Cheap Mother's Day Gift Ideas

Well, Mother's Day is just around the corner.  It's time to get thinking about gift ideas.  I know that Mother's Day can be costly especially if you have several mothers and grandmothers to buy for.  Try to remember that it isn't what you spend that matters.  I always try to make sure the gift is going to match their personality and be something useful to them, instead of worrying about how much I am spending. 

GIFT IDEAS

1.  A garden gift basket  I have done these buy picking up a flower pot, adding some packages of flower seeds, some garden gloves, and gardening tools. Then I cover the whole pot in clear gift basket wrap and add a homemade name tag with curly ribbon.  These always look so beautiful.  If you go to the dollar store, you can do the whole thing for around $5.00 for a nice one.

2.  You can pick up a couple of flats of flowers at your local greenhouse and some pots at the dollar store, along with potting soil.  Then transplant the flowers into the pots.

3.  Make some homemade truffles and give those.  Find a recipe for them on an online recipe site.   You can put these in just a sandwich bag ( not a ziplock) and add the gift tag and ribbon at the top. 

4.  Make a candy arrangement in a coffee cup.  This is very simple!  First, buy a coffee cup from the dollar store.  Second, add some M&M's in the cup.  Third, cut out some flower petals from construction paper or even regular paper that you have colored. .  Fourth, Poke a toothpick ( one of those sturdy ones, the cheap ones won't work) through the center of the construction paper flower, add a hershey kiss buy poking the toothpick into it but not all the way through.  Then, wrap a pipe cleaner around the other end of the toothpick several times.  Next, wrap the pipe cleaner around a craft stick, to make a stem, and stick into the cup full of M&M's.  You can add some store bought truffles buy just poking the toothpick directly into them and then repeating the pipe cleaner, craft stick stem.   Keep making and adding until the cup is full.  It doesn't take a lot, you should be able to do about 3 cups with a few bags of candy.  Make sure you have enough M&M's though.  It takes alot to hold everything in the cup.

5.  Walmart has medium sized boxes of Russel Stover Chocolates for 3.00.  The flavors I saw were, cherry cordial, coconut clusters, and carmels. I am sure the variety varies for each store.  But this is a pretty cheap gift that looks like something.

6.  Send them an invitation for a meal at your house.  Then, make the meal really special bringing out the best dishes, tablecloth, and serving something very nice.

7. Make a homemade card telling them exactly how you feel about them.  The store bought cards are nice, but a personal touch is always better. 

8.  Give them a coupon for a job you will do for them, that they need help with or hate doing.  Put it in a card.
This is a site that has some really beautiful unique cards.
http://www.zazzle.com/mainewildsensations/mother+day+greeting+cards

A Cheap Easter Dinner!

Maybe you are really wanting a nice Easter Dinner, but the cost of a great big ham and things is way out of budget.  Don't fear!  You can whip up something cheap and still have a great meal.

If you are cooking for just a small bunch of people, then why make a big ham?  I have seen ham steaks on sale at different places this week for about 2.50 each.  A couple of these will go a long ways.  You can either layer them on top of each other and bake as usual, or brown in a frying pan.  If you bake it, you can still make gravy with your drippings.  Just bring them to a boil and add about 2 Tbs. of corn starch mixed with some water.  Boil  and stir with a wire whisk until thickened. 
 Pick up a bag of potatoes and mash them.  I have seen potatoes  for 1.30 a bag this week.  Now, pick one frozen veggie that everyone likes cost 2.50.
 For bread, buy the store brand Pillsbury style biscuits.  These are around 75 cents
  Make a jello salad.  Use 2 packages of store brand jello and one can of store brand fruit cocktail.  Mix the jello according to directions and put in the fridge.  When it starts to set up, put in the can of drained fruit cocktail.  Stir together and let set till firm.
 For dessert make a cake or a pie.  If you have never made pie crust, then buy the ready made crust and add either pudding to it, or some frozen fruit following a recipe. It isn't hard.  You should be able to make this dinner for around 20.00.
Enjoy your holiday and remember you don't have to be rich to have a nice day. 

Cheap Window Solution while house in under construction

As you can see from the photo, my house is under construction.  Regardless of the fact that I do not have any walls in my bedroom right now, I need to have some sort of shade or something up.  The problem is that I don't want to hang a shade and curtain up when I am going to have to take it down to put up walls.  I also don't want to put up anything nice until the room is finished.  If I put up something nice right now it would just get ruined. 

So I went to a discount store and bought a towel.  I decided that the towel, if done right could double as a curtain and a shade for right now!

This would also be great for anyone on a tight budget.

SUPPLIES

1 towel big enough for the window

1 spool of wide ribbon

2 tacks

scissors

All I did was cut 2 pieces of ribbon to the length of my towel.  Then I folded the ribbon in half.  I placed  each piece of the ribbon about 1/4 of the way in on the ends of the towel.  Then, I tacked the towel up to my window frame.  One tack on each of the ribbons, and one in the center of the towel. Then I tied a bow in the bottom of each of the ribbons. 

When night comes I let the towel hang down.  When it's daytime, I just roll the towel up and put it through each ribbon. 

It is kind of cute!