Questions for experienced contributors

1.) At least once a week
2.) Randomly buy them unrelated to sale
3.) 42 because 42

Good way to start for you is daily deals, midweek maddness stuff etc
"Also any tips on how to get hold of games to gift if you don’t just use steam" - i dont understand this

I do giveaways whenever I feel like it, with no specific schedule.
I get mostly games on sales, or multi-packs. I do some trading too and sometime I'll just share one of the game I got through a trade.
Good places to buy games outside of Steam are GamersGate, Green Man Gaming, Amazon US and Nuuvem. (Just make sure they are redeemable on Steam)

1. I never buy anything that's not on sale. Why would I pay only 1 gift, if I can wait for a bit and get 5 gifts for the same amount of moneyz?
2. I use random.org to plan my giveaways. Like, randomize 1-30 to get the day in a month, 1-12 for specific month and so on... then, it's just a waiting game. Bwahahaaah!
3. Was there 3? Oh yes... I get games on Steam or GreenManGaming, rarely Gamersgate or Amazon. Not realy keen on using unknown websites for steamworks titles.

1. When the Tide is out.
2. If I have enough virgins left for a sacrifice.
3. I steal them from Xarabas.

I'm not very experienced, but the games I've gifted came in a pack i bought for myself, only i already own them. So they were spares.

I buy random cheap games once in a while.

Skyrim. Almost every day.