On with the continued results of the ZERO DOLLAR Experiment - an experiment in holiday and Christmas spending whereby I spend absolutely NO MONEY for Christmas this year yet I still provide my family, friends, and helpers in my life with a lovely holiday of gift giving. Guess what? It is working! Just look at the amazing gifts I am able to share with my friends below.
Let me reiterate that I am not impoverished or on welfare. This is an exercise in living greener by keeping things out of the landfill, building community by sharing, and demonstrating how - in a down economy - it is still possible to have lovely gifts for Christmas.
If I can do this - I know you can. Get out there and share!!
BUSINESS PARTNERS and FRIENDS GIFTS
Mario - My Business Partner, Good Friend, and Photographer Extraordinaire – Five full sized hand-painted or decorated paper photography backdrop rolls. While these are older and used, they still turned out to be a pretty darned good for my fav photographer buddy as there were several different colors. I looked up the average price of something like this on Ebay and think I have the estimated value fairly accurate. Estimated value – $170.00.
Katie - My Personal Assistant and Good Friend – Hampton Bay Solar LED lights and "A Gardener's Journal" diary book to help her with her new home and garden; "RX From The Garden" book and Sprout Seeds to help her with her allergies. Estimated value – $50.00.
Josette - My Senior Garden Helper and Good Friend - An amazing Smith & Hawken carry bag with six brand new Smith & Hawken wooden handled tools and a "Wicked Bugs" book. Estimated value – $55.00.
TOTAL ESTIMATED VALUE FOR MY BUSINESS BUDDY GIFTS – $275.00
THE ZERO DOLLAR EXPERIMENT - HOW I DID IT --
All the gifts I am giving have been discovered on Freecycle.org, Craigslist.or, or have been given to me over the course of the last year for free. Everything was given to me at absolutely no cost, yet are great gifts that I am proud to give to others. Below are links to the previous gift lists and rules post -
- I posted the original outline on the rules I am using for the experiment here - ZERO DOLLAR Experiment
- I posted my first gift post where I show what I have spent for the helpers in my community - HELPER POST.
- I posted my second gift post where I show what I have spent for the friends and business workers who have helped me to wonderful things with my business - FRIEND POST.
- I posted my third post where I show what I have used as gift wrap - GIFT WRAP POST.
- I posted my fourth post where I show what I got our Mom's - MOM POST.
- I posted my fifth post on what I got the immediately family - FAMILY POST.
Filed under: RRRecycle, Save Money
Tags: Christmas, Experiment, Gift, Gifts, green, money, recycle, reuse, Save, Zero Dollar
