Hey Ladies, so I was wondering if anyone has some good gift ideas for their family. My husband and I are trying to stay on a tight budget to get ready for all of the expenses of the baby. We don't exchange gifts, so it's just for our parents, siblings and his one neice.
Re: Holiday Gift Ideas - trying to save money
I had this problem a couple of years ago. The best gift I ever gave my mom was a homemade day by day calendar.
I bought square cardstock and stamped each date on the top of the card. Then for each day I either glued an old photo of me as a child, an "I love you because...", or a "Remember when..."
She cried her eyes out when she opened it and still uses the calendar to this day. (I didn't put a year on it or days of the week, just the month and day).
Just an idea but it was a lot of work.
We are getting all extended family gourmet chocolates. I really do not want to spend my Dec waddling around a mall looking for some inexpensive gift for each aunt & uncle, cousin, etc.
If it were up to me we'd just buy the presents for the kids, but I digress.
We do baskets full of homemade goodies for each family. This year, DH and the kids will be making homemade peppermint candy and banana bread (I've been freezing all the extra black/brown bananas in anticipation of this). Cookies are also a big hit in the baskets. I am making homemade soap and body scrub, and maybe candles if I can find the time. I will probably have the boys make some ornaments too. I plan on buying a jar of local honey to add to each basket. I tend to keep each basket under $20 from start to finish. Next year I'm going to add homemade cloth napkins or paper to the basket, but not enough time this year.
I luckily only buy for Mom/Dad, M/FIL, SIL, BIL's families and my two neighbors so it's not a big deal. We do a gift exchange for the kids (DH is from a large catholic family) and adults can bring an ornament if they want in on the ornament exchange.
BFP # 1 - 12/19/09 EDD 08/27/10 - D&C 1/26/10 @ 9w5d
BFP # 2 - 06/05/10 EDD 02/17/11, DS1 born on 2/14/11
BFP # 3 - 04/10/13 EDD 12/21/13 - D&C 05/15/13 @ 8w4d
BFP # 4 - 07/27/13 EDD 04/08/14 - CP 07/29/13
BFP # 5 - 09/14/13 EDD 05/28/14, DS2 born on 5/22/14
Since everyone in our family has different financial situations and budgets, we don't do a Secret Santa. We exchange lists with items ranging from $10 - $100. Our budget is about $25/pp. So far we've purchased:
We have lists for everyone else (my family likes to get started earlier) but we're waiting until it gets closer to Christmas for sales.