Christmas Gifts 2009

I'm back! The holidays were exceptionally crazy this year, and trying to keep up with this blog was more than I could handle. Now that life is settling down to its usual level of insanity, I hope to get back to posting more regularly.

But, as promised before my hiatus, I wanted to talk about what I gave for Christmas presents this year. Growing up, my husband's family was big into carving pumpkins at Halloween. They would create elaborate designs on paper, tape them to a green pumpkin (because there was more contrast between the dark green skin and the yellow flesh underneath), and then use an exacto knife to carve the designs.

Pretty impressive, huh? I never got past triangle eyes and nose, and jagged teeth, myself!

In later years, when the grandkids came along, my mother-in-law started using Disney coloring books to create her designs.

This is Scar from the Lion King. Very cool-looking on a pumpkin!

Anyway, my mother-in-law had two file-cabinet drawers STUFFED full of pumpkin patterns, and copies of the patterns. I spent some time this spring going through them all, organizing them by year and subject matter, and scanning them. I then got rid of all the extra copies (in a variety of sizes), thus condensing the two drawers full down to about 6 inches' worth. After scanning them, I put them all onto CD, and printed out an index with thumbnail-sized images. These were very well-received by my husband's siblings and nieces and nephews, and it was easy and inexpensive to make. To produce the indexes, put them in little report covers, and duplicate the CDs cost me about $3 per person.

I also gave my nieces and sisters-in-law copies of the jean quilt instruction pamphlet I put together this spring to sell on etsy. Everyone in the family has a jean quilt made for them by my mother-in-law. Price to make a booklet-sized color copy of the instructions came to about $4 per copy.

Both of these gifts were inexpensive to make but provided something that the recipient couldn't just run out to the store and pick up for themselves. I really love to both give and receive gifts like this that have family significance, and that preserve parts of our family history.

Photo Gifts

One thing I've done for my inlaws (at their request) for several years now is give them scrapbook pages for their birthdays and Christmas. I get doubles of all my prints, and make a duplicate set of pages. It doesn't take much more time to assemble two copies of the same page, once you decide on a layout. I don't do the fancier (and pricier) 12"x12" scrapbook format. I use 8.5x11 paper and I try to put as many pictures as possible on the page without sacrificing content. I give them just the pages, and they slip them into page protectors and put them in their photo album. It's worked out quite well, as my inlaws are the type who are otherwise rather impossible to shop for.

Other fun photo-related gifts:

1. Calendars. I take photos from throughout the year and make a calendar for the coming year. Again, a perfect gift for the grandparent-who-has-everything. In the past I have used snapfish.com to create this digitally. Most of the online photo processing places offer calendars (and all sorts of gift options), and I can usually find a coupon or a sale. This year, I may try doing it scrapbook-style, using prints and the scrapbook-style calendars that you can find at scrapbooking and craft stores.
2. Photo Cubes. One year, I got a great deal on clear acrylic photo cubes at Michael's. I bought out all they had, and have used them for gifts throughout the years. Just trim 5 (or 6, if you want a photo on the bottom) fun photos to fit the cube, and there you go!
3. Framed photos. I have given school pictures in frames to grandparents (and great-grandparents), and one year my son (who was about 9 at the time) took a really gorgeous picture at Red Rock Canyon near Las Vegas. We made 5x7 prints, my son signed them in gold ink at the bottom, and we framed them to give to family.

Just picture all the possibilities for fun-and-frugal photo gifts. Send me your best ideas!

More Frugal Gift Ideas

Here are some more frugal gift ideas from some of my Frugal Readers.

The Grammarphile writes: "Whenever I read magazines, I pull out pages that have interesting backgrounds or pictures or words on them and save them in a folder. I make refrigerator magnets (using the business card-sized magnets), bookmarks, and notecards for people when I need a fun, handmade gift. I'll have to try using some of the magazine pages to make a cool decoupage box! Those little wooden and cardboard boxes are so inexpensive at Michael's and other craft stores."

Not only are the boxes inexpensive at craft stores, both Michael's and JoAnn Fabrics have weekly 40% off coupons good for one item. And, boxes from around the house work great, too. I've even done magazine holders in decoupage.

My sister writes that "this year for the little cousins, I am making Family Memory Games. It is just like the card game Memory only the cards are pictures of family members. Naturally, there are two copies of each picture in the deck. I order the wallet prints from Sam's Club so I automatically get two prints and no further cropping is needed. I'm using heavy double sided printed paper to mount the photos on and I may or may not laminate the cards. I haven't figured out how much each deck will cost, but even after getting some little tins from Michaels' to put the cards in, I don't imagine it will be that much and it will surely be less than what I would have spent otherwise."

I'm sensing a theme here...craft stores (Michael's) are great for the frugal gifter. I'm bummed that my boys are too old to qualify for "little cousin" status. Watch the prices on laminating, that can run up the cost really quickly!

Keep those frugal gift ideas coming! I'll post the best ones in future posts.

Meaningful Holiday Gifts

Christmas is two months from today. Does anyone else shudder in terror at the thought? Trying to figure out Christmas gifts is always a Herculean effort, especially if trying to add smart spending into the mix.

Some of the best holiday gifts are those that don't require money, but require some time. They are more meaningful to the recipient, and especially to the giver, because you have a little more invested than the time it took to shop for it and wrap it up.

Gifts I have given in the past that took more time than money:

• Cross-stitched items such as table runners and holiday decorations (this was BC--before children)
• A recipe book full of favorite recipes collected from family members
• CDs of old family pictures that I scanned and turned into JPGs
• Decoupaged boxes (and initials) made with recycled page-a-day calendar illustrations.

I especially like giving presents to family members that have some significance. Everyone has really enjoyed and used their recipe books. This year, I have a couple of fun Christmas projects in the works. And, no, I won't tell you what they are, as some of the recipients read this blog!

Have you made (or received) a great holiday gift that would fall in this category? I'd love to hear about them. And, after Christmas, I promise to tell you what I made this year.

Getting Back to Frugal Business

Wow, with Christmas and being snowbound for more than a week, things have really gotten away from me, but now that the snow is melting away and the hubby is back at work, it's time to get back into gear. I'm not looking forward to my next heating bill, as we were all at home running the heat at our standard 67 degrees during the very bitter cold and the snowstorms (vs. being at work or school--the kids missed FIVE days--with our furnace set at 63 while we were gone). The snowstorms also forced me to do my grocery shopping at a store that I don't normally shop at, but which was easier to get to (no hills), and boy, did I notice the difference. Talk about sticker shock! I can't wait to get back to Albertson's and Safeway tomorrow.

I'm pleased to report that we spent about $30 less on Christmas this year than we did last year (hey, it's better than spending more). I did a ton of shopping, especially for my hubby, on amazon.com this year. One thing I learned about that is if you see a good sale price on amazon, you have to grab it right then and there, or risk the price going up next time you are out on the website.

I'm finding the after-Christmas sales to be good, and I hope you are too. I've picked up lots of wrapping paper, gift tags, gift bags, wrapping paper, ornaments, small gifts for next year, etc., at prices 50-75% off normal. My best bargain so far has been 6 strings of 25 C9 outdoor lights (red and white ceramic lights) and 12 packages of 4 green C9 replacement bulbs for $19.37 after tax.

Look for more posts from me in the new year as we all try to make our way for as little money as possible in the new economic environment.

Happy New Year!

Gift-buying Strategy

My sister had a great suggestion on my Frugal Holidays post that I wanted to share by putting it in its own post. A woman she knows buys two gifts at a person's birthday, then sets one aside for Christmas. It makes it so the expenses are spread out more throughout the year.

I could see this working really well for a lot of people on my gift list, but not necessarily my kids or hubby, as I would run the risk of all three of them ending up buying themselves the thing I had bought and put away for Christmas. Or for people (like my other sister, and several nieces) whose birthdays are in December. But, for friends, other relatives, etc., I could see it working. It's too late for me to try this theory now, but I am considering giving it a try in 2009.