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Last Minute Quality Giving on a Beer Budget

How fast this time of year has come…again! It’s cliché to say how time flies, but this year I can honestly say it really did, faster than ever before. So here we are in the midst of the holidays with 2 days until Christmas, Hanukah is over and the New Year looming.  I have put together some good, quick (and cheap) ideas for gift giving because any assistant knows, the best rule of gift giving is to make sure it is something the person would like want or need instead of something you think they should have.  And this blog is for you, the assistant.

The busiest time of the year for an assistant is the holidays. Not only are you responsible for your own regular duties, but you must now add handling holiday cards and often hundreds of gift buying duties. (To date, the smallest amount of gift giving I have been responsible for are 80 gifts and December is always a blur). For years I’d end up spending way too much money doing last minute shopping for MY family. Aside from toys, it became very hard to find inexpensive gifts on such short notice. Here are some ideas.

Have you visited your local Goodwill store lately? Yes, you heard me right.

Here’s what to look for—

1) Ugly pictures! Yes, but take out that cheap piece of “art” and replace it with a photo you’ve taken of someone in your family. Depending on the size you can get the frame for $2.00 and the photo for $.25. Or you can spring for the canvas print option, where your photos are printed on ready to hang canvas. These start at $13.00 for the 5×7 size. Walgreen’s, CVS, Kinko’s offers this quick print option and same day printing. Or online check out www.shutterfly.com, www.zazzle.com, or www.vistaprint.com.

2) Mugs and commuter coffee cups—Pair a clean, unscratched mug with a $10 Starbucks gift card. Mugs cost about $.25 to 2.00 and some are often new. If you want to splurge you can buy someone a stainless travel mug with their photo on it for $12.99 at CVS, Walmart or Costco. Better yet, a photo of you and your bestie. Just supply the photo of you and your friend’s mug.

3) Set of dishes—A teen just getting started would appreciate these but don’t get them grandma’s china. It is also perfectly acceptable to mix and match. Even more appreciated if it comes with a grocery gift card.

4) I have found one or two collectable books in the book section, but this takes a bit of time and patience. But you can find some a book for everyone’s taste.

Lobster Gram, Cheese Club, 1-800-Flowers, Beer-of-the Month, Wine-of-the-Month—it’s an online smorgasbord!

If it’s really crunch time, get online and buy a gift and take advantage of their “print it now” option to print a gift certificate that tells them their gift will be arriving soon. Try to present it as a gift that you print on nice paper, put it in a pretty envelope, and tie a bow on it! Done.

www.livelob.com, www.1800flowers.com/Christmas, http://www.greatclubs.com

Gift Cards—

Once it was thought to be impersonal to give a gift card, but they are so customized now you can get a specific card to anyone’s favorite store. Make it even more thoughtful with an accessory. Maybe pair ear buds ($10 Best Buy or Walgreen’s) with an itunes gift card $10. Pair a usable tool or paintbrush with a Home Depot gift card if someone is fixing up his or her home. Dinner and a movie (give Subway and AMC) gift cards. Of course, the price is up to you with gift cards, but remember to put thought with it and it will be appreciated. And you don’t have to go to a million individual stores. You can get most cards at any gift card carousel at any major grocery store (at least in Los Angeles you can).

Magazine Subscriptions—

Talk about the gift that keeps on giving! Sign someone up for a gift subscription, print out the certificate notification, and attach the current issue of the magazine. Easy breezy and fully customizable to someone’s personal interest because there are magazines for planning your wedding to bass fishing. Remember, what do they like? Cooking? Traveling? Self-Help? Hint–look for coupons online before purchasing. You almost never have to pay the price on the card that falls out of the magazine.

http://www.magazinediscountcenter.com

Kinko’s—

Have you been there lately? The best gift I ever gave to my family was a calendar with all of our birthdays noted. On the top of that family member’s month was photos of them that I had or they had posted on Facebook. On the front was a collage of photos of all of our family members. I knocked out 25 gifts in one fail swoop and they are still asking for another calendar. Who knew? It took time, but it was much easier than tromping around the mall. And I could upload it all to Kinko’s website and picked it up 2 days later. Check out your local Kinko’s where you can get many quick and personalized gifts. Bring your iphoto library and order away!

www.fedex.com/office

A Donation Has Been Made In Your Name To—

There is always an organization that can use money to provide desperate help to others. The Red Cross is an international organization that shows up to every disaster and helps those in need. But there our countless others that may hold a soft spot in the heart of your gift recipient. Maybe they’ve had a family member die from a disease and you can donate to the organization that is working to find a cure. You can pay and print out your donation card to present to your recipient. The amount you donate is unknown to the recipient. And you get a tax write off. This is especially good for the person who has everything and many people benefit from one gift.

The bottom line is that the holidays really are NOT just about giving. I find that when I am together with people I care about, or reconnecting with them just because it’s the holidays, it confirms the sense of love and caring we all have for each other even if we don’t talk regularly. It reminds us all how connected we are—old and new relationships. And find gratitude in everything, even that difficult family member. Be grateful that you’ll only have to see them during the holidays!

Have fun, hug your family and really see and appreciate them. I appreciate you, everyone who has kept up with my blog. Happy 2014—here I come!

Sign off

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Christmas Decoration Storage

Okay, I know, Christmas hasn’t even happened and I am already talking about storage

for your Christmas decorations, wrapping paper, lights, and ornaments. But this is the time when you’re buying those things and the storage options to contain them are plentiful, in the stores, and you are too.

If you consider your gift-wrap and decorations necessities, consider this a necessity too. If you’re going to spend the money for these things, they will last years longer if you pack them up easily and effortlessly in protective containers. The other financial bonus is they are usually on sale. Jo-Ann’s Fabric and Crafts have their 60% off holiday sale going on. This includes holiday storage containers too. Lowes, Home Depot, Walmart, Target all have good assortments as well.

Originally I used to think this is one more way to get my money at holiday time. Yes, the cutesy colors to match the holidays (orange and black for Halloween, red and green for Christmas) made me want to hurl. But you know what? When I needed to get them out year after year, it was so easy to spot which holiday I needed. Most of the clients I’ve had decorate for Christmas the week after Thanksgiving. Everyone knows the bins come out, the handyman is scheduled to come, and everything is clearly marked. The Thanksgiving decorations go back into their bins and the Christmas ones are rotated out. Doing this for your clients is one more way to impress them with your organization skills. It is one small tool from my core basic system to “idiot proof everything.” This system saves you expensive man-hours of explaining where things are and which boxes to pull year-after-year. Packing and unpacking is a breeze because everything has a place.

As for the containers themselves, I recommend staying away from the bags, as they don’t offer much protection when your kids are tossing them around in the attic. However, they are great for under bed storage if you do not have space for the large plastic bins. Here are a few links to some of my favorite containers.

Wreath Storage

http://www.homzproducts.com/Scripts/Wreath-Storage-2-Prodview.html

Christmas Wrapping Paper Storage

http://www.homzproducts.com/Scripts/Wrap-Storage-2-Prodview.html

Outdoor light storage

http://www.homzproducts.com/Scripts/Holiday-Snaplock-light-wrap-box-Prodview.html

Ornament or Gift Decoration Box

http://www.snapware.com/products/home-storage-ornament-box-1098785

Love Snapware Snap “N Stack. Not just for holidays and it keeps like items together.

Make sure to store areas you decorate together. Keep all the tree lights with the tree items. Extension cords, power surge plugs, lights, ornaments and tree topper, should all go together in one bin. Patriots of organization be fearless! Mix it up. You can take the bins for the tree lights and put it inside of a larger plastic bin that holds everything for the tree.

One last note on buying and packing up your Christmas decorations, mark your bins with a large paper with large print on the short and long side of your bins; “tree,” “outdoor decorations,” “mantel decorations,” etc.  Tape them on or better yet, slip them in a fed ex label holder (these have the best peel and stick adhesive) and viola!

You’ll thank me next year.

 

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The Season of Lists, Lists and More Lists

‘Tis the season my friends for all those constantly updated annual lists to come into play. Frankly, by now you should be at least halfway through the gift buying cycle for everyone on your employer’s gift list, holidays cards should be at the printer, and final lists approved. And if you’re not yet kicked into high gear just wait until Monday! Right after the Thanksgiving holiday is when everyone gets the wake up call that they better get busy.

Back around September all these lists were dusted off, given to the employer for approval and gift decisions. Additions and deletions were made and depending on your employer, you may have made the gift buying suggestions, be the buyer yourself and some of you may have a gift buyer or personal shopper make a presentation and the gifts will be handled by them. (You lucky ducks!)  I used to be personally responsible for 300 personal gifts and another 200 corporate gifts in addition to my regular monthly responsibilities. I hated the holidays. And now, to the utter dismay of my teenage daughter, I can honestly say I loathe the mall, and see shopping in Beverly Hills as a sentence worst than the plague. But I digress.

Here are the lists I keep which I do update throughout the year.

Suggested Additions List

           This is the list we start out with of who has come into my employers life the past year that may go onto any of the lists below. Maybe the past year they were in construction and have a contractor or subcontractor to add, have a new employee, someone in the family has a new baby, or if they are in the movie industry, they have a new movie family depending on which project(s) they are working on at that time.

 Christmas Gift List

This is a database that lists the names, relationships (vendor, family, friend), level of gift designated (small, med, large), card message, method of delivery (local or shipping, hand deliver or runner), what was given the years prior and who is handling the purchase.

Christmas Gift List for the Gift Buyer

The same as above but additions are updated (in red) with the date of the change, has addresses and phone numbers (for deliveries), and the method of delivery is important so they know if they are gift wrapping for shipping or hand delivery, shows the date I want the gifts received, and after the holidays lists the final costs of each gift including delivery (for tax purposes later).

 Christmas Card List (Personal)

This database contains the name, address, relationship and if they will also receive a gift or donation to a charity on the recipient’s behalf. Usually everyone on the Christmas gift list is on one of the holiday card lists. (Note on card lists: if your printer is busy to get to the fancy 4-color card you’re printing, try to get the envelopes printed in advance so you can start addressing. Usually they always have a press running black ink. Back in the day a calligrapher had to have them weeks in advance. Now we label or laser print them but the sooner the better. Stuffing is the easy part.)

 Christmas Card List (Business)

This database contains the name, address, relationship and each will usually receive a gift card inserted in their holiday card letting them know a donation has been made to a charity on their behalf.

Employee Bonus Lists (coordinate getting the checks w/the gifts and cards)

This lists the employee, relationship and amount they will receive as a bonus (at least amount equal to one weeks salary), and what they received years prior.

So you can see, the gift season is ongoing and really begins long before September. For example, the charity has to be picked, charity cards designed and printed, monetary amount designated to donate, photos taken for personal holiday cards, addresses accurate, calls made to find out who is in town and who isn’t, corporate and office gifts that are perishable coordinated for delivery a week before their holiday closure, and we aren’t even talking about the personal gift buying yet!

The most important gifts you will buy will be for your employer’s immediate family and the people your employer works for. I recommend paying attention to the gifts your employer gives for birthdays (the monthly birthday list will be discussed in a later blog) as well as honing a taste for what the individuals close to them like. If you don’t know them personally, they have an assistant who can clue you into if they collect anything, have a favorite artist, author, wine, etc. Successful gift buying is your ability to pay attention to what people like and not what you want to give. (Gift buying blog to come.)

One thing I can recommend now that I have a little distance between myself and being on the exhausting front lines of the season is to enjoy the ambiance. As much as I don’t like Beverly Hills, even I must admit, there is such beautiful scenery and spirit in Beverly Hills and in all the shopping outlets that is not there at any other time of the year–trust me it isn’t! The holiday music is playing, the air is crisp, the retail people seem nicer, and the decorations are bright, sparkling and inviting.  Like everything else in life, stop, take a breath and appreciate it.