Tip of the Week- How to Organize Your Holiday Gift Giving w/this FREE Program

Have you ever wanted a quick, easy, and Free way to organize all of your holiday gift giving lists each year?  How about a way to keep a log of not only all the gifts you give for each holiday and occasion , but keep track of where you got them, what deals you got, and also document what gifts you received (so you can remember and send thank yous).  One of the things I love to do here at “We Live Inspired!“, is share tips to make life a little easier for you.  I hope you will get as much use out of today’s tip as I do!

Credit for this tip goes to a non blogging friend of mine , Becky Firesmith.  We always swap tips with each other, and this is one of the great ones she introduced me to (thanks Becky 🙂 ).  The free website to keep track of all of your gift giving/receiving info is www.giftboxhome.com .  You just set up a free account with basic info (like name , email and password).  I promise it is really easy to get set up!

What can you do with this “GiftBox” website?

• Keep track of all the gifts you give to others-not just for Christmas , but for birthdays and any other holiday also.
• Keep track of all the gifts you receive
• Keep track of gift ideas you have for future holidays/events
• Keep track of returns-If you need to return an item you can check a box and even keep track of where it needs to be returned and by what date
• Create a wishlist of gifts to email to family/friends
• Receive email reminders of upcoming birthdays or holidays you need to buy or send cards for
• Send Thank you E cards for the gifts received

You can customize everything in to groups, or different lists of people as well.  There are 3 main things I LOVE about this program:

1. I like that I can keep a log year after year.  I can go back to previous Christmases or birthdays and see a list of what I bought, how much I spent, and where I got it. It actually lets you put in the website URL of where you got the gift.  I love this for 2 reasons. One because it makes it easy for me to see where I got the best deals or unique gift ideas for future reference.  Two, it sort of stores memories.  I can go back and see who got me what each year or what I bought them, so that I don’t have to try to remember 😉
2. I do my shopping online, and I like that they have boxes where you can check if you have paid for the gift yet, and also if the gift has arrived yet.  When I shop somewhere online, I just plug it in to this system and then I don’t have to keep track in my head of where all the packages are coming from, or remember what I should be receiving
3. It makes it easier for me to stick to my budget and not overspend.  I can see a visual of all the people on my gift list on the same page and see what I have bought for each person so far.  It even lets you check off a person when you are done buying for them.  Oh, and it even has a field to enter the amount you spent on each gift and it automatically calculates the amount you have spent for each person so far under their name.  AND at the very bottom of the page it totals the GRAND total you have spent on everyone that year!

Additional things I do with my “Giftbox” account-

Since I love to see how much stuff I can get free or really discounted each year (if you have been following my blog ,then by now you have seen some of my articles on this), I actually include the retail price of each item next to the title of the item.  It will look something like this:  Men’s leather jacket WAS $400.   Then I put the price I actually paid for the item in that specific field.   I do this because each year I like to add up how much everything would have cost at full price, and how much I actually spent , so I can see the savings I got.  I tend to have sort of a competition with myself each year to see if I can do even better with my budget than the last.  I swear I am not cheap, but I have fun seeing how good of a shopper I can be each year :).

I haven’t added up my grand totals yet, but this year my prediction is that I have saved at least $800!  Don’t worry, I will continue to share my tips on how I am able to get things free or really discounted, in case you will find it helpful too.  I really think you will like using GiftBox online to keep track of everything.  If you have any questions about it, feel free to ask me!

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Do you have a way of keeping track of your holiday shopping?

shared @ Katherine’s Corner

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