Frugal Fridays...Wrapping Paper

When determining a Christmas spending budget, most people don't factor in the added expense of wrapping paper. Okay, maybe it's just me, but I feel like the ribbon, bows and paper are half of my budget!

This year, I've decided to boycott the wrapping paper industry.

Nobody really cares about the paper anyway. At least I don't.

I just want everything to match while waiting under the tree. And I don't want it to cost a fortune. After all, it is just paper!

For a couple of dollars, I was able to find postal wrapping paper. It comes on a very large roll, is heavy enough to deter the "peakers", and can be embellished if that's what you really want to do. We've used snowflake rubber stamps to create beautiful paper that would've cost us a small fortune to purchase.

For the ribbon, I'm using natural raffia, found in any craft store. It is very inexpensive and goes a long way. I'm using natural because that is what I already had, but I've seen colored raffia also.

Tags are made from scrapbooking paper, old Christmas cards, or cut from paper bags using cookie cutters as templates. It is a great project for the kids! In our house, it is not uncommon to find my children sitting in the living room, watching a Christmas movie and cutting tags! (We NEVER write the kids' names on the tags. Instead my hubby and I make a code for each child. It's a good idea to write down your special code though. One year, my teenaged daughter opened up a Tonka truck! Lesson learned.)

My plan was to post a picture of some neatly wrapped gifts, sitting under the tree so that you could see how nice they look.

In reality, I probably won't have time to wrap until Christmas Eve!