Wedding season is in full swing! If you couldn't already tell by how busy your calendar is, I bet your checking account is starting to notice. Between engagement parties, showers, bachelorette parties and weddings, your trips to Bed, Bath and Beyond are probably as frequent as to the grocery store. Below are some budget ideas that would work well for an engagement gift or a wedding shower gift. Have more good ideas? Be sure to leave them in the comments.
Step 1: Be web savvy and don't be ashamed to check the online registry frequently
Keep your eye on the registries. I find that Macy's has the best and most frequent sales. Look every few days. Bedding and small appliances frequently go on sale, especially around holiday weekends (including the holidays no one you know actually get off). My last two wedding related purchases were on sale. The first, I saved 15% on a Macy's purchase, the second, I saved 75% on a Crate and Barrel purchase. Patience and planning ahead are key!
Step 2: Pay attention to sales and coupons
Hoard your 20% off Bed Bath and Beyond coupons (and the $5 off $15 purchase ones too!). Don't be ashamed to go back more than once, buying a single item at a time with your coupons! Picking up some basic cooking tools (think: spatula, whisk, measuring spoons) with a coupon is a great steal. Add a cook book that you got at Borders with one of their continually emailed 40% off coupons or add one you make yourself for a complete gift! Sign up for the following email spam: BB&B, Pottery Barn, Crate & Barrel, Target, Amazon, Williams Sonoma, Borders, Shutterfly and wherever else your friends are registered!
Step 3: Skip the shipping costs
If you live near a Crate and Barrel, you can order out of stock items through the store. The items will be shipped to the store for free! Other retailers have the same policy. This even extends to many clothing companies!
Step 4: Get creative
Make a cookbook. We all have some standard recipes that we make all the time and love. Add those to a few of your mom or grandma's classics or maybe one or two you adapted from a cooking idol, and make your own cookbook. There are a few ways to go about this: crafty or techy. If you are crafty, type them up, print them on nice paper and find a scrapbook to include them in. If you are techy, or looking to be efficient, look to a website like shutterfly where you can make your own photobook. This may take a while, so plan early. Take pictures of some of your finished products for your cookbook and work your magic on shutterfly. They have an easy template for recipes. Shutterfly is another website that fills your email box with coupons. Typically before Mother's Day and Father's Day, shutterfly will offer a percentage off photobooks, or even a free one (just pay shipping)! The best part about this is you can reorder them for other showers, mother's day (grandma's too!), Christmas/Hanukkah and house warming gifts. As I write this, photobooks at shutterfly are 30% off.
Step 5: Mix and Match
Wine Coasters, Corkscrews, Stoppers and Pourers: These come in varying price ranges. Check the happy couple's registry to see if they already registered for any of the above. Crate and Barrel has some popular wine coasters that are very nice looking and only $11.95 (see above). Stoppers and pourers start a little lower. Pick up one of these and gift it with a bottle of wine. If you buy a semi decent bottle of wine or a bottle that will be substantially better a later date, include a note about hoping the couple saves it for their 10th anniversary.
Pitchers and Decanters: These come in a variety of prices, starting around $15. Gift a pitcher with a bottle of wine (can be cheaper), and the remaining ingrediants for sangria (seltzer, orange, lime, lemon, etc.). Include the sangria recipe for a nice bundled gift that will look like you put lots of time, money and thought into it. Skip the extras for the decanter and gift it with just the wine.
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