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.

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!

Too many people complain that manners have gone out the window but one crafty (and seemingly thoughtful) way to get them to send you (and others) a thank you card for their anniversary, birthday, christening, Christmas, engagement, housewarming, new baby or wedding gift is creating personalised stamps with their faces on them! 

Get a sweet shot of their littlest member to join the family, of the couple looking super glamorous or maybe it’s your favourite one of yourself that was taken years ago when you weighed less and had more hair. Who cares!

You can order them from Royal Mail in the UK from just GBP7.58 for 10 stamps, from Australia Post for $AUD24.00 for 20 stamps and from Zazzle for the United States Postal Services from $US18.95 for 20 stamps.

You can now even put your logo in there so a sheet of these could be a great gift idea for a friend or family member who’s just begun their own company!

Only 6% of people will fail to use their plastic pre-charged gift cards this year - down from 10% in 2009.

The recession, as well as people getting used gift cards, means more people are taking advantage of cash pre-charged into a gift card.

But some are still letting their gift become useless…

Here’s 8 clever ways to make sure you get the full use of your gift cards:

1. Keep them together. If you don’t have enough room in your wallet (or envisage it becoming like George’s engorged wallet on one episode of Seinfeld), keep them in an envelope stuck on the inside of your Lever Arch file for bills so you see them regularly (what? you don’t have a filing system for your invoices?!) - it may be too tempting for someone else if you sticky-taped them to your fridge door.

2. Register them. Websites such as LeverageCard or PlasticJungle let you register your PINs and track balances and expiry dates.

3. Read the fine print. If Aunt Jessica bought yours online on eBay, it’s possible you have less time left on it than you think. If you received pre-charged Visa gift card, that little sucker will ebb away the total with nasty little fees every month until you use it or it’s used up - whichever comes first.

4. Schedule it. Why not use it up to buy gifts for Valentine’s Day? For your father’s birthday? Or around your next payday if you want to add a little extra to the amount? Or the next time you’ll be passing by that mall/shop/restaurant?

5. Trade it. No sense being stuck with a gift card for a store you don’t like. GiftCardRescue.com, SwapAGift.com and PlasticJungle.com could be handy if you get an unsuitable gift card.

6. Give low-value cards. Just as people hate breaking a $100 bill, but have no problem frittering away 5 x $20 bills, buy a number of the same gift card in low denominations. Many people like to save them and “dole” them out per purchase. And plus, some establishments don’t give change…

7. Take the time to give specific store cards for stuff they like. Not only does this show you took at least a little time in finding a store that they like, but it gets around the awkward pre-charged Visa cards that drop in value as time goes on as the fees erode the total amount.

8. Donate the leftovers. If you really don’t think you can bear the embarrassment of cashing in the say, remaining $2.17 left on your gift card (good heavens, they might think you were a cheapskate!) you can always donate it. GiftCardGiver.com stockpiles gift cards with tiny amounts into higher value cards that are then donated to the needy.

A post-Christmas spending survey confirms what most of us already know by looking at our credit card balances: we overspent on Christmas gifts.

The US Consumer Reports survey found that consumers planned to spend an average $699 on Christmas gifts but this was blown out to $811, with about one in five spending over $1,000 on gifts.

Almost half (47%) of the consumers were very naughty, using their credit cards to buy some or all of their gifts. And since credit cards feel like magic money(!), they spent more, too, with an average Christmas gift expenditure of $896. Those who lived in households earning over $100K spent a whopping $1,570 on their credit cards.

While 40% plan to settle their Christmas gift credit card debt by the end of January, one in five won’t pay it off until March with 9% expecting to pay it off in full by June.

As you can probably guess, I didn’t spend $1,000 on gifts - probably closer to about $350 - but then I like buying Christmas and birthday gifts all year long as it’s fun AND it lessens the expense in December.

If you plan to spend $1,000 on Christmas (and/or birthday) gifts this year, remember that you need to put away about $83.33 a month every month until December (or buy gifts to that value every month when you see something great on sale).

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.

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.

Whether you’ve got something amazing planned or you’re strapped for cash, you can never have enough romance on Valentine’s Day…

The idea of giving little IOUs for back massages and breakfast-in-bed isn’t new, but the Simply Romantic Ideas blog has created 14 professional-looking coupons featuring a big red rose, that you could print off for free to surprise your beloved.

Ranging from the innocent (”Good for one free home-cooked candlelight dinner”) to the not-so-innocent (”Good for one sexual fantasy come true” - well, I could see trouble ahead with that one…) as well as the potentially ruiniously expensive (”Good for one free day at the spa” - does the man not know he could be up for HUNDREDS of dollars!!! Hmmm - don’t include THAT one if you’re on a budget), you could find something that just adds that little extra to Valentines Day.

Everyone gets a gift that’s not quite “them” for Christmas. So what are your options?

1. Get a refund. You can only do this if you know the gift-giver well enough that he or she would happily give you the receipt so you can get what you want (ie cash). The cleverest thing you can do for your personal wealth-building for 2010, if you get the cash, is to make sure you spend it on an anniversary, upcoming birthday or 2010 Christmas gift and then you can cross one gift off your list!

2. Regift it. I got three boxes of Guylian shell chocolates - and as much as I love them, that’s kinda overkill (on my thighs). So someone is going to get a box of them as a hostess gift for a dinner party or whatever.

3. Reuse them. Strange clothing items might be perfect for your (or your kids’) dress-up box, with especially glitzy jewellery great for decorating your Christmas tree in 11 months’ time! An ugly ceramic vase could be “planted” in the garden to hold a flowering shrub that disguises the original container. A too-fruity perfume could be fine as a bathroom atomiser!

4. Sell them. eBay estimates approximately $1billion worth of gifts are unwanted every Christmas. However, since you will be “competing” with hundreds of thousands of other sellers trying to flog the same thing, it may actually be a better time to BUY items still in their original packaging in January as you won’t get a very good price for whatever you’re trying to sell right now. Start selling next month, perhaps…

5. Donate them. Take your unwanted toys and books to the local library or children’s centre, clothing to the local shelter and so on.

6. Throw it out. In feng shui terms, there is nothing worse than keeping something you cannot stand as the quietly festering resentment you have towards the item creates a yucky pool of energy in your home. Most people can’t remember what they gave you after a couple of years, anyway…