So you've left it to the last minute or you've completely forgotten. And now you are about to see her in the next hour or so and you don't have a gift. What to do?
Luckily we have some quick fix ideas so you don't end up in the bad books.
Advice
- Don't give an IOU or homemade coupon for a back rub . . . ever!
- If it's really too late to do anything, be truthful and apologise for your momentary lapse in attention. Then tell her how you'll make it up to her. She will appreciate your honesty and sincerity.
Ideas
- Flowers will pretty much work for any occasion. Since you're too late to order them online and have them delivered, you'll need to get them from the shops.
- First try the flower shops (if they are open)
- Cheat idea – Instead of buying one of the expensive bouquets in their shop, tell them your budget ($25, $50, $75 etc) and ask them to make something up. You'll always get a much better deal and a big bunch of flowers. They want to use up the flowers they haven't sold and are happy to put together a quick bouquet for you.
- If the flower shops are closed or not close, try your local supermarket. You may not have noticed, but they sell bunches of flowers (near the entrance) and the prices are very reasonable.
- Find a local news agent. Buy a card and some scratchy lotto tickets to put inside. The chance to be a millionaire is lovely gift. The more important the event, the more lotto tickets you'll want to buy.
- Bakery – tell the people behind the counter you want to do a gift box and get them to help with advice of what to put in. If you ask for advice, they will go the extra mile to help and wrap it up nicely for the occasion. They may even throw in a few extras depending on the time of day.
- Online e-gift certificates can be printed out at home or sent directly to her via email.
- Check the website of her favourite store and see if they have one
- Don't know her favourite store? Then you can't go wrong with an eGift Card from a department store like Myer, David Jones, Target etc. Just check the delivery times as sometimes it can take a few hours to be delivered via email. They have to double check for credit card fraud and that sort of thing.
- Cheat idea – if the processing time will be longer than you have, still order it and then tell her what you sent and look surprised she hasn't received it yet. It will turn up via email eventually, and you'll still look like a legend
- Check the voucher sites – Scoopon, Groupon, Cudo etc. Often you can get an amazing “dinner for two” or “10 passes to yoga” that you can buy, download and put in a card. Most of the sites even let you gift it at checkout and it goes directly to her via email. The best bit is the voucher does not show the purchase price! If you don't trust it, then just download the voucher and confirm before putting it in a card or envelope.
