Thinking like that, one of the most valuable gifts we received for our wedding was a $100 gift card for the local movies.  For that $100, my hubby and I were treated to four evenings out, including popcorn.  And we always thought of the the nice relatives who gave them to us, every time we went out.

This year, frugal is in, but does it extend to gifts?  In our humble opinion, give the value, not the gift.  That is, don’t worry so much about how much or how little you’re spending, but think instead of how much the recipient will value it.  Know Your Giftee!  In our humble opinions, the best gifts for Holiday ’09 should replace the little luxuries that people have given up cause they’re cutting back.  Give a massage gift certificate, or one for a manicure or pedicure.  For couples and families, think movies, travel or dining out.  Hotel room certificates can be bought with any cash-back or hotel points you’ve been hoarding, and many restaurants are giving generous rebates.

You can buy discounted cards at PlasticJungle.com, GiftCardsAgain.com, or GiftCardRescue.com.

Special restaurant deals include Red Robin, Chevy’s, Buca di Beppo , Bonefish Grille, Outback Steakhouse, P.F. Chang’s, Yard House, Cheesecake Factory and Applebee’s.   Also, Sports Authority is giving 10 % off of the purchase of the giftee and the gifter gets a coupon for $10 off of a $50 purchase from Dec 26, 2009 to Jan 31, 2010  and  Barnes & Noble is offering a free $10 gift card for every $100 gift card purchase through Dec. 6. The $10 GC may be used as of Dec 26, and is effectively a 10% discount on gift cards. $20 for $200, etc.

Thanks to Julia the Bargain Babe and her readers for some of these.

Most important, always ask for a discount.  Why not?

Happy Shopping.

PS: I put in an application for Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Florida.  Will keep you posted.

Meanwhile, for some more good shopping advice, click here.

Consignment shops are usually nicer than thrift shops and are the best place to start when you have a special occasion and want to wow the crowd. Most good consignment shops offer top-quality, barely used expensive stuff, like LV bags and CK and DK dresses, at a fraction of their original prices. Most of these items have been very gently used, and some have never been used at all, and are actually being sold because of that — maybe they never fit or looked quite right on the original owner, sometimes they’re just out of date (often by only one season, so who cares?).  Sometimes these shops are private, and sometimes they’re affiliated with charities.  Whichever way you go, you’re sure to get a great buy if the store happens to have something that’s right for you. (Plus, if they are charity-connected, you may be able to write off the purchase as a donation.)

A few tips:

1) Shop in good neighborhoods.  You’re more likely to find better items.  These stores usually will not accept anything that’s too out-of-date, and generally insist that items be clean and ready to wear.

2) Find out the favorite charities of your socialite neighbors, and shop at the stores that benefit those organizations. (Of course, careful if you attend their functions that you’re not wearing the chairperson’s dress from last year!)

3) Know your size and, wear proper undergarments, and as always, don’t buy anything if it doesn’t fit or needs too much work. 

4) Be prepared for high but fair prices.  These are not thrift stores.

5) Don’t get carried away by things that don’t fit your lifestyle or budget.  You may fall in love with that Versace gown, but will you really ever have a place to wear it? 

6) If you’re shopping for furniture, bring your measurements and your tape measure.  Consignment shops usually sell all items final sale, and if you snooze, you lose.  Be prepared to pay up, or at least leave a deposit, on the spot.  

Following, compliments of Readers’ Digest, are thirteen things your Consignment Shop proprietors won’t tell you. 

1. They love an economic downturn. Some shops are seeing sales up 35 percent from last year.  This makes them less open to bargaining, so be prepared — know your values.

2. Their margins are shrinking like everybody else’s: Consigners want higher prices, and shoppers want lower ones.  So again, be ready.

3. If you’re donating or selling, your items need to be in nearly new condition. Don’t bring a cookie sheet with crumb-and grease sludge in the corners.  Even you don’t want your old crumbs. (Unless it’s Big Crumbs — click for info).

4. Check out the store before you bring in your items. Make sure it’s a good fit for your stuff.

5. “Nice” and “Salable” are not always one and the same. Know the difference and don’t be pushy!

6. People shop consignment stores because they want a bargain.  While your antique whatever may be worth $250 at an antiques auction, if the dealer tells you they can get $75, take their word for it or sell it yourself.

7. If you sell it yourself, you’ll probably get a better price from eBay than craigslist. But online selling is labor-intensive (photographing and describing items, handling sellers’ questions, dealing with the post office) so measure the time/money ratio.

8. Do not bring designer knockoffs. Neither of you want  to go to jail for selling fake merchandise.

9. Charitable shops run by volunteers can pay consigners a higher percentage: sometimes as much as 75 percent instead of 40 to 50.

10. Clean out your closet before the season begins; that way, your fur coat or wispy sundress gets the best chance to sell.

11. There are some things you should never buy at these shops — children’s car seats, for instance. For all you know, that car seat’s already survived a crash or fallen off the roof of the minivan two or three dozen times.

12. Bigger sizes sell faster. If it’s a size 14 and classic, it’ll sell. If it’s a size 6 and classic, it’s harder.  If you’re a size 6 and you’re shopping, you’re in luck.

13. Avoid weekends if possible.  It’s like amateur hour for bargain shoppers.   I like Monday to Wednesday, when the weekend donations have been sorted.

Beautiful, huh? Way more beautiful than most of what I own, like the 2 Gucci knockoffs which I recently bought in Chinatown for $45 each which already are wearing out.  But here’s the real beauty:  A price tag of $228, and a receipt for a grand total of $94, including shipping.  Out go the knock-offs, in comes the good stuff.  And all without leaving my couch — oops, I mean my office.

And now, thanks to the miracle of the internet, you no longer have to live in or visit the fashion capitals of the world to take advantage of that garment center staple, the Sample Sale.  Now, the sample sales come to you.

I first became aware of this new internet niche a few months back, when I received an email invitation to join, I think it was RueLaLa.  It said you needed a special invite and code to join (how special!) and gave it to me, so of course, I signed up.  (Part of my job here is to seek out the best for my wonderful readers.)  Soon came more –

ideeli, HauteLook and my current favorite, (the one I got the bag through),  Editors’ Closet.  As a former fashion journalist, and current Ugly Betty and Sex and the City fan, I know the value of the stuff sent for editorial review, and not always returned. (I got a lot of “stuff” when I worked in NY publishing!)  So I signed up for their email sale alerts, and the one about Francesco and his bags enticed me to look, and hopefully buy.

To become a member of some of these sites, you need some kind of a referral.  I have embedded these invite codes in the links on this page, so all you need to do is click through.  Many of them also have bonuses when you join.  Here are a few of the sites I visit, and some recent sale info on each of them, so you have an idea of what to expect.

RueLaLa:    Lingerie from Hanky Panky, bags from Prada, fashion from BCBG and Carmen Marc Valvo, watches and appliances too

HauteLook:   Swimwear from Lisa Curran and Bjorn Borg, Men’s wear from Johnson Motors, jewelry by Viv & Ingrid

Editors’ Closet:  DKNY watches, Nicole Miller Sunglasses and bags, hype bags, designer lingerie

ideeli:  CK watches and Jewelry, Cynthia Rowley bags, Natori lingerie, Rory Becker apparel

Billion Dollar Babes: Melissa Odabash, Trina Turk, Spendid

Gomattagirls.com Danielle Stevens jewelry, Linea Pelle bags, Eco Skin Bamboo  apparel

RedTagCrazy  Casual clothing from Zooey, linQ and Rich&

The Savvy : Shoes from Via Spiga and Delman 

Shop It To Me :  Lots of items from lots of brands and lots of stores

Groupe  Apparel and accessories from Vera Wang, Oliver Peoples and Marc Jacobs

The Top Secret:  Swimwear from Gottex, accessories from Echo, bags from La Bagagerie

I will post more of these links as I come across them, and please send them to me if you have the “invites”.  For more about sample sale shopping, please click here.

Now I guess it’s time to get off of the couch and go out and show off my new bag!

Most people who live outside of a major fashion city like NY or LA have limited knowledge of sample sales, where manufacturers sell off their overages and close-outs at a fraction of their retail prices.  For many, I think, the media has best publicized the phenomenon in those images of Wedding Gown Sales, where brides-to-be storm the racks, knocking each other over and sometimes coming to blows in pursuit of the perfect gown at a deeply discounted price.

Is that what a sample sale is really like? In a word, or two, very often.  Not all sales include the fisticuffs and name-calling, but at some, I think the manufacturer sets it up like that merely for the entertainment value.  However, in reality, those plain brown paper or blue plastic shopping bags carried throughout New York’s Garment District often signal the very best values out there.

Unfortunately, my recent trip to New York was not on a good Sample Sale day.  I did find one great sale on Agnes B, (check out these prices — the discounts are somewhat typical) but nothing was cut for my size 12 American body.  But for those who are planning a trip to New York,  here are some tips. 

First, give yourself a full day with comfortable shoes, lots of cash (some places, but not all, take credit cards and checks), and nice underwear, as you may find yourself undressing in an open dressing room, or even on the sales floor!

Next, check the internet.  Search sample sales at www.DailyCandy.com, search sample sales and the city you’re in on Google, and sign up at www.soifferhaskin.com for emails as sales come up.  By following these steps you will have a starting point. Take one of the west side subway lines to 34th Street.

Once you arrive in the garment center, things should take off on their own. Walk up Broadway from 34th to 40th Street, then across to 7th Avenue, and then down 7th.  If there are any sales going on that day, you will find circulars taped to lampposts, and guys giving them out on the street.  Ask anyone you see with the above-mentioned shopping bags if there are any sample sales going on, and walk along the side streets too — it’s common for people to enter the smaller office buildings and ask the lobby personnel for leads.  

Although many of the sales, especially the higher-end ones, may have the merchandise actually sorted by size or style, you need to be prepared: many have things hanging on racks in no particular order.  After all, it’s the thrill of the chase.

Be bold, be determined and be nice, even when you have to stand up for yourself.  (“I’m sorry, that dress is mine — PLEASE get your dirty paws off it.”)  You should come out with some really incredible buys.  (One of my all-time faves was a purple silk Tahari suit, absolutely beautiful, which was never put into the line; therefore a one-of-a-kind Tahari Original, for under $100!). 

Of course, if it’s a quiet day, you can head over to 32nd Street, which has the best selection of dollar stores I think in the country.  Or if all else fails, there’s always Macy’s.

Now, the market is finally realizing that not everyone has access to these sales, and in the past few months I have discovered a number of sites that do online sample sales for shoppers everywhere.  My next post will highlight a few of these where you can sign up and shop wherever you are, and take advantage of the highly discounted prices. 

For more tips on Shopping NY like a New Yorker, please check out my posts on Chinatown and Street Vendors.