Day 22: No time and no money? Don’t get desperate, get creative!

Christmas is just around the corner and there’s only a couple of days left to get everything ready before facing your personal army of relatives. To make things more challenging,  the financial crisis has forced many of  us to reduce the budget for this year’s Christmas gifts which makes presents hunting much more difficult. If you have lots of relatives and you’re tight on money, don’t get desperate: get creative.

There are hundreds of alternatives to the classic Christmas shopping.

1. Donate your time

If time is money this is a very valuable gift. There’s nothing more precious than your time and giving it to someone else. Donate some of your time to members of your families with children and offer to babysit their children . This is also a great tip for anyone who’s skilled in a particular area. Can you speak Chinese or dance tango? Are you a massage thereapist? Do you have any particular skills? Why don’t you give your friends free lessons? 

2. Write your very own cook book

Choose a nice notepad and write some of your most famous recipes. If you are great at cooking this is going to be a very much appreciated present but you can do it even if you’re not Martha Stuart. In this case gather your grandma’s recipes and start a family recipe notebook. Your mom and aunts will love it!

3. Give seeds as a present.

This is cheap but has a nice metaphorical meaning. Seeds are symbols of new birth and creation, it’s a good way to wish people you love a good start of the new year.

3. The Rocky Horror Bingo Show

We’ve talked about recycling many times, but this is a great way to recycle awful presents you’ve received over the years. Instead of exchanging presents at your annual Christmas dinner, ask all the guests to bring an awful gift they received in the past and  organize a bingo session where the prizes are these awful presents. I can assure you that it’s going to be a lot of fun!