Using a Gift Box for a Frugal Christmas

Once again, I have succeeded in being bountiful this Christmas without breaking the bank or getting into debt! I am recycling gift bags (and tissue paper) from the presents my husband and I gave each other to use for my brother and family. There are unexpected hits, like the blue glass salt cellar I bought at a thrift shop for less than $2 - and the present I made up of a free little advertising cocktail shaker and napkins + napkin rings.

(Maybe $4-5 total) The more amusing the present, the more unusual, the more they seem to be successful, at nothing like MALL prices! (A book on florid insults in ancient Latin?) And the gift box, although low, is still not totally empty if another unexpected occasion for a present presents itself! (But this is our thrifty secret, yes?)

By Pamphyila from Los Angeles, CA