My Frugal Christmas Finds of '09

So as frugal as I am with my coupons, store deals, and daily freebie finds...Many of you have been asking these kind of questions: What was your Christmas budget? How do you remain frugal throughout the Christmas season? How do you buy gifts for people on such a strict budget and low income? Should you abandon buying gifts when you're struggling to get by? etc. etc. etc.

Many of the answers to these questions will have to come next year with the "Simplifying Christmas" series that has been postponed. However, I thought it might be fun to share with you some of the best deals I have found this year for Christmas gifts!

Our budget was about $100 - $120 total. I'm having to make this post quite vague, because almost all of my family members read this blog, and I don't want them to know what I bought for them. =) But here are some of my favorite finds this year (pictured above)!

• Boggle Game (deal at Target) - I snagged Boggle and a Scrabble card game for $7 total! The Boggle game itself is usually priced at about $15 to $20 (even on Amazon!)
• Hallmark Cards - I got all my personal cards for our parents and grandparents at Hallmark for practically free, using three of these $5 off coupons (2 were printable, 1 was from a magazine I had). That's $15 worth of cards for completely free!
• Hot Wheels - I picked up 3 hot wheels cars at Publix for free with coupons during one of my shopping trips. They were 99 cents, and I had $1/1 toy coupons!
  
• The Christmas Box - I got 20 copies of this book for free (I only paid shipping). It was an offer the author was doing as a gift to his readers. I stashed these away to give to people over the next couple years as gifts. It is a nice addition to a gift, as well. I am reading it right now, to determine how great of a book it is, and who to give these as gifts to.
  
• Ornaments and Treats - To help reduce our budget some, I decided to do some homemade gifts (part of simplifying Christmas!). I went up to Hobby Lobby. I got some small plastic gift bags to put baked goods/treats in. It will look nice with a ribbon tied around it to complete it! Also, I bought some ceramic ornaments and a 2-can spray paint system that makes a really pretty gold crackle finish. I was able to buy 10 ornaments, the gift bags, and the 2 cans of spray paint for only $10 total. The ornaments and gift bags were on sale for 50% off, and I had a 50% off coupon for the spray paint!
• Taste of Home $5 Cookbooks - I grabbed 2 Taste of Home cookbooks when they went on sale for $5 a while back. This is an amazing gift, considering they are normally $25 each!
• I bought the UP! DVD for only $10 when the blu-ray first came out at only $19.96, and I had the $10/1 coupon. Great gift for my little brother-in-law! (he doesn't read the blog, so I think we're safe).
• I also pre-ordered a couple of DVDs for only $9.99 with free shipping. Most of these would have been $15 to $20 in store.
• I ordered the Burt's Bees grab bag for only $20. It is normally a $50 gift! It was on sale, and I used a code to get an additional % off and free shipping. It was a really nice gift set, and the recipient is going to love it!!
• I picked up a skein of yarn at Michael's with a 50% off coupon. It was only $2.50 after the coupon. I'm knitting a friend a pretty scarf. Talk about an inexpensive, simple, and very meaningful gift!
• Bath & Body Works - I took advantage of one of the great Bath & Body Works sales, and used a $10/$30 coupon on top of it. I walked out with 6 bottles of spray and lotion for only $20! That knocked out a couple of gifts right there.
  
• Swag Bucks - This is the biggest key to my savings this Christmas. I don't think I will ever have to pay for Christmas gifts again, really. I simply traded my Swag Bucks in for Amazon gift cards, and I was able to pretty much buy all my gifts on Amazon! My husband was quite skeptical at first. He was like, "Amazon doesn't have anything." But after discovering that they had the exact model number guitar pickup he wanted for the guitar he is building...he became quite excited. I was able to buy him his $100 guitar pickup (what he really really wanted) for only $65 on Amazon, PLUS it was completely free with swag bucks. This is something I never would have bought him otherwise, as you can see that the retail price is as much as our total Christmas budget! I recommend signing up for Swag Bucks now, so that next Christmas you can get some gifts for free! It's the best program ever!!!

So those are my best frugal finds this year for Christmas gifts. I hope you enjoyed hearing about them! I always love to hear about a great deal! It's so much fun! =)

What about you? Feel free to share the deals you were able to snag this season!