It’s Father’s Day on Sunday, and while most of us will be scrambling for overpriced clichéd presents, consumers should think twice about flashing the plastic for gimmicky gifts.
“The idea behind days like Father’s Day, Mother’s Day and even Valentine’s Day, is all good and well, but in these volatile economic times, most consumers simply cannot afford to spend money on luxury items,” says Andy Gilder, general manager of Justmoney.
“Most of us buy our parents the same gifts every year: socks, ties, chocolates or alcohol. Chances are that you completely forgot about Father’s Day and you’ll end up spending money that’s not in your budget. The gift you bought might never even be used and you’ve just spent a fairly sizable chunk of change on it.
“This will not only affect your budget in the immediate future, since pay day is still a whole week away for most, but if you used your credit card, you’ll be pay for it next month too!”
Gilder, however, believes that by no means should Father’s Day be disregarded. Instead the solution is to come up with creative gift ideas that don’t cost you anything.
“Free gift ideas will not only save you money, but your dad will most probably appreciate a unique gift much more than something shop-bought.”
“It’s Justmoney’s goal to help people save wherever they can, so we’ve put together a list of five free gift ideas that anybody can make at home. We hope this helps you save in some small way,” concludes Gilder.
Justmoney.co.za’s free Father’s Day gift ideas:
A gardening voucher — to redeem your services at any time.
Get creative here. Design a cool voucher that simply says whenever he needs some help in the garden — you’ll be at his beck and call. How long you want the voucher to be valid for is up to you. This is a really fun idea for the kids. Go crafty and design a really fun voucher for dad. Just make sure they agree to the terms and conditions.
Carwash voucher — for you to wash the car whenever he wants you to.
This is another great one for the kids. Get crafty and make a few carwash vouchers. This will entitle dad to one free carwash whenever he needs one. Get creative and add things like vacuum and polish vouchers. Make as many as you like, or rather, as many carwashes as the kids are up for.
An on-call nerd voucher
The Y-Generation is well aware of just how much help some dads need with technology. Whether they call a Windows update “the computer being downloaded” or even if they think cookies are edible things, chances are he’s called you a few times to nag you to set up something. You probably responded with, “I’ll do it next weekend” or “Just Google it”.
Why not fix all the nagging techno errors that are plaguing dad and tell him you are his nerd on call whenever he needs you for this? Cover your bases by making the voucher redeemable once a month for a year — this will ensure you are not called out every day.
Breakfast in bed or just breakfast
Dad might not be into the whole eating in bed thing like mum is, but he’ll still appreciate the surprise of having breakfast cooked for him.
Build something together or do his favourite hobby with him
If your dad is a DIY expert, chances are he’s tried to get you to get involved at some point. This father’s day, start a project together and complete it with him. If you perhaps have a need at home or if he has something he’d like to tend to, help him out. If DIY is not his thing, get involved with one of his other hobbies, even if it’s something you don’t really enjoy.