If you have family scattered across the planet, it can cost a small fortune getting everyone their birthday gifts on time, let alone making sure their Christmas presents arrive on time!

This story is why it pays to organise your gifts at least six weeks in advance…

I saw a gorgeous coffee table book, French Country House which I thought would be perfect for, oh well never mind who in case she’s reading this(!) at Australian bookstore, Dymocks for $AUD100 and nearly fell off my chair at how expensive it was.

So I searched for it with those very helpful people at Amazon and was verrry interested to see it was $US22.76. Allowing for our exchange rate, it’s still only about $AUD25.

Bargain! But then I have to get it here…

Sending it to me in Australia via priority courier shipping to arrive within 3-5 business days is $US21.99 per shipment + $US7.99 per item = $AUD32 (approx). So I’m saving about $AUD43 ($AUD75-32). Can I do better?

Expedited shipping (8-16 business days) is $US9.99 (shipment) + $US5.99 per item = $AUD17 (approx). So now I’m saving $AUD58. Can I wring it out even more?

Yes, indeedy. Standard shipping (18-32 business days) is $4.99 shipment + $4.99 per item = $AUD11 (approx).

So by allowing up to 6.4 weeks ahead from now (which takes me from today’s date – 26 April – to about 10 June), I can save myself  $64.

Not everyone is going to buy a $100 coffee table book of course, but by planning ahead, you can save yourself quite a bit, up to $39, for example if it has to get to Israel. To make it apples with apples, say you’re going to send a Amazon book to a friend in:

Africa – standard ($13.98), expedited ($20.98), priority ($49.98)

Asia-Pacific – standard ($9.98), expedited ($19.98), priority ($35.98)

Atlantic/Carribbean – standard ($13.98), expedited ($20.98), priority ($49.98)

Australia – standard ($9.98), expedited ($15.98), priority ($29.98)

Canada – standard ($8.98), expedited ($10.98), priority ($49.98)

Europe – standard ($7.98), expedited ($12.48), priority ($35.98)

Israel – standard ($10.98), expedited ($15.98), priority ($49.98)

Japan – standard ($8.98), expedited ($13.98), priority ($26.98)

Latin America – standard ($9.98), expedited ($20.98), priority ($36.98)

Middle East – standard ($13.98), expedited ($20.98), priority ($49.98)

It’s quite a difference isn’t it? You can see how much it starts to cost if you leave it too late!

So if you have to buy a wedding, anniversary, christening or birthday gift in June for a friend or family member who lives overseas (or who like me, he or she lives in Australia), you need to organise their gift now to pay the lowest rate for shipping…

As we all know, most couples getting married these days have already been living together, they may have already been married; they certainly have all the kitchen accoutrements you can poke a meat thermometer at, but you can never have enough date nights once you’re married!

One very clever Chicago couple who lurrrves to eat out realised that they too, didn’t want any more traditional department store registry “stuff”, but were busting (hopefully not out of their pants) to try some of the latest and greatest restaurants to hit Oprah’s hometown city.

They’ve created Foodie Registry which allows couples to select restaurants they’d love to try, for their guests to give them a gift certificate towards dining there, and it’s a wonderful idea actually for anyone else who’d love a special night out for say, their anniversary or birthday.

It also makes it soooooo much easier for couples to have something to write about in their wedding gift thank you cards. They’re going to be much more genuinely excited about dining at say, French restaurant Marche, than say, a pair of white hand towels.

Foodie Registry plans to expand into other American cities, too. Expect a queue of Taureans, Leos, Librans and Capricorns…

Did you buy any of the top 24 gifts listed for 2009 for an anniversary, birthday, christening, Christmas, engagement, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, new baby, Valentine’s Day or wedding gift? I bet you did!

According to consumer insights company Unity Marketing, they were:

1 (46%). Books (I gave one each as a Christmas prezzie and a thank-you gift for Dad, to Mum for Mother’s Day, and to nephew Sol for his birthday but I’m sure I gave many more!)
2 (36%). Chocolate – boxed or pick-your-own (hmmm – does that count buying them for yourself?)
4 (28%). Men’s clothing (to brother David for his birthday)
5 (26%). Bath and body soaps and lotions
6 (24%). Toys including action figures, building sets, sports toys, vehicles
7 (22%). Games/puzzles
8 (22%). Children’s clothing (for niece Camille, and nephews Lachie and Sol for Christmas)
9 (20%). Candles and/or candle accessories
10 (19%). Flowers, plants and /or garden accessories including bouquets
11 (17%). Wine and/or wine tasting gifts
12. (16%) Gift baskets including cookies, snacks, fruit, candy, wine (I gave this to Audra for her housewarming)
13 (15%). Video/DVDs (I gave a boxed set of the Marx Bros to my grandfather for Christmas)
14 (15%). Fragrance/perfume
15 (15%). Electronic games such as Wii
16 (14%). Women’s accessories eg handbags, belts, wallets, scarves, shawls
17 (14%). Coffe and tea gifts
18 (14%). MP3 players, iPods and personal audio devices
19 (13%). Plush/stuffed animals
20 (13%) Teenage clothing (I wonder if so few were bought because we’re afraid of getting it wrong?!)
21 (13%). Dining/restaurant experience
22 (12%) Liquors and spirits (I gave someone champagne…)
23 (12%) Gift card – discount department stores and mass merchants eg WalMart, Target etc (I’m surprised this was so far down the list but Mum got one for Mother’s Day and stepmother Jo for her birthday although it was really a gift voucher)
24. (12%) Baby/infants’ clothing including booties and hats (I got a personalised one made for niece Camille for Christmas – she was running a bit late being born though so it really became her birth-day present).

I’d love to know where personalised gifts came in on the list… As well as homewares that all of us seem to be asked to buy on wedding gift registry lists!

On Monday 12 April 2010, MasterCard will launch the MasterCard MarketPlace which will feature more than 28,000 merchants. MarketPlace will work with NextJump, a company that specialises in personalised shopping aka “Customers who bought this also bought this”.

MarketPlace members can access special promotions those as well as hear about ones from favourite merchants and be notified when they have in-store specials.

And similar to American Express’s Daily Wish discount offer, MarketPlace will feature an “Overwhelming Offer” which lists a limited quantity of product at a particularly good price, such as a $100 Best Buy gift card for 50% off.

None of the merchants will receive the customers’ details but instead can create promotions to target particular groups, such as mothers with young children and so on.

They may fine-tune it as time goes on but if they could include an important date/occasion calendar so that MarketPlace members (I’m thinking about men, here) get notified in plenty of time about an upcoming anniversary, birthday or wedding with special offers to match, that would be well….priceless.

Noticed any invitations to spend your tax return flooding your inbox?

Thursday 15 April 2010 is US Tax Day, the last day when US citizens, and aliens (gosh, I love that term – hilarious!) can mail their tax returns for federal and state government taxes. April 15 has been Tax Day since 1955 so people are pretty used to it.

Retailers are also used to it and invite you to spend your return – the average tax return was $US2,100 in 2004 – with them.

While the sensible thing to do would be to use it pay off your mortgage, credit card, car or student loan, to (gasp) save it or even to buy shares or superannuation, if you get around $2,100 back as your tax return, why not use it to cover most – if not all – of your gift-giving responsibilities?

Make use of those post-April 15 sales to put gifts away for Christmas, birthdays and other gift-giving occasions and you’ll be ahead. $2,100 would cover 40 x $50 gifts and one x moderately fancy $100 gift, say for a wedding, or you could splurge on a $500 weekend away with your partner, and you’d still be able to afford 32 x $50 gifts, or even 16 x $100 presents…

If you spend more than a few hours a week online, your time could earn you free gift cards that could cover someone’s anniversary, baby, birthday, Christmas, Mother’s Day or housewarming gift.

If you live in Canada, the UK or US (sadly it’s restricted to those three countries so far or I would sign up in a flash), you can sign up for free with Swagbucks.

You earn gift cards – and plenty of other merchandise which could be good to cross off certain gift-giving obligations (such as those endless children’s birthday parties for example!) – simply for surfing the net.

After registering, you install a Swagbucks toolbar at the top of your screen. It will give you results from Google and Ask.com which will periodically allocate you a certain digital dollar value per search. You can also earn SwagBucks by referring friends to join, filling out polls, shopping in the Swagbucks mall and recycling mobile phones.

Facebook, Twitter and other social media websites have made it possible for everyone to know about an amazing deal in your neck of the woods or your area of interest.

A number of US social media merchants have sprung up where merchants can entice new customers to try a new product, get an amazing deal on a close-out item or to be one of the first to trial a brand-new service.

The biggest and best-known are Groupon (which pays you $10 if you refer friends), LivingSocial, BuyWithMe and NimbleBuy.

You simply sign up with one or more of them to get daily emailed deals for your city (or for national and/or online-only deals).

Is there a catch? Natch. To make it worth the merchants’ while, they require a minimum number of customers to ”buy in” to the deal. So if you’re keen say to pick up a luxurious massage in Miami or a baby hamper in Baltimore for a ridiculously reduced price, you’ll need a number of others in your area wanting that same thing.

Which is where social media comes in. You Twitter it and/or facebook it like crazy to your mates and get them to pass the word on so you can all benefit from the low, low prices.

This could be great if you’re seeking some bargains on upcoming gifts for an anniversary, birthday, christening, engagement, Mothers’s Day, new baby or wedding gift.

It’s In The Stars is seeking a new couple to Be the Face of LoveStars for 2010: could it be you and your partner?

You could win a $AUD500 gift card to spend at your favourite retailer, or one of 5 x BabyStars boxed gift certificates worth $109 each to redeem for your own BabyStars report or to give your favourite new parent for their new baby or as a unique christening gift.

LoveStars reports make ideal personalised gifts for an anniversary, birthday, engagement, Valentine’s Day or wedding and yes, you will need to have one of your own (or borrow a friend’s LoveStars report) to take part.

Set up your camera timer so you can take a great shot of you and your partner enjoying reading your LoveStars report - maybe you’re wearing your wedding outfit, curled up on the sofa, or in a hammock!

For your chance to win, you’ll need to email at least one shot in low resolution (72dpi) and high resolution (300dpi).

Click here for more details. Competition closes 31 March 2010.

As you can probably guess, gift-giving is a pretty big hobby of mine but for some people, it’s not so easy let alone enjoyable!

LeverageCard is a very handy website which combines a few time- and money-saving features to do with gifts.

If you’re likely to forget it’s Aunt Martha’s birthday again, or you’ll be in the doghouse if you overlook your anniversary once more, enter all the key dates in the Calendar section and they’ll remind you when it’s coming up. I estimated a lazy 23 gifts that I have to budget for and remember – you could have many more!

Got a gift card or three lying around in your desk drawer? And lemme guess, you’re one of those people who forget (arghhh! how can anyone forget!?) to use it…Don’t be an ungrateful gift card recipient: Enter the store, value and expiry date in Gift Cards. You can buy, swap or check its balance and in some cases, earn interest!

Belong to a couple of airline and hotel programs? (I have a rapidly dwindling account with United Airlines (mainly because they don’t have a gift program that I can cash them in for) and now concentrate on Velocity which is tied to Virgin Blue, Atlantic and Emirates which offers flights, accommodation AND gifts.

Get all your updates in one place, see how many points you’ve earned (which could pay for an upcoming birthday gift or maybe you could put something away for Christmas?) in Points & Miles.

And finally, based on the gift cards and loyalty programs you belong to, you’ll receive targeted offers in the Offers & Savings section.

Sorted!

If you’re one of the 19% of consumers who received a dud Christmas present (and you’ve managed to get hold of the receipt), you’d better get cracking if you want to return them for a refund!

While some stores will allow refunds up to a year later, many will refund goods brought in their original packaging (hmmm – how often does that happen!?) and tags up to the end of January.

Other stores won’t give you a refund at all but merely an exchange or credit for something else in their store. According to the US National Retail Federation, American retailers took back an estimated $17 billion of unwanted gifts. What’s more, 17% of retailers have tightened their return policies.

If you can’t get cash and you really don’t like the item nor feel you could regift it to another, think carefully how you could use the credit note to “purchase” another gift which will save you spending your own money. You could always select one of the items there for Valentines Day, your anniversary, birthday, Mothers Day or even for Christmas 2010.