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Don’t believe those Scrooges who say that the holiday season has be financially stressful. Christmas and New Year’s Day are times that are meant to be thoroughly enjoyed now and fondly remembered later. Getting there while keeping your budget intact is easier than you may think. Here are a few ideas for frugally happy holidays.

Think like a child. Shop for the adults on your Christmas shopping list at toy stores as well as department stores. You would be surprised what bargains you can find that way. For example, if you go online to the Toys ‘ R Us Big Kids section, you will find nice sales on adult gift favorites such as 8GB MP3 players and 12MP digital cameras.

No matter rain, snow, or sleet, do not pay for gift boxes. If you don’t find free boxes anywhere else, then get them from the United States Postal Service. In fact, the U.S. Postal Service is running commercials everyday offering free boxes for its “if it fits, it ships” campaign.

Bring your work home with you. Play the Secret Santa game with adult family members just like you do with your co-workers on the job. Instead of buying adult aunts, uncles, siblings and cousins individual gifts, get together and draw names for Christmas presents. Set a reasonable price limit (perhaps $50), have everyone provide a short wish list, and then start shopping. This approach ensures that each person gets at least one really nice gift instead of many cheaper small ones that they will forget receiving by New Year’s Day.

Find the very best price for gifts — free. Check out online bargain sites such as Free Sample Freak to find offers for free samples, coupon codes, instant win games, and special deals that you can turn in to Christmas presents and stocking stuffers.

For New Year’s Eve, party like it’s last year. Are you going to a hot, can’t miss party and need something to wear? Instead of spending money or increasing credit card debt to buy a new outfit, look at the back of your closet for a rarely worn outfit that may be old to you but new to everybody else.

Start a new, inexpensive tradition for New Year’s Day. For instance, make it a day to volunteer. There are a number of charity organizations that would welcome your help for even one day. Or, celebrate the first day of the year by calling, visiting, emailing, or text messaging everyone that you know and saying you care.

These are just a few ideas to help you enjoy the holidays without overspending. Amid all of the focus on shopping for gifts and decorations, it is easy to forget the purpose of it all. Remember, the important part of giving a gift is not the gift itself, it is the fact that you show you care by giving one at all.

What ways have you found to give meaningful gifts at an affordable price? Share your ideas and opinions.

5 Common Start-Up Mistakes and How to Avoid Them – October 11, 2010

WholesaleMatch provides new business owners five of the most common errors when starting an online business and offers solutions to ensure these errors do not occur. New owners should have a blueprint of the big picture and focus of the business and not become bogged down by the smaller, daily operating tasks. A reasonable budget must be set as most new owners tend to underestimate the start-up costs of an online business. Systems should be set into place on how to deal with orders, inquiries, and inventory to streamline the business and assist with the training of possible future employees. A rewards system should be set into place so that the new business owner is able to meet and celebrate realistic goals. And it is important to not become so focused on work that family and friends become secondary to the job as they should, in fact, be a support to the business owner.

Consumer Situation Shows Some Improvement – Update – October 12, 2010

The October 2010 Consumer Reports Index has found that the only retail categories to see even a small percentage of growth over the past month were personal electronics and small appliances. However, holiday sales are expected to increase 2.3%, which is a marked improvement from the past two years. The most optimistic consumers are those in the 18-34 year old age bracket while the most pessimistic consumers are those in the 35-64 and 65+ age brackets.

Get Your Dropship Business Ready for the Ho-Ho-Holidays – October 12, 2010

To take advantage of the holiday increase in consumer activity, small online retailers may want to heed the following suggestions. Offer one great deal that customers cannot resist for Black Friday/Cyber Monday. Designate a loss leader in order to entice buyers to the site and hopefully create more sales. Begin advertising with coupons, promotions, newsletters and the like. Be sure the website is easy to maneuver and running smoothly in anticipation of increased traffic. And begin to establish a holiday theme for the website, marketing platform and item descriptions appropriate to the holidays.

How To One Up Your Online Business Competition – October 13, 2010

WholesaleMatch offers four traits to give a small online business owner an edge over the competition. Using social networks like Twitter and Facebook to advertise and boost customer service is key, especially as consumers of all demographics are now engaged in social networking. Being properly indexed by search engines such as Google can help to be sure a business is listed in the top ten when consumers are searching appropriate keywords. Offering unbiased advice and tutorial videos on the website offers customers confidence in the product and the seller. Creating a strong online presence is imperative with an increase in small businesses expanding to offer online products and services.

There are a whole host of fun and frightening things available wholesale. Whether stocking your shop for the big Halloween sale or trying to snag a discount on the perfect gifts for the prankster in your life, these items are sure to start people screaming.

10) Spiders on Strings

A classic for scaring skittish friends and little sisters. Having a bunch of these critters around makes for a truly creepy-crawly experience. Dangle one over the bathtub for an bigger fright!

9) Motion-Activated Decorations
Depending on the theme, a good motion-sensor decoration can scare the pants off unsuspecting trick-or-treaters, unwelcome guests, and overeager salesmen. Nothing says “boo” like a cackling skull or a spider that shouts “Happy Halloween!” when someone opens the door.

Eyeball Candies

Be they hard candy, chocolate, or flavored gummies, eating things shaped like eyes is off-putting. Sprinkling a few of these treats into a candy dish is a great way to catch party guests off-guard.

7) Rubber Hands

Fake body parts are always a fun shocker. A caseload of rubber hands could keep a prankster going well beyond Halloween. Wary trick-or-treaters will be wondering if it’s safe to reach for candy with one of these laying in the dish.

6) Vampire Costumes

Vampires are scary. But are Twilight vampires? After your living room is invaded by a dozen gaggles of teenagers dusted in glitter and wearing Edward Cullen wigs, the answer could very well be yes.

5) Hazardous Material Labels
Fun for sticking on your lunch container on Halloween, April Fool’s day, or any time you don’t want your co-workers stealing your dessert. The truly scary thing about these is that they’re available in bulk in the first place!

4) Inappropriate Adult Halloween Costumes

Halloween costumes are one thing, but it’s truly scary when it’s possible to buy an entire case of French maid outfits.

3) Inappropriate Kids Halloween Costumes

Scarier than Mom and Dad dressed as a Sexy Pirates is the idea of the kids dressed as belly dancers, pop stars, or fictitious serial killers, or a guy who is about to chop someone’s head off.

2) Fake Blood

The possible uses for a bulk order of fake blood outside of a TV crime drama are best left to the imagination. If that imagination is yours, the neighbors had better watch out.

1) Swords & Knives

There are legitimate reasons for individuals to want to purchase swords and knives. But there’s something disconcerting about the idea of a bulk order of machetes.

Don’t Put Good Products on Poor Sites! – June 20, 2010
Studies on internet usage of today’s busy people show that a webpage has only a few seconds to make its point. In fact, most people will not scroll down the page before hitting that back button. Product-oriented web pages must focus on functionality and not on flashy animation or large, slow to load images. Improvements to web pages can be made quickly when the pages are looked at from the perspective of a busy user. Take a fresh look at your website without being too attached to what you are accustomed to. Anything on the page that is extraneous or unnecessary should be removed. Place the highlight on the great products being featured.

Facebook VS Google: Who Will Be the Winner? – Jun 25, 2010
Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, states that Facebook will reach one billion users in the near future. Currently, membership doubles every six months. E-commerce merchants and website owners who have not yet endeavored to develop a social media marketing plan would be wise to do so soon.

Entering The Blogosphere : What A Blog Can Do For Your E-Commerce Business – June 22rd, 2010
Since 2005 when blogging became so popular, companies have used blogs to reach new audiences and elaborate on key points of information for their intended customers. Some reasons a business should enter the blogosphere are: ease of use, low start up and maintenance costs, quickly establish authority and credibility in the field, easily interact with customers gaining feedback and gauging interest. Blog themes to match any website are readily available or can be designed quickly to meet a business’ established website.

News: Google Launches Commerce Search 2.0 – June 21st, 2010
In November of 2009, Google launched a new search engine for e-commerce product websites. The service offers customers advanced search functions such as: spell check, synonyms, and query auto completion. With a hefty price tag of $25,000 minimum, this service is targeted to large website businesses. At this time, it is not feasible for most small businesses at this time; however, there may be hope in the future as pricing may come down.

Wholesale silly bandz come in a variety of shapes and sizes, making them perfect for creating fun arts and craft projects. Fun-shaped rubber bands come in many forms including cars, animals, dinosaurs, fish, and much more. What’s more is that they come in a wide variety of colors. Wholesale silly bandz are a perfect medium for creative craft projects. Here are five quick and fun craft projects that you and your kids can make at home out of fun shaped rubber bands.

1. Customized Belts

Kids can easily create a rubber band belt accentuated by fun-shaped rubber bands. For the base of the belt, you will need approximately 20 2 1/2 by 1/16 inch, regular rubber bands and 5-6 wholesale silly bandz. To create the belt, take two normal rubber bands and tie them together with a knot. Make sure not to tie too tightly or the rubber bands will break. Once you have a link of two rubber bands, attach a fun-shaped rubber band of your choosing to either side of the chain with a knot. Make sure that the rubber band used to tie the knot is the normal rubber band so that the shape of the fun-shaped rubber band is not distorted. Once that is done, continue making chain links of 2 normal bands and attaching them between one wholesale silly bandz, till the belt is the desired length. To fasten the belt, a small safety pin can be used to link the ends together.

2. Fashion Accessories

Adding wholesale silly bandz to clothing items can turn an old shirt or hat into something entirely new and stylish. Select an old shirt or hat and have the kids lay out a colorful design on the piece of apparel. Once the fun-shaped rubber bands are in position, use a hot glue gun to carefully glue the rubber bands into place. Only adults should handle the glue gun.

3. Works of Art

Wholesale silly bandz are a great addition to any piece of art. For children who can’t draw very well, they can offer outlets for their creative juices, letting them make art without the frustration. Kids can glue rubber bands into place on pieces of paper and color around them, making wonderful pieces of art that can be displayed proudly on the refrigerator door. Also, the fun-shaped rubber bands can be placed on pieces of art that have already been created to augment their beauty.

4. Create a Book

Creating a book is fun project that can exercise a child’s reading and writing skills as well as their creative abilities. Have a child think of a story and write it down. It can be about anything. Take sheets of colorful construction paper and have them write the story on the lower third of the page in magic marker. After the story has been written, allow the kids to glue fun-shaped rubber bands onto the top halves of the pages to illustrate their story. After the rubber bands are in place, they can add more color to the pages with crayons and colorful markers.

5. Stencils

Fun-shaped rubber bands are great to use as stencils for people who don’t draw very well. The shapes are preformed, so all you have to do is lightly grip the rubber band and then trace around the outside or inside of the shape with a pencil. After that, the shape can be filled with colors. These can be used to decorate cards or any other art project.

DollarDays is proud to announce that as of today, our friends to the North can now take part in the enormous savings that American wholesalers are able to get when purchasing from DollarDays.

We’re excited about expanding our reach to Canada, and believe this represents an amazing business opportunity for both DollarDays and Canadian businesses alike.