Recently my mother sent off for a birthday card €8 including delivery just for the card itself. I am completely against buying and spending so much for a card someone looks at once then throws away and never looks at again when it can be homemade and printed on card and look just as nice. It is so much easier to find a design online, print it out then write a handwritten custom message inside, it is much more heartfelt. Greedy businesses want my money. Not anymore. Now every time I print a image off google. I use my own paper and resources because it's just so much cheaper. I don't want to pay an hour of work for a card.
Print your birthday cards instead of buying them online
byu/OldCollection922 inFrugal
Posted by OldCollection922
9 Comments
Save you a few steps, I just fold some paper in half, make a drawing on the front, the best I can in a couple mins, and then write a note on the inside. People love them. I am not a good artist .
We have some card stock specifically for this.
It’s also fantastic to take an image of the person and have AI edit them into an image blowing out the candles on the front of the card, or doing something silly like putting them in a clown outfit or skidyiving.
You can also just buy cheaper cards for much less effort and time. Aldi has wonderful cards for a dollar, same with Trader Joe’s, and stores like costco often have elaborate cards packs with 50 3D cards for about 50 cents each.
That only works if you own a printer, and home printers are getting a lot less common.
In the last couple of years, at least a dozen of my friends have sent me electronic files to print out for them, because I’m about the last person who still has a printer at home for my work.
And the print shop in my town does steady business with people who need to print something a couple of times a year for €2, rather than buying a printer and paper and ink refills to clutter up their homes.
I’d rather go to the local shop to buy a card and then send it in the mail.
But I can easily see why some people would rather just pay €8 a few times a year.
(Also – in the age of the internet and AI image generation, why would anyone still choose google?)
My tip for people in the US is to go to dollar tree. Most cards are $0.50 each. Premium cards are $1.00.
People are crazy paying that much for greeting cards. Dollar tree still has them 2/$1 or &1.25 each (obv this is USA, but I’m sure poundland maybe over in the uk?).
Of course it depends on who and what the reason is. For a close member of the family, a homemade bday card is usually what we do. For holidays like Xmas or something I’d much rather just buy a bunch of cheap cards. The $10 bucks spent once a year isn’t too painful.
Don’t forget to reuse gift bags!
Cards have gotten so expensive! Some of them are $8 now at the store.
I split a bulk order of 100 birthday cards with some coworkers a few years ago. My portion was less than $10 and they were all printed through a family owned (although not local to us) business.
After those ran out, I started buying birthday cards at the local thrift art/craft store in the area for 10 cents a card. Our local thrift stores also have art supplies and cards as well. A friend got a stack of card paper there for super cheap and a birthday cake stamp there as well.
>Greedy businesses want my money.
Yes, the goal of businesses is to make money. No, that doesn’t mean that all businesses are greedy.
They offer greeting cards for sale. Buy them, or don’t, your choice.
I’m america you can get 2 for a dollar at dollar tree.