Wrap It for Less!

It's that time of year again, where we go through rolls and rolls of wrapping paper! What's a Frugal Mom to do? With a little creativity, you can save a bundle.

Here are some ideas:

Sunday Funnies - Use the Sunday funnies. Especially for kids, this is a great way to wrap presents. Take the Sunday funnies (because they're color and more interesting) and use them to carefully wrap your gifts (so the receiver can read them again when the gift is unwrapped). If you know the receiver has a specific cartoon or cartoons that he/she really loves, be sure to put that one on the outside so he/she can see it. Wrap with a pretty bow to top off.

Old Greeting Cards - Cut out old greeting cards. Grab brown paper bags, butcher paper or plain brown wrapping paper. Wrap the gift first, and then, using glue and glitter, paste the pictures from the greeting cards all around the gift for a special personalized touch. This also works with pretty stickers.

Rubber Stamps - Stamp it! Rubber stamps are all the craze now. You can get rolling stamps, which give you a full line of repeated characters or just single stamps. Again, start with brown paper bags, butcher paper, plain brown wrap or tissue paper. Stamp to your heart's content and then wrap the gift. Again, this allows you to customize each piece of wrapping paper to the receiver's specific hobbies or interests.

Draw - Draw It! This is a great activity for young children and makes a special "additional gift" for grandparents, godparents, close friends and more. Take plain white paper and let your little one draw or paint a picture on it. Wrap your gift in their art.

Dollar Store - Finally, the dollar store is always a great place to find wrapping paper for less, and you also want to hit the "after Christmas" sales (if you have a place to store all the wrap) when everything is 50 to 75% off.

Happy Wrapping!

Marybeth Henry is the author of FamilyCorner.com Magazine's Frugal Mom Weekly. This newsletter offers frugal ideas, tips, and advice each week to help you in your daily life. To subscribe, send any email message to frugalmom-on@mail-list.com or visit familycorner.com

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