“Now tell me how to shop for all my nieces and nephews without going broke. Please.”- Susan

Well, Susan, guess it all depends on how old your nieces and nephews are and how many are in one immediate family. If you truly do have a lot of nieces and nephews, I suggest doing what my extended family does, and that is rotate families every year. You can set it up like a big cycle. Family 1 has family 2. Family 2 has 3, family 3 has family 4. Family 4 has family 1. Then the following year rotate it by one. It can be kind of confusing, but the main point is that you don’t have to buy for every family every year and makes things less expensive and less stressful. Another good point is that you usually spend a little more time, thought and money into the one family’s gifts because you aren’t stretched so thin. So that being said, moving on…

I have found that if you have a large family of like 4 or 5 kids than a family gift usually saves you some money. A family membership to the local zoo or science museum might be a good option. Not only does it cut down from tons of shopping, but its the gift that keeps on giving all year long.

Magazines are always a great gift that can be relatively inexpensive. All kids love getting their own mail. If the receiver is a teenager, you could get them a magazine related to their interest such as sports or photography. When giving magazines as gifts, I usually get an issue and wrap that up with something stating their subscription.

Another thing you can do, and save money at the moment is issue them a certificate for an outing with you, such as a trip to movies, etc. Not only will you save money, save the gift from never being used, but you will create a perfect opportunity to get to know your family a little better.

My family is also big on homemade gifts. My sister draws and for each of my children she elaborately drew their names and had them framed. My kids have them hanging in their rooms and we love them. I have made personalized pillowcases with the printer iron transfers.

A inexpensive camera with little photo album is always a hit with kids. Different science kits from Target or the Discovery store also make great family gifts. They have some really cool ones that make candy and stuff.

I also am a big proponent for gift cards. Here at the Boogie’s we set a budget for each person and sometimes that budget is most easily made with a gift cards. My favorites to give are to movie theaters and Borders.

If I think of anything else, I will post later. Hopefully some of the suggestions were helpful. Good luck and happy shopping!

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