It’s that time of year! You know, that time when you attend parties and drink merrily only to find out that alcohol causes your less than attractive colleague to confess all of their secrets, including the fact that they think you are the hottest creature to ever have graced their office cubicle, and that the plug for the photocopier does not actually require a jiggle before anything will print but your hot ass perks up each time you do it. And that a little more alcohol causes that same colleague to believe that they are a sex machine who taught Justin Timberlake all of his moves, but there’s this new one that they haven’t shown anyone yet, a move that they have saved to preview in front of you before it becomes just another knotch in Justin’s belt as he pursues his mission to bring sexy back. The same dance move that causes you to retreat to the protective walls of a toilet cubicle, grab
bing two glasses of champagne on the way to keep you company…the same champagne that you quickly skull down before a heavy feeling hits your stomach and before you know it you’re puking violently into the toilet bowl….the same toilet bowl that was right next to you to prevent a huge mess and even more embarrassment, the fortuitous nature of it all leaving you with a warm fuzzy Christmas feeling.
Then there’s the day itself. The one where you get pissed again and people give you stuff and expect you to give them stuff back in return. Stuff costs money. You happen to be a student. Doom. Or is it? Here are a couple of ideas to avoid disappointment with gifts that cost next to nothing.
· Discover the wonder of $1 reserve prices on trademe. A lot of people selling stuff on trademe nominate a starting bid and reserve price of $1. Of course these people do this with the mindset that buyers will see their item as a bargain and that this will entice heaps of people to become involved in the auction, to engage in a bidding war and push the price up considerably. In some cases this does happen, but the great news is that in other cases it doesn’t! This means that if you place enough $1 bids on items with a reserve price of $1 then you could quite possibly win auctions and do your Christmas shopping for crap all dosh. Note: do not try the same thing on ebay as the cost of shipping means stuff is not dirt cheap, even if your winning bid is incredibly low.
Shop at stores where everything is cheap. The best examples of this are places like the $2 Shop, the 1, 2, 3 Dollar Store, and all the other variations of the same concept. These shops cater for tiny and small budgets. Those on a tiny budget can wrap up a $2 coffee mug, boomerang, comb set or plant pot whereas those on a small budget can get all four items and make a stocking! Postie Plus is another great store to get gifts on the cheap. Their stores have bargain bins that contain items priced from $1.
Woo hoo! So do not despair that all of your money has gone on alcohol! Just head on down to those great stores just mentioned. Or if you can't even manage that, raid the neighbors garden for flowers ... everyone likes flowers!
News/Features 
It’s that time of year! You know, that time when you attend parties and drink merrily only to find out that alcohol causes your less than attractive colleague to confess all of their secrets, including the fact that they think you are the hottest creature to ever have graced their office cubicle, and that the plug for the photocopier does not actually require a jiggle before anything will print but your hot ass perks up each time you do it. And that a little more alcohol causes that same colleague to believe that they are a sex machine who taught Justin Timberlake all of his moves, but there’s this new one that they haven’t shown anyone yet, a move that they have saved to preview in front of you before it becomes just another knotch in Justin’s belt as he pursues his mission to bring sexy back. The same dance move that causes you to retreat to the protective walls of a toilet cubicle, grab
TrackBack URI for this entry
