Do You Regift?

Today’s Thrifty Moment is a touchy one for some, it’s regifting. Surveys show a slight majority of people believe that regifting is acceptable. Which means that the rest of those surveyed think regifting is, well cheap.

So how can you regift without appearing tacky?

My first suggestion is don’t regift a gift to the original gift giver. We’ve all heard horror stories about such events. I remember going to a bridal shower once and the bride opened the gift to find a pair of silver engraveable goblet’s. As she pulled the goblets out of the box a small card fell to the ground. The card revealed the proof that this was a regift. On it was a card that said “Best of Luck always to you both Elizabeth and Bill. Love Alma” The problem was Alma, the bride to be had originally given the goblets to Elizabeth who had not only regifted the goblets but forgot to remove the original card before wrapping.
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You can avoid this faux pas by keeping a notebook for this purpose or even sticking a colored 3 x 5 card in the box with the name of the gift giver and the date given written right on it. Make sure you TAKE THE CARD out of the box before wrapping.

In the same vein don’t give partially used gift cards. Some gift cards say clearly they are for $50. Even if you still leave $25 on the card it still looks tacky. Unused gift cards can be nice gifts but make sure they are for things that the recipient would like. I certainly doubt that my seventy year old father will be buying anything from the Express store in the mall.

One of the worse gifts I ever received was a perfect example of regifting gone awry. I was given a vacuum cleaner for Christmas by a relative. Now perhaps the fact that the gift was “wrapped” in a trash bag should have signaled to me the quality of the gift. Now I’m no vacuum connoisseur but even my untrained eye could tell that the vacuum had been used before. I thanked her for her thoughtfulness but to this day I will remember that I had to change out a full vacuum bag before I could use it the first time.

While I’m at it let me suggest that you wrap the gift with fresh paper. Nothing screams regifting so loudly as torn is torn or crinkled. Oh and trashbags? Not always such a great idea.

So do I regift? Yes. As a matter of fact that’s what we are going to take a look at right now. The other day I received this cute little door hanger. I really don’t have any use for it, but like many regifters, I’m hoping that it will find a nice home elsewhere. This regifting is the perfect kind. The person who gave this to me does not even know the recipient. It’s also a perfect regift because I can use the original packaging. Talk about being green.

As a matter of fact as long was we are talking green let me show you the next gift. I’m using a Starbucks bag. I love these little bags because they have the handles and Starbucks SCREAMS indulgence. In this gift I’m placing a small cosmetic case that I won. The case had an ARV of $10 so just throwing that someone’s way might be nice enough if you were doing a secret Santa. Because I actually work directly with the recipient I’m adding some special touches. I’m enclosing some lipstick that I got as a free sample earlier this year. It’s a full-size sample and most importantly it doesn’t say sample. I’ve also placed

So Merry Christmas and a Regift New Year.