Gifts That Make a Difference (Carole)

You'll remember a couple of weeks ago, I wrote about being able to spend your money on fun adventures occasionally, because you are usually frugal.

Well, right now I'm writing this post in the beautiful country of Honduras.  My husband, 14 year old son and I have been blessed to be part of a group of 100 doctors and dentists and their older children who have provided medical care and dental work for about 450 young men and women who could never afford it otherwise.  It has been a life-changing experience for all of us.  This is another reason to be frugal: so you can help others.  Possibly it's the best reason.

We've talked about being part of a group like this for over 20 years, and finally were able to make it a reality.  I hope one day each of you has an experience like this in your lives.  This has been a Thanksgiving we will never forget.  In fact, we hope to participate again next year.

It's been a busy 10 days of wonderful service where we truly received more than we gave.  In that same mode, I'm sharing a great post from Get Rich Slowly of truly thoughtful and helpful (and frugal) gifts that can be given during the holiday season.

I hope you enjoy these ideas as much as I did.   

Christmas Gifts That Make a Difference

Grandma probably doesn’t want another scented candle, but she could very well use a ride to the store. Your underemployed nephew would likely prefer a little help filling the pantry instead of a jokey T-shirt. And the sister who’s staying home with her kids may not be able to afford any extras just now. Instead of dropping $40 on a sweater, why not put that money toward a membership to the local museum?

You’ve still got a few weeks to think about Christmas gifts. Make this the year when you pick presents that actually help. I’ve put together a list of items that save the recipient money or fill a specific need. Prices range from as little as $5 to upwards of $50 or more — and some of the suggestions will cost you little except time. . .Read The Article Here

Dave Ramsey Books, CDs, DVDs and Software on Sale for $10

This is a yearly $10 special Dave Ramsey runs.  I purchased a whole bunch of these as gifts last year.

Thought some of you might be interested!

Holiday Baking (Carole)

Two weeks ago, when we asked you for your best gift ideas for the holidays, many of you mentioned baking.  That is music to a frugal wife's ears!  All you have to do is find a good recipe, buy your supplies in bulk and heat up the oven.  It's just about that easy.  And think of all the money you'll save on scented candles during the holidays, since your house will already smell like a pumpkin pie is in the oven -- because it is!

Here is one of my favorite holiday recipes that only costs a couple of dollars to make.  From October until New Year's, I make a batch 2 -3 times per week.  These really are that good.  It's adapted from the pumpkin bread recipe in the Williams-Sonoma Muffin cookbook.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins   

1 1/2  cups sugar
1 cup pumpkin puree
2 large eggs
1/2 cup oil
1 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup chocolate chips

I just mix everything together, fill 12 pre-greased (or sprayed) muffin tins and bake at 350 for 15 - 18 minutes.

I've heard that it's been another bad year for the pumpkin crop, so if you are planning to buy canned pumpkin, you probably ought to pick them up soon.  Just to be on the safe side.

Gift Giving for the Stressed Gift Giver (Janssen)

Some people are brilliant gift givers (my mom is definitely one of those people). I? Am not a good gift giver. In fact, both my husband and I find gift giving stressful enough that we don't exchange gifts for Christmas, birthdays or anniversaries with each other (best system ever, in my opinion). 

We do, of course, buy gifts for other family and friends. To make this easier on me, we've set up kind of gift "traditions" for various categories of people we buy for.

For instance, every year, we buy one children's book for each of our siblings' families with children (this is a total of six families). I choose one book, buy six copies, wrap them and hand them out. I have all year to find a book I like and think they'll like, I can buy them all at once, and when a particularly good deal comes along from a book retailer, I'm ready to jump on it because I know just what I'm getting those families.


My mom does this too - every year for Father's Day, she gets tickets for my dad to go to a show in Las Vegas with my little brother.

We plan to do what many of you commented on Monday that you do for Christmas with your children - something to read, something to wear, and something to play with.

These categories make my life so much easier and help me not spend a fortune and take advantage of good deals. What's not to love?

The item we're giving away today is a Dave Ramsey DVD called Cash Flow Planning (it's the nuts and bolts of budgeting). Leave a comment telling us what gift you received in the last year that you loved most (don't worry, we won't tell your mom if it wasn't the gift SHE gave you) to entered. On Monday, we'll announce all three winners.

DIY Gifts: Part 2 (Merrick)

Though I might feel like a good gift giver most of the time, my confidence was definitely shaken when I got married and threw in-laws into the mix.

For my mother-in-law in particular, I spend a lot of time stressing over gifts for her. That's why when I stumbled upon an embellished serving tray on a crafting blog (it's been so long I have no idea what the source is -- sorry), I thought it would make a great gift for her so I immediately saved the link and began my preparations to make the gift.

(pre-grouting)

Materials:
- black serving tray from IKEA - $7
- mini tiles from home depot - $5 (you could also buy a few large tiles and smash them up)
- dry grout - $5 (I only used a tiny bit, so I used this for future projects)
- grout sealer - $5 (same thing -- I only used a tiny bit)

Approximate cost to make this tray: $13

This was a pretty easy project, and when all was said and done it looked awesome. And my mother-in-law really liked it.

Now stop stressing about in-law gifts and go make one of these. It's sure to be a pleaser.

DIY Gifts (Merrick)

I like giving gifts, and I've always considered myself pretty good at it.

Because gift giving is important to me, but I have many people to buy for, I have a few criteria when coming up with a gift:

- inexpensive
- easily duplicated for multiple birthdays (I'm all about finding gifts that I can do for both of my sisters and my sister-in-law)
- creative
- DIY (because I think homemade gifts are just a little more personal (but take note I don't always give homemade gifts))
- somewhat easy

So, like Janssen does with Christmas gifts, I spend the whole year coming up with ideas: scouring crafting blogs, jcrew, anthropologie, and other websites, and then saving the image or the link so I can easily refer back to it.

One of my favorite DIY gifts that I've made and given to many people is an embellished t-shirt. The idea came from a top someone was wearing in a TV show. After watching the show and spending the rest of the day thinking about that shirt, I scoured hulu.com until I found the scene, took a screen shot, and saved it to my "to make" computer file. Then that week I went out and bought the material to make it.

Here's how it turned out:
I love this shirt so much that I have to force myself not to wear it every single day.

You can do it a myriad of ways but here's how I did it:
Materials:
- one t-shirt (when I'm doing these as gifts, I wait until Old Navy, Kohls, or Target is having a sale and I buy them for $5)
- 1/4 yard fabric in the color of your choice (Joann's always has cheap cotton in a million colors, and often has 40% off coupons available online -- this makes it less than a dollar, usually)
Directions:
1. Cut the fabric into long strips about 3 inches wide, then twist and spiral each strip of fabric around itself to make a flower
2. Using a sewing machine or needle and thread, make stitches in several places around the flower to secure the shape
3. Repeat for each flower
4. Using a sewing machine or needle and thread, tack each flower to the neckline of the shirt
5. Using a needle and thread, sew the edges of the flowers together so they don't gap when the shirt stretches over your body.

Approximate cost for this darling embellished t-shirt: $5.80

With a price like this, you should be making these for everybody you know.

Christmas (Janssen)

I am not a very good gift giver. It is agonizingly difficult for me to come up with good gifts for people. You can imagine that Christmas can be somewhat stressful for me. . .

In order to combat this and in order to keep from spending a fortune when December rolls around, I begin a list in Google Docs (how did anyone LIVE before Google Docs? I have no idea) of all the people I will be buying Christmas gifts for.

Then, as I think of brilliant gift ideas or see something that might make a good gift, I list them under the person (or family's name).

With that list in place, I'm now ready to not spend a fortune because I can take advantage of sales or coupons for six months beforehand. If I discover the perfect book for my father-in-law, I can wait until Borders or Barnes & Noble sends me a great coupon. I can pay for the very cheapest shipping because I'm not in a hurry.

It's a delightful system that made last year a far better Christmas, both for my own peace of mind and for my wallet.

What do you do to keep Christmas gift costs manageable?

Unexpected Expenses: Gifts - Part 3 (Merrick)

As far as gifts go, wedding gifts are always a budget killer, in my opinion. You can probably get away with cheaper gifts at baby showers since it’s hard to tell the difference between a $5 outfit and a $50 outfit; but wedding gifts are slightly less easy to disguise, especially when you get items the couple has registered for, so they know exactly how much you spent and how cheap you are.

Therefore, to avoid this problem, I’ve come up with a standard, inexpensive, but heartfelt, wedding gift that I give to anyone and everyone getting married: A Cookbook.

Now, this is not just any cookbook. I actually got the idea from my sister, Janssen, who put together a cookbook for our wedding of all her favorite recipes. For one, this was an extremely thoughtful gift since she not only took the time to compile all the recipes, she also put little blurbs at the beginning of each recipe telling where she found it, what she serves it with, why she likes, it, etc. Second, it was the perfect gift because the moment I was married and presented with my first week of cooking for two people, I suddenly couldn’t remember one single thing my mom had ever cooked. What did we eat for the last 20 years of my life?!

When the wedding announcements began pouring in, I thought back to this perfect gift and decided to use it as my standard, cheap, thoughtful wedding gift.



I drew up a cute design for the front, compiled all my favorite recipes (I’m constantly adding to this), wrote funny blurbs for each recipe, and then saved it all on my computer. Every time we get invited to a wedding, I print out the cookbook, put it in a $3 binder, wrap it in dollar store wrapping paper, and voila! The cheapest wedding gift you’ll ever give, and yet it’s the one I get requests for from friends who have upcoming weddings.

Bottom line is this: wedding gifts can be expensive, and sometimes we feel obligated to buy something that goes beyond our budget so you don’t feel like a cheapskate. But if you can come up with a gift that is thought out and meaningful, but also inexpensive, you get the best of both worlds.

So, does this get your creative wheels turning? I’d love to hear your ideas for inexpensive wedding gifts.

Unexpected Expenses: Gifts - Part 2 (Merrick)

A piece of mail that frequents my mailbox is baby shower invitations. While there are lots of great gifts out there at the stores for baby showers, this is a great chance to save some money, and get creative.

Today I’ll share one cheap, fun, and creative idea for a baby shower gift that also requires very little skill.



I made these onesies for a recent baby shower. As we all know, baby clothes are a favorite shower gift – everyone always “oohs” and “ahhs” over the cute outfits the mom-to-be receives. Well if it’s a hand made outfit like the one pictured above, it’s sure to impress. The best part about this is that I spent less than five dollars for this baby gift.

The onesies are from Kmart and were roughly $8.00 for a pack of five. That’s $1.60 each, so since I made two, that’s $3.20 for the onesies. Then I bought the fabric from Joann’s at about $1.99/yd, and since I needed so little, I got a quarter of a yard of each fabric. That’s about $0.50 per color, totaling $1.00 for the two fabrics. I had matching thread, but it would also be very cute to have a contrasting color of thread, and that saves you a few pennies if you already have thread lying around at home.

Once all the materials were assembled, I cut out the fabric in my desired shape (elephant and dinosaur), and then zigzag stitched them to the onesie with my sewing machine (you could just as easily hand stitch these)

Such a simple gift, but fun, cheap, and heartfelt.

There are so many other good ideas out there that are just waiting to be copied. Etsy has plenty of great ideas, like this cute one for a boy baby shower. Or you can find inspiration from one of my good blog friends.

Gifts do not have to be a burden or a budget buster. With a little time and creativity, you can create inexpensive, fun, and generic baby shower gifts that will leave everyone impressed – your budget included.

Unexpected Expenses: Gifts - Part 1 (Merrick)

As we’ve talked about budgeting on this blog, “unexpected expenses” have been mentioned a few times – those necessary expenses that pop up during the month and throw off your meticulous budgeting. Mandatory car repairs, or unexpectedly high gas bills can be among these unexpected expenses, but what about gifts? Just about every month there is a wedding, a baby shower, or a birthday that pops up – you run out at the last minute to buy a gift and end up blowing your budget. Can you relate to this situation?

Philip and I are a young married couple, freshly out of college, with tons of friends getting married and popping out babies right and left. On top of our own monthly expenses, we can’t really afford to fork out thirty or forty bucks for a nice gift every time we get a wedding, baby shower, or birthday party invitation. But we also don’t want to be that couple that doesn’t give a gift.

Well one way to handle this situation would be to set aside fifty dollars each month for gifts. You can then make your way to the registered store and buy some fabulous gift with all that money. OR, you can get creative and still give a fabulous gift, but do it in a way that doesn’t break the bank.

My solution is to come up with meaningful, creative, and fun gifts that are easy, generic, and cheap. Over the next few posts, I will be sharing my ideas for wedding, birthday, and baby shower gifts that fit this bill – and guarantee a few extra bills in your bank account.