As the holidays approach, people spend more and more on gifts for their loved ones, coworkers, friends, etc. The list seems to get longer and longer each year and each second of the holiday season. We want to give everyone a little something, but is that little something really worth spending any money on?

Often times people think that they are obligated to give a gift to all these people so they just buy anything and that results in a waste of money and products. If you just buy anything just for the sake of giving a gift without much thought, the person will probably never use it and most likely return it or give it away. You have wasted your money and the person clearly sees that you put no effort in their gift at all. You might as well not give the person a gift to begin with.

People say it is the thought that counts, but what thought was it really if you give something you bought that is first off, cheap (or worse expensive) and second, nothing that you know the person will like or use. Besides, there is a lot more you can buy with that same amount of money that may even be better quality with a little more thought and time. Time is the key.

If you have the time to do so, you can wait to shop when things are at their lowest price, during sales! If you wait for the right moment you can get things half off their usual price or more sometimes! This is how you get people a 50 dollar gift for around 15 bucks! (I’m just speaking from recent experience; on black friday I did only spend 15 dollars on a few people but got them great gifts, good quality too.) Anyway, my point is that you do not need to spend so much money on things, and if you give yourself the time, you can get better gifts for less.

A final note and probably the most important: you DO NOT have to spend hundreds of dollars on a gift if you spend the time (yes again stressing the need for time) to think about what the person you are looking for likes or may need. Even if you spend 5 dollars on a gift, if you thought about it properly and the person loves the gift, they won’t even care that you only spend 5 dollars. What becomes most important is the thought you put into the gift and knowing that someone cared enough to really take the time to find that perfect gift!