
Or get money back! If shopping online ALWAYS use Rakuten first. ALWAYS ALWAYS – It’s literally free money. At some point between March/April 2019 Rakuten and Ebates joined forces and everything I was doing on Ebates is the exact same but a new name. You go to their website first and click on the place you want to shop and it redirects you with a specific URL and if you buy anything you get the percentage of the total placed into your Rakuten account. You see the percentage before you are redirected to the website (usually between 1% and 10%). Rakuten sends quarterly “Big Fat Checks”. I’ve been signed up on Rakuten since 2010 and in my lifetime have made over $195.93. I have a add-on to Firefox and Chrome that notifies me if I’m on a website with Rakuten applicable which makes it super easy.
SIGN UP FOR RAKUTEN HERE!! (I may get some rewards if you sign up through my link but you get $10 back once you spend $25 as well!). Seriously though, stop online shopping without going through Raukten first.
BONUS TIP! At Blissful Paper we have a special selection of notebooks and journals that make perfect gifts for friends. The quote collection has inspiring phrases and are great for intentional gift giving. Check out our shop here! Find all of our gift guides here!
