4 ways to save on Christmas Gift Wrapping

While wrapping Christmas gifts this morning, it dawned on me just how much money I saved by keeping my gift-wrapping simple this year. Always one to decorate my home lavishly for the holidays, I even make an effort to choose wrapping paper that compliments my décor. This year, I still decked out my home out and still chose wrapping supplies that complimented the décor, but I did it cheaper by choosing my gift-wrapping carefully.

Bulk Wrapping Paper

I have a rather unusual living room, painted a shade of pink called “Candy Mix.” Pink does not go well with the usual Christmas red and green, so my decorations are in cream, sage and gold. My usual routine was to purchase several different green and beige wrapping papers and then buy gold and pink ribbon to match the room. This year, I simply bought one jumbo 200-foot roll of a tastefully decorated gold wrapping paper. This allowed me to spend only $7 on wrapping paper. Usually, paper runs me around $20 since I buy a variety. Omitting the ribbon on my gifts saved me between $5 and $15. It also saves me a lot of time!

How to Wrap Odd-Shaped Gifts

At around $3 a pop, gift bags are a waste of money. Instead, you can wrap odd-shaped items easy by wrapping them up to look like Christmas crackers. For those of you not familiar with these, think of a Tootsie Roll or piece of hard candy.

Cut the wrapping paper to be about 6” longer than the height of the gift on either side, but wide enough to go completely around the width of the gift. Wrap the paper around the width of the gift and secure with tape. Now cinch the paper at the top and bottom. Secure the paper by winding tape around the section you cinched. You now have a gift that is wide in the middle and gathered on either side, almost like a piece of butterscotch candy.

If You Can’t Get Free Boxes

You can also avoid buying gift boxes for clothing. If the stores you shop at do not give them away free, simply reuse the cardboard from the back of a notepad, a box or anything else you can get your hands on. Place the clothing folded onto the cardboard and wrap the clothing as if it were in a box. The cardboard gives it stability without costing you a dime.

Free Gift Labels

I also found a way to avoid buying gift labels. I already have address labels at home, and of course a PC and printer. I simply did an Internet search for “Christmas label template” and found an address label template with cute clip art graphics. I downloaded the form and altered it for my purposes.

After downloading and opening the Word document, I saw that it was simply a table with a place for clip art along the left side of the labels. The template also had a space for typing addresses on the right part of the labels. I chose the columns designed for the mailing address and deleted that typing.

I then used the “Harrington” font to type the “To” and “From” information. This font makes fun, swirly letters that remind me of elves. Try out a few different fonts until you find one you like. You can also play with the color of the font, choosing red or green for fun. Print your labels them on the best printer setting. These adorable custom labels are incredibly easy to make and save you around $5.

Together, these simple measures saved me money and time. I spent only $7 on gift-wrapping this Christmas and saved between $50 and $60 on my usual costs. On top of that, it took me only about one half hour to get the job done. See how keeping it simple can save you money this year!
 

Jessica Bosari is an Internet copywriter and blogger for various publications and her own blog. You can read more of Jessica's work here.