A Frugal, Flexible & Creative Gift Registry: Community Group Offers Free Alternatives for Gifts

Wedding guests spend about $19 billion annually on gifts selected from bridal registries, according to The Knot, a wedding planning resource.

There are ways to get the gifts you want, be it for a bridal shower or baby shower, and let the givers be frugal and green.

Hardware stores and specialty stores are two options for unusual gift registries. Another is the Alternative Gift Registry from the consumer group Center for a New American Dream.

Registration is free and users can request merchandise from any retailer such as an energy-efficient toaster from Target, organic-cotton sheets from Bloomingdales or a handmade vase from a small gallery.

But whether you sign up for the Alternative Gift Registry at http://www.newdream.org/ or generate your own wish list to e-mail to your friends, the site provides a wealth of gift ideas.

For weddings, consider:
• Recipe cards: Engaged couples request recipes for easy-to-prepare meals that can be cooked in a crock pot or in simple steps.
• Green appliances: Couples can direct wedding guests to the federal Energy Star website, (http://www.energystar.gov/) for a list of energy-efficient appliances, their names and model numbers. Use search engines to locate places where they're sold.

For baby gifts, consider:
• Used clothes: New Dream's registry lets parents request gently used clothing for infants and toddlers.
• Baby-sitting services: Use the registry to line up friends and relatives to help out for date nights and other outings. Specify an amount of hours and the registry will let browsers know when the time quota has been filled.
• Meals: With a new baby, who has time to cook? The registry provides space for home cooks to sign up to provide new parents one or more free meals.

This is from my latest column in the home & design section of the Miami Herald.

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Pretty, Cheap Party Flowers: Frugal Event Planning Guide Pt. 3

You don't have to pay a fortune to decorate a room or a banquet hall for a wedding, Sweet Sixteen or other formal parties. We're tracking down pretty, but affordable floral arrangements for my son's Bar Mitzvah party. Here are some of our options:

• Wholesale flowers: If you're buying large quantities, it's possible to purchase flowers directly from the wholesalers. Many areas have floral districts where the prices are at a steep discount.
• Home Depot: Small containers of pretty flowers and plants are available for $1 a container and sometimes less in the garden section of Home Depot. Purchase plants that have been marked down and build decorative arrangements around those flowers. For one formal party, we purchased trays and trays of flowers and then arranged the plants in pretty containers and tissue paper. When the party was over, we encouraged our guests to take the flower pots home and use the plants in their own gardens. We planted the leftovers in our balcony garden.
• Nurseries: Assorted plants and exotic flowers are also available at cheap prices. What's more, it helps to ask for plants that are about to be discarded or marked down.
• Call event planners and caterers: Ask about weddings and other formal parties that will be held shortly before your party. Offer to buy either all or a portion of those floral arrangements. After a wedding or other formal party, the flowers are either tossed, donated to charity or given away.
• Pick the right location/right time: If you're planning a wedding during a holiday season, the hall/party room may already be decorated with festive touches. And some settings --a botanical garden, for example -- require fewer decorative touches.

Here are a few related posts:

Frugal flower arrangements

Tips for Thrifty Weddings & Honeymoons

Big Party; Small Budget: A Frugal Event Planning Guide: Pt. 1

Mutiny: Rebellion Against Used Party Clothes: Frugal Event Planning Guide Pt.2

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Mutiny: Rebellion Against Used Party Clothes: Frugal Event Planning Guide Pt.2

It's a frugal mutiny and I've been overruled by higher powers: The Grandparents! My folks -- who have worn recycled fashions to other galas (Recycled Cinderella: Same Outfits, Different Holiday Balls) -- will not let me dress up their grandson in either borrowed, second-hand or gently used clothing for his upcoming Bar Mitzvah celebration. And they have wired money -- directly to a seventh -grader -- to make sure he gets a new suit for his upcoming celebration. Thank you M&D!

What's more, the members of my household have loudly vetoed the hand-me down cocktail dress that I had planned to wear for the evening party. I guess I'll have to go shopping. (Sigh!) It'll be the first major clothes shopping outing in our house in over a year. The Result: Part 2 of my Frugal Event Planning Guide: The Clothes Budget is turning out differently than I had planned.

I had a plan to dress us up in borrowed or recycled fashions for the celebration, which includes a day-time religious service and an evening fete. I had planned to write about our borrowed fashions. And besides, we've saved money by making our own invitations: (DIY Invitations: Bar Mitzvahs, Weddings & Other Formal Parties) and selecting an elegant, but frugal party location: Big Party; Small Budget: A Frugal Event Planning Guide: Pt. 1. We've all been on the same page, but I now have a clothes war on my hands.

For the birthday boy, we were going to shop at an upscale consignment store in Coral Gables, a very wealthy community in South Florida. The Rationale: Somewhere in the racks, there would be a suitable dress suit (possibly a designer outfit?) that may have been worn once or twice by another middle-school boy to a formal event. But if my son will feel more celebrated and confident in a new suit and shirt, who am I to argue?

My wardrobe selection included a beaded navy and silver dress, with a jacket. The style is very art deco and the beading resembles the photo on this page. It's a very pretty hand-me down from a friend and I've received compliments when I've worn it before. But I have to admit that my friend last wore the outfit to a party in the early 1990s. And with a few alarming looks my family has given the dress a firm thumbs-down. It doesn't look like me, they say and -- horrors - it's look a little dated and less than gently worn. Okay, so I'll buy a new dress! Twist my arm and make me scream: Ann Taylor, Macy's, Marshall's, Bloomingdales or Saks! I'm there. (There is also a cute consignment store in South Beach that I plan to check out.)

So I've learned these lessons:

• Be Flexible: Sometimes recycled fashion works; sometimes it doesn't. It's important to keep an open heart and an open mind.
  
• Don't embarrass your family


• Listen to your folks, especially if they offer to pay the bill.
  
• Remember the bottom line: The purpose of a party is to celebrate and it's important not to let other issues: clothing budget, frugal planning or other concerns disrupt the party.
  
• Have Fun!

And finally, when I have to make a choice between a funny frugal story and my family, the family always comes first.

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Previous Posts
Fourth Grader Joins Flea Market, Hires 4 Employees, Sells Crafts and Prints Money

Full-Time Teacher, Weekend Cook: Part-Time Jobs To Pay Bills
How to Get More Value From Your Home
Squeeze In Exercise Without Spending Lots of Time & Money

What Gas Leak? Mom's Nose vs Car Dealer & $49 Service Bill
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Sharon Harvey Rosenberg is the author of The Frugal Duchess of South Beach: How to Live Well and Save Money... Anywhere!, which will be published in the Spring of 2008 by DPL Press.

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DIY Invitations: Bar Mitzvahs, Weddings & Other Formal Parties

I just saved about $250 to $550 by making 200 formal invitations & reply cards for my son's upcoming Bar Mitzvah celebration. We spent about $150 in supplies. In contrast, I know people who have paid $400 to $700 for comparable invitations. The same logic applies to wedding invitations, sweet sixteen parties or other coming of age events.

Bottom Line: Elegant invitations can be created for about $1 and under per invitation. DIY prices are at least 200 percent cheaper than professional printing costs. For example, online I found a company that will print 25 invitations for $58 or $2.32 per invitation. And note: their sample was not nearly as pretty or as elegant as the invitation that we produced using a laptop, an HP printer and (a lot of) time.



Here are my tips & warnings about formal DIY invitations:

• Get a kit: There are so many kits for DIY invitations. These how-to boxed sets are available at craft stores, at office supply stores and from online vendors. Our kit came from Office Depot and we paid about $33 (with a discount) for a set of 50 invitations with an elegant border made by Gartner Studios. (Full price is about $36). The kit included: 50 invitations (80-lb card stock), with envelopes, response cards/response envelopes, test sheets, instructions, sample wordings and elegant embossed seals for the outer envelopes. Per invitation cost: 66 cents, excluding the cost of our time and printing ink.

• Shop the sales: All stores have periodic sales and most weddings, formal parties and coming-of-age parties are planned well in advance. Use the extra time to look for sales, promotions and discounts. We knew the date of the Bar Mitzvah for a long, long time. I'm annoyed that we waited until the last minute to get the invitation kits. We could have saved more at one of the seasonal sales. But still we used a special discount to shave a few dollars off the cost of each kit.

• Remember mailing costs and buy more than you need: Get just a little extra--because you will make mistakes: The printer will jam and coffee will spill on invitations that are left on the dining room table. Also pick an invitation size that will require standard postage. Over-sized cards and envelopes will cost a fortune to mail. (I read that tip in Bottom Line Personal Finance)


• Use your word processing program: If you can type an email or a report, you can type up the invitation. Play with fonts. We chose a the "Fine Hand Script," which created elegant, but easy-to-read letters. Experiment with spacing and centering. But don't get too fancy. Keep it simple. Also follow the directions on the box about setting up page margins to accommodate the invitation.

• Test and Proofread: Mistakes -- grammar, spelling, spacing, etc. -- will happen. That's part of the process. Use spellcheck. Double check the spelling of your last name and the location. Use the test sheets. Walk away, chill out and then return to the scene. Proofread again and then hit the print button.

• Plan your time: It took us four days to finish designing, printing, stuffing and addressing about 200 cards and envelopes. To get the most out of my work day and to avoid cutting into my income-producing hours, I did my share of the work on Saturday night, Sunday and during a few week-day nights. Note: the time commitment is one of the major drawbacks of DIY invitations.

• Caution: Watch out for dirty hands, messy surfaces, short tempers, frustration and impatience. It's a process. Be patient. Be mindful. Printing and stuffing envelopes can be a meditative exercise or a mind-numbing drill. I've learned to just bliss out and save money.

• Have Fun: We used a deep blue navy ink, which really made the invitations look better than the plain black ink version. Also at the top of the invitation we created a monogram by arranging my son's initials in a much larger font #22-#36-#22. The letters were centered at the top of the invitation and also on the reply card: GRE

This site offers a few helpful hints about DIY invitations. I have not used the vendor, but the online instructions seemed helpful. My sisters have made pretty shower invitations with ribbons and double layers. There are so many creative kits. I have used products (purchased from Office Depot) from Gartner Studios and have been pleased with the final product.
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Previous Posts:

What is Luxury? Town & Country: Luxe is a Moving Target

Reformed Spenders Provide 10 Ways to Save in 2008

Barking Dogs, Stinking Turtles and Sick Hamsters Taught Me About Money

Cheap Travel Guide: Month-by-Month, City-by-City Hotel Savings Rates

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Sharon Harvey Rosenberg is the author of The Frugal Duchess of South Beach: How to Live Well and Save Money... Anywhere!, which will be published in the Spring of 2008 by DPL Press.