If your mother lives in the UK, you might be surprised/alarmed to discover it’s Mothering Sunday on 14 March.

Mother’s Day (which comes nine months after Father’s Day in Australia - only joking) falls on a variety of days across the world.

If you just know your mother doesn’t want any more stuff (ie she is NOT a Taurus, Cancer or Libra) and she’s a little bit altruistic, she might appreciate this gift idea from Save the Children.

Pay for a baby kit for a newborn, a school uniform so the child can go to school, a clean water filter for potable water, four tree saplings to grow crops, mosquito nets so they can sleep safely at night or a sewing kit so they can make a living, for example.

In return, your own mother will receive a personalised card from you containing a gift certificate of what you’ve bought for a struggling family or child in a Third World country, such as Zimbabwe.

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.

What do you give your wife for Christmas and her 30th birthday who you’ve scorned publicly and worldwide?

If you’re Tiger Woods, you give your deeply unimpressed wife Elin Nordegren a cool $300 million in cash so she can buy hereself a little something. Hell - you could buy an entire department store chain with that.

By Valentine’s Day he would have been emptying his bank account faster than his little Capricorn Sun could have handled thanks to his dwindling sponsorships, so he “economised” with a $3 million customised sport boat for Elin, called um, Solitude so she could go diving, which is her favourite sport.

Mother’s Day is just around the corner. I’d love to see what he comes up with then. I honestly don’t think he can buy his way (or his wife back) out of this one…

Now that our credit card bills are about to arrive(!), January is a great month to have that discussion about money, spending, saving and issues such as gift-giving with your partner. On Friday 22 January there will be a very helpful Venus trine Saturn aspect.

Venus rules love, money and possessions aka gifts, while Saturn rules responsibility, thriftiness, planning and caution. When these guys make a beautiful trine, it is the PERFECT time to discuss gift-giving and a workaround that will please both parties.

Saturn is the Headmaster of the zodiac on a good day and so he treats everything as a lesson or exam to be mastered.

“Gift-giving is incredibly important to me as it lets me show my love and appreciation for others. You would rather save the money for our future.” Discuss.

Alrighty then. On 22 January, why not tackle the gift-giving issue in alphabetical order.

1. Anniversary gifts. Unless you’re a newlywed, most couples stop giving each other traditional anniversary gifts after the first three years and then prefer to go away for the weekend (which, ironically, is more expensive). If it’s not your first, second or third, and it’s not a big milestone like a 10th, 15th, 20th or whatever, perhaps you can agree to have a nice dinner instead. (Obviously you want to agree on this so you can be around to discuss anniversary gift-giving all over again next year.)

2. Birthday gifts. I realised that I’ll be buying a minimum of 19 birthday gifts per year which frankly horrified even me so if you have a partner (and he makes you buy all the gifts for his family, too), you could be up for a lot of gifts.  First make a list of each person you like to give at least one birthday gift to. Multiply that by a modest $50 to get your total. Once you’ve picked yourself off the floor, you may want to put a couple of rules in place. Perhaps you give only gifts to those friends you see at least once a month, and send cards to those you see less often. Or you replace gifts for friends with dinner at your home? Keep in mind that birthdays are the gift occasion where people are most likely to give personalised gifts so it’s worth planning ahead when there’s a special promotion on and to put away ahead of their birthday.

3. Christening gifts. These won’t happen every year thank goodness but you might decide to give gifts only if you live in the same city or base it on your closeness to the child.

4.  Christmas gifts. The Big Kahuna. For your own family you might discuss replacing what you spend on Christmas gifts with the equivalent on a family holiday, or lots of little things for one big-ticket item. Buying gifts only when they’re on sale. Or doing a Kris Kringle. Or setting up a Chrisco account. Or perhaps having a garage sale or selling stuff on eBay to finance Christmas gifts ie you don’t use your savings.

5. Engagement gifts. Again, these won’t happen every year but the woman will get engaged faster if she’s Generation X.

6. Fathers Day gifts. Can you take both Dads out to lunch on the same day to make a family affair and make that the gift? If you have to cut back on gifts somewhere, Father’s Day is the gift-giving occasion least likely to upset your father.

7. Mothers Day gifts. Hmmm, a lot more fuss is necessary here… She is your mum, after all.

8. New baby gifts. Work colleagues spend less per person when they contribute to a group gift whereas family and friends spend more on new baby gifts! Perhaps what gifts the new mother really needs are not cute hanging mobiles…

9. Valentines Day gifts. Will you feel upset if he overlooks it? What was your favourite Valentines Day gift? Did you get what you really wanted? Would you want it again? What about taking a raincheck for the following weekend when the flowers and chocolates/jewellery/lingerie/perfume boxed sets are reduced?

10. Wedding gifts. Again, weddings don’t necessarily happen every year although I did have three in six weeks one year. Are you going to faithfully stick to their registry or will you give them something that is very “them” but not listed? You do have up to one year to give them a wedding gift - at which point you can start the discussion all over again.

People love receiving personalised gifts as it makes them feel special and cherished.

But unless you have a rough idea of what the item’s going to look like, you can worry that you’ve got the spelling right, ticked the right colour or even the correct size.

There are quite a few websites now which provide real-time personalisation so that you can see a mock-up of what your completed gift would look like. Here’s some of my favourites:

American Medical ID - great for family members who may have a serious condition, you can “engrave” in real-time a necklace or bracelet from 14kt, 10kt, sterling silver or stainless steel, and it has engraving samples and tips so you know what to add. If your mum or grandmother is a Cancer, this might stop them worrying.

Just for fun, create a magazine cover with their photo, the theme (ie wedding, anniversary, new baby) and magazine-style headlines ie “6 Things You Never Knew About Samantha and John” or whatever. Perfect for Aries and Leos.

If you really know their favourite colours for their lips, eyes, nails and blush, you can custom-blend cosmetics for them, even including the colour intensity and exras like shimmering glitter for nail polish. Even better, you can send in your old, discontinued favourite lipstick or nail polish etc and get them to colour-match it for you! A lovely gift idea for Taureans and Librans.

One of the most imaginative customised gift websites I’ve ever seen is Shapeways which lets you create 3D printing of your designs. You could have the words of a favourite poem, for example, laser-cut into a candle-holder or into cool napkin rings which would have to be one of the most amazing Valentines Day, anniversary or wedding gifts ever!

Hardcover photo books are not really that new now but Pixable lets you select your photos from Facebook, Flickr or your computer, upload AND receive them within 3 days! Great for Geminis.

For the aviation buff who has nearly everything, you can order a customised airline cart (yes, the trolleys that the hosties roll down the aircraft aisle) from Alcarts in one of 10 colours. Ideal for those with their own plane(!), this storage item is also an original conversation piece as you serve food and beverages in your office, garage, patio, shop or kitchen. I can see this appealing to Aquarians and Sagittarians!

Everyone loves their own name! A cute gift for a new baby or perhaps a housewarming gift is letter art photography by Alphabet Photography. Each “letter” is a photo of an everyday object (such as a door handle) that resembles the letter of the alphabet. A sweet gift for a Pisces as is this one from GrowShow which lets you upload photos in chronological order so you can see the development of your child over time. It also has interlocking photo frames so you can add to them as your child gets older.

Love to theme a party all the way through? Now you can personalise your disposable party plates with photos, text and colour for anniversaries, birthdays, Halloween, with a fun service from Hallmark. I see this being particularly popular for children’s parties!

Candles are always popular with women and now you can customise them with Lumnique, packaged in a nice rectangular glass jar. Select the intention ie peace, love etc, the colour and from 72 fragrances, ranging from the traditional, such as rose, to the frankly unusual, such as Hansel and Gretel (which I’m guessing must smell like gingerbread)!

If you’re looking for a gift with a difference for your favourite health freak, look no further. Now you can customise your own energy bars (chewy, oaty, cripsy), add fruits, nuts and sweets (ranging from chocolate chips to maple syrup), and even fibre or other nutrients, all the while seeing the nutritional panel adjust in real time for sugar, fat, carbohydrate etc. And to cap it off, you can even have your name on the packaging - how cool is that?! I’m going to order some from Element Bars for my Virgo sister!

Most people are familiar with the Successories framed prints in gift shops full of inspirational photos and sayings. Now you can customise your own, using their gallery of images but adding your own message. I think a subversive-style message (ie a straight picture and a sarcastic message) could really amuse a Scorpio, and maybe some Capricorns…

I love the mobile phone covers by GelaSkins - they’re amazing! From manga cartoons to Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, you’re sure to find something amazing here. Most importantly, you can upload your own photos, message and designs to cover covers for your mobile, iPod, laptop, gaming device or Kindle which would impress even the hardest-to-please teen.

If you find clothes hard to fit and you’re forever getting items altered, you might like to check out the customised outfits at April Marin. They make a small range of pretty, tailor-made dresses, allowing you to customise the lengths and widths of everything important!

Does your favourite friend or family member post particularly witty bon mots on Twitter? Did you know that Tweetbookz now lets you create high-quality books containing Tweets from any Twitter account? It might be a lovely gift for a small business owner! 

And last, but certainly not least, I was entranced by Princess Chic which enables you to build your own pair of shoes! From classic stilettos and platform pumps to ballet flats and high-heeled sandals, you can select your material from leather, satin, suede, snake, croc or fish skins, from 17 colours and sizes from 5-11.

Happy New Year!

The start of the new year (and decade) is an excellent time to plan all your gift-giving for 2010. You may remember from an earlier post how the average person gives 16 gifts per year?

So I thought I’d shock myself and work out how many I have to give this year starting on New Year’s Day. Easiest way to do it is month-by-month.

January - my niece’s birthday, my friend Caz’s birthday and my grandfather’s 96th birthday (AND the January sales great for picking up a gift or three)

February - Dad’s birthday, Sarah, Mel and Simone’s birthdays, my other niece’s birthday and Valentines Day

March - a gift-giving reprieve!

April - Aaron’s birthday, sister-in-law’s birthday

May - Mothers Day

June - my birthday, and there are plenty of end-of-financial year sales to stock up on bargains

July - Mum’s birthday, brother’s birthday, nephew’s birthday, Julia’s birthday

August - sister’s birthday

September - nephew’s birthday, Father’s Day

October - stepmother’s birthday, Clara’s birthday

November - Kate and Audra’s birthdays

December - Christmas gifts! Plenty of sales on then.

So without including Christmas gifts, that’s already 23 birthday, Valentine, Mothers Day and Fathers Day gifts. If you go through your calendar and make a list, I guarantee you’re going to be surprised how many gifts you have to budget for. With just one Christmas gift each for my immediate family for Christmas 2010, that’s already 33 gifts (double my modest guesstimate of how many gifts the average gift-giver gives) - and that it doesn’t include the last-minute goodies you have to bring (whether chocolate, wine, flowers or whatever) for someone’s birthday that is not on your list.

At an average cost of say $50, that’s already $1,650 worth of gifts. If I created a gift-giving budget, that would mean I would need to set aside about $137.50 each month to cover gifts (or less if I can find a bargain).

How much will you spend on gifts in 2010?

The latest personalized gifts survey results are in! A new survey by It’s In The Stars on personalized gifts has found the following:

* The top 5 most popular gift occasions on which to give a personalized gift are birthdays, christenings, new babies, anniversaries and Mothers Day

* Jewellery, day of birth and art items are the 3 most popular types of personalized gifts

* The top 3 ways to personalize a gift are by name, day of birth and photography

* Most personalized gifts are given to partners, friends and children

* About 40% of personalized gifts are bought online with Gen Xers the most likely to buy from personalized gift websites

* Most people spend $50 or less on personalized gifts - Baby Boomers spend the most

* Over 60% have given two or more personalized gifts in the last year

* Most people would wait up to 7 days to get something personalized AND delivered to them or the recipient

* Gen Ys are the most likely to make use of a gift wrapping service and to give a gift certificate so the recipient could select their own personalized gift

* Cancerians and Taureans tie as the best gift-givers, voted as the Sun signs known for giving gifts that delight the recipient

For more details visit http://www.itsinthestarsonline.com/verve/_resources/personalized-gifts-survey-findings.pdf

With Mothers Day looming, there will be some of you (shock! horror!) who haven’t yet bought her a gift because a) you have no idea and/or b) you’ve got no money left til payday on the 15th or whatever (and as an adult you know it’s just plain wrong to ask your mum for some money to buy her gift).

But there is a relatively easy gift that anyone can give their mum and it’s probably in a drawer or on your computer hard drive right now. Yes folks, it’s a family photo taken at some point.

An easy but oh-so-happy-making gift is to get a photo where she looks particularly happy and pretty, get it (re)printed and framed in a nice frame from the local gift shop or if it’s a really good one, get it blown up and put on canvas. It’s personal and sentimental and she’s sure to love it.

A greeting card accompanied by flowers, a meal and a gift certificate are the most popular gifts that will be given this Mothers Day.

According to the US National Retail Federation, this year’s Mother’s Day Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey shows Americans will spend about $US124 per person, compared to last year’s $US139 average - which is STILL A LOT! (Like it’s about $AUD170… Arghhh - I don’t spend that much on my mum - maybe a third of that? - so I’ll have to hide this article.)

From those (outrageous!) figures, I guessed that this Mothers Day, people are actually giving their mothers a number of gifts + brunch/lunch/dinner/burnt cheese on toast.

The most popular gift for 67% of Americans is - you guessed it - flowers (for mums who don’t get hayfever at least) at an average spend of $US25. These would be accompanied by a greeting card (85% for $US7).

Then 54% plan to take their mothers out for a meal but the average cost is $US44 which is more like a Chinese takeaway for six, or maybe a posh brunch for two somewhere.

Then about 37% will give her a gift certificate for her favourite store or website for about $US36 (Mum, don’t read this but you’ll be getting a Historic Houses membership).

I wouldn’t have predicted this, but the next in line as a gift is clothing - probably in a vain attempt to stop them wearing their jeans hoiked up to their armpits ($US35, by 31%).

Jewellery will be bought by 28% of gift-givers for an average of $US72 which makes it the second-most expensive item given (and remember, mothers love carats). Books and CDs are given by 24% for an average of $US18 (then again, books do cost less in the US).

Then we get onto my personal favourite of personal services (a spa, massage or facial) of which 16% are indulging their mums for an average of $US55. Housewares and gardening tools ,which frankly I would have placed a little higher in the gift-giving stakes, will be given by 15% for about $US34 per person.

Drum roll please… The most expensive item being given by 10% to their mums, step-mums, grandmothers and other women are….consumer electronics for an average of $US76 so I imagine there will be a lot of groovy mothers with iPods this Mothers Day.

And if you’re getting something made up specially for your mum, let us know in our survey…