Anyone with children will know that it’s inevitable that they’ll be invited to birthday parties of their school friends throughout they year – we had three in one weekend last year! I hate giving children money in a card for a present, even though that’s clearly the easiest option but at the same time, to buy a nice little present for them isn’t always cheap.
So, a few years ago I started to stockpile presents and gifts that I saw on offer throughout the year, especially in the sales at the start of the year. I keep mine in one of those Orla Kiely Bags from Tesco which looks very pretty on the top of my dresser in the kitchen but you could use a cupboard or drawer or even just a box under your bed.
In my present bag, there’s a roll of sellotape (because I can never find one when I need it and some cheap wrapping paper sheets. A roll of wrapping paper would have been a little cheaper but with the sheets, they fit perfectly in the bag and I have a few different types I can use depending on who the present will be for. I also have a couple of cards in there which are just cheap supermarket ones but they’re great for parties and it’s so much easier to have some at hand.
Obviously, as I call it the present bag, there’s also presents in the too 😉
At the moment there’s a stash of jewellery in there that I got cheap from the dotcomgiftshop 90% off sale last week, some books I got from the Book People sale and a couple of odd bits that I picked up in the Boots sale when everything went down to 70%. There’s also a moneybox that Miss Frugal saw in Tesco last September reduced to £2 from £8 that says Best Friends on it which she’s going to give to her friend for her birthday in a few weeks.
I also use the bag to hide daft bits and bobs that I buy for the kids through the year as stocking fillers for Christmas as it’s so handy to just quickly pop something in there when I’m unpacking and they’re around. We have a big box in the garage that we move their Christmas treats to when they’re in bed.
Do you have a present stash?
