Do you have any suggestions for frugal Mother's Day gifts? My husband and I are moving for him to go to law school and don't have a lot of extra money right now to buy our moms gifts, but we still want to give them something to make them feel special. Thanks! -Jessica
Here are just a few of my ideas:
-Write a card. Many moms would find a heartfelt card expressing appreciation to be one of the most touching gifts ever. You could even write it on inexpensive stationery or get creative and make your own card to save the $3-$5 it often costs to buy a card. You might also check your local dollar store for inexpensive cards.
-Make up a basket of goodies. Do you have lots of extra fun items you've gotten for free or almost free with coupons? How about making up a gift basket or care package to send to your mom? Write little notes on each item and package it up beautifully and she might just think it was the greatest gift ever!
-Put together a special photo album. With all the great photo deals recently, you could probably pull this off very inexpensively and it could be incredibly meaningful if your mom loves something like this.
If your mom lives nearby, here are a few more ideas:
-Do something with her. Instead of buying a generic, over-priced fruit basket or flower bouquet, what about doing something with your mom? Think about something your mom really enjoys doing which is also inexpensive and invite her to do it with you. Perhaps you could go browse antique stores, or hit some garage sales, or go out for coffee? You might also consider inviting her over for an afternoon tea or lunch!
-Make something for her. What would she like and use that you could also make for her? Perhaps it's her favorite cookies, or a bouquet of fresh flowers from your garden, or handmade thank you notes that she can use?
-Give her a service gift certificate. What's something your mom doesn't enjoy doing--maybe cleaning her bathrooms, washing her car, or cooking? Make up a gift certificate for her which says she can choose whenever she'd like for you to do this particular chore for her and you'll do it--up to an amount of times specified on the certificate!
Those are just a handful of my ideas; I'd love to hear your ideas and what you are doing for your moms for Mother's Day this year.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Input requested: Frugal Mother's Day gifts
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I'm going with the "spending time with mom" route. She has a box of slides that we got from my grandmother that she keeps meaning to go through. My dad is going to set up the slide projector and I am going to look at them with her and write down who is in each one. (my dad is going to then go put the slides on a CD so we can each have a copy) It's a full day, but I know my mom will love it (and it costs me nothing!) :)
And TODAY only you can get a free 8 x 10 print at Walgreen's! Yay!
my puslisher pagemaker has a deal right now for a photo album. If it is your first album it is $20 off the book, which will make it free! I can't remember what the coupon code is, possibly NEWSHARE. This way you only have to pay for shipping
My dad, brother, sister and I are joining together to give her bathroom a much needed makeover! We each pitched in a little money and used coupons from JCPenneys ($10), Kohl's ($5) and rebates for a digital picture frame to make it a special place for her. We also got tons of very cheap ideas from Country Home.
My dad is responsible for keeping her preoccupied out of the house for the day while my husband has agreed to help me replace the caulking in her bathtub and the light fixture over her mirror.
My kids are getting me chocolates! At CVS. Whitman's Boxed Chocolates are on sale this week for $3.99 (reg $8.99) and there is a $2 off coupon in last Sundays insert making them $2 per box. Not bad for a CVS filler! I think you can do the same deal with the Russel Stover as I also saw coupons for those chocolates as well and they are on clearance too. I am not sure if I willby those as well as I already have 3 boxes of Whitman's, but you know one can't ever have too much chocolate stashed!
Pictures of the grandkids are always good- they have really nice frames for $1 at Dollar Tree. That's what I always do. Also I got my mom an entertainment book because they are only $15 right now. For Father's day I always get my dad coffee because he likes coffee- just regular Folgers but he loves it!
I stocked up on cotton yarns on clearance and with coupons during the winter, and just finished knitting a stack of dishcloths in pretty colors for my mom, mother-in-law and grandmother. I included photos of our girls. I think the shipping out-of-state is going to cost more than the gifts!
I wrote an entire 5-part series of suggestions at my blog that I'd like to share with your readers.
Thanks!
http://mrsnespysworld.blogspot.com/2008/04/mothers-day-gifts-series-part-1-of-5.html
I have a cute, easy, frugal craft idea posted on my blog - we're did it for Mother's Day for the Grandmothers!
www.tenthingsfarm.blogspot.com
Me, I just enjoy time with all of us together...and I wouldn't mind a geranium! hee hee.
I found those cool photo tote bags at Meijer for $4 so each will get one of those with cheap prints of their fams inside. Also my own mom asked ME what I wanted for mothers day.... imagine that. So the two of us decided to claim our day we will drag the men and kid to the park to ride bikes, eat cold foods that don't need to be cooked or de-greased, and play in the sun. Weeee!
Great ideas! I just wrote about post about this very same idea last night to go up on Thursday! You have some different ideas than the ones I wrote about.
I wrote about making your own floral arrangement or baking for mom.
S.B.
Every year for mother's day I ask for the same thing: A car wash and vacuum! It only happens once a year for us :) and if he does it himself, it is free!
My mother-in-law is, let's say, financially secure, and they live 3 states (big ones) away. What we've found is they can afford anything we might give them anyway so we have started giving DVD copies of our home videos. They love this. I make a cover with the new milestones hit during that particular session. Total cost: $4 & 2 hours of time.
I also have made a cutesy little box with dividers in it and will send a few months' worth of pictures with captioned labels on the back. They love this as well and can never wait for the next installment.
Go to the zoo!! Mum's get in FREE (and kids are cheap if you have an Entertainment Book). Take lots of photos, sign up with Art Cow and take advantage of their print freebies and it's an extravagant Mother's Day for next to nothing :)
Today only you can get a FREE 8x10" photo printed on Walgreen's website. Just use the coupon code 4MOM. This could be a wonderful gift for a mom if you put it in a nice (but inexpensive!) frame.
On my brand new blog (up since yesterday afternoon!) there is a link to free jewelry, except for around $4 shipping and handling. Here's the direct link:
http://luv2bfrugal.blogspot.com/2008/05/free-jewelry.html
When I was at my mom's house a few weeks ago, I took pictures (unbeknownst to her) of the seedlings she was growing for her garden. I'm printing four of them and putting them in a pretty black frame I got from K-Mart. Overall it'll be under $20. Which is more than a card, but I think it'll mean a lot.
Over the years, I have bought my mom a new rose bush or other flowering plant/bush. She loves flowers and gardening so this is the perfect gift for her.
We got foam photo frame craft kits that we made for all of the grandmas and great-grandmas. It only cost $1.00 per kit at a craft store, took a few minutes to create each one using photos we already had on hand, but the grandmothers will value them a lot, I know! And, the bonus was that we had a lot of fun making them together.
In order to not make any more debt, we are just doing cards this year. Both Mom's are well off and buy what they want/need. And every year we would buy something on credit(I know !) for them and it would just sit in the basement:( so now that we are trying to get our debt down ,we are just doing cards. As for me I have told them to just make mama some cards, keep the house clean for the day and I will be a happy camper!
I bought digital photo keychains at Wal-Mart for $15 each and uploaded pictures onto them for my mom and mil. They will both be thrilled to show off the grandkids at a moments notice!
I think I want one for myself!
Make a home made card then i going to make a breakfast basket with fruit salad, coffee or tea, home made baked goods , home made jam and i will make sure there is some for dad too.
My mom can always use new or nearly new shirts. I found several at our local thrift store for 4/$1. They are in very good condition and I think she will like them. We are also going to spend time with her.
Most years we just do cards( 6 women in all for us)since all are out of town. Most years, the cards are homemade and sometimes they come from Dollar General. I always write a letter to the grandmothers as they always enjoy when I write to them. This year,we decided to send a little something extra to our moms.Andy's mom got a restaurant gift card since we are not there to cook for her or take her out to eat.(She currently is caring for her mother-in-law and aunt in her home.) My mom got some cash to use to buy a plant or something for her gardens(she is a terrific gardener!). I would rather pick out something for her, but it is less expensive this way and she will love going to the nursery and picking something that she is looking forward to having in the garden.
So maybe not totally frugal but something both will enjoy.
Crystal,
I'm making use of the Walgreen's free 8x10 photo for her gift. It's an old picture of my sister and I when we were little, so I think she'll be surprised!
I took my ECB's from CVS and bought my MIL a photo book & card. She lives 700 miles away and will love it! And, it was FREE! :o)
I can't believe no one has suggested making dinner for her! As a college student, I don't have very much money at all, and my mom can be hard to shop for on my budget. However, she works really long days at her job, so I'm going to make her a special dinner from a great pasta and shrimp recipe I found online. I'm also adding salad and good French bread, and some cheap flowers to make it extra special. Since I love to cook, it's a win-win situation!
I always buy my mom a corsage to wear to our Mother's Day Banquet and then to Church.
I'm going to make my mom Tofee Candy (the great recipe you shared w/us a while back, Crystal). She loves this! Any ideas for a pretty container to put it in?
Thanks, Michelle
Those were really good ideas!
I just wanted to let you know at our Walmart (N.C.) They have Ortega Taco Mixes 2 for $1.00
and I used a coupon from a recent insert buy two Ortega products and get $1.00 off. So I got both Taco Mix packs for free.
Money is very tight this year, so I made both my mother and grandmother a 4x6 card with a collage of pictures. I have seven siblings and some of them have families of their own, so I put small pictures of all of us on the card and had it printed at Walgreens. Even though it was super cheap, I think they will both appreciate the time and thought and will understand that I did not have the money to buy yet another trinket that collects dust. :) Oh, and they are both out of state, but I love the idea of offering to clean to the bathrooms, etc. Great ideas here!
Might have been mentioned, but since I live out of state, and my mom needs hygiene stuff, I'm thinking of purchasing a pre-paid postal box and fill it with all my cvs stash. That way the weight won't matter. Shampoo, toothpaste, Exedrine, whatever. CVS' are few and far between in Minnesota. Plus since my dad died last month, she can't afford much on her part-time income. Anything helps!
Cleaning her house and fixing up her yard for her along with a girls night of food and a in home movie. That is our favorite way to spend mother's day although we do it the day before so we do not interfere with church.
I currently have around $55 worth of ECB at CVS so I think I'm going to use some of them on some nice perfume or bath sets or possibly some of the gardening stuff. Or, I saw a fluffy bathrobe advertised in the flyer that I might check out. I also saw some pretty potted plants in there the other day. Anyway, I'm pretty sure they will get a nice gift from CVS. Just haven't decided what it will be yet. :)
I will definitely use a $3 / $15 to bring the cost down a little too. ;)
We are giving bouquets of button flowers (there is a great tutorial here http://kiddley.com/2006/05/31/a-button-bouquet/) They look so cute in a small mouthed vase or tucked into a green plant. My boys got tired of twisting so I had them pick out their 4-5 buttons for each flower and I put them together for them. Hobby Lobby has some really cute bags of buttons for $3.99, even cheaper with a 40% off coupon (they're with the scrapbooking stuff). Buying them by the bag like that means they are already color coordinated. I've made several of these and have them in an antique jar on my windowsill and it is cute, cute, cute.
We enjoy potting my mom and MIL's patio pots. with the deals at the parking lot greenhouses, annuals can be picked up for a few dollars. A big bag of potting soil, and they enjoy them all summer long! Our children love to help and get their hands in the dirt too, it turns into quit the project.
My husband and I are both writing a tribute to our mothers. We are going to type them on pretty paper and frame them or put them in a page protector and album along with pictures. If you go to www.familylife.com and then go to the Family & Culture heading it will give you the "how to" of writing a tribute.
I recently wrote about having my parents over for a mother's day brunch for very little cost using some of my CVS ECB's for some of the food items.
Very frugal and it's a gift of my time.
http://spendingsimply.blogspot.com
/2008/04/frugal-upcoming-mothers-day-brunch.html
every year my mom asks for sunless tanning lotion - this time i was in luck - CVS had nivea as an ECB item. Certainly not a "free" item, but I used ECBs I had earned in the past, got her 3 bottles, and still earned $5 in ECBs. :)
I just bought my mom a rosebush... only $4 at Aldi!
I wrote a "thank you" letter to my Dad (for Father's Day, but you can do the same for Mom!) I basically wrote a note/letter saying "thank you" for a whole list of things/events, etc. Some were very lighthearted and funny and some were quite serious and "healing" for broken places. He was quite surprised thatI even remembered some of the things I thanked him for.
Braces on my teeth, an extended family vacation around the USA, accompanying me to Daddy/daughter events, putting me and my sister first and raising us as a single Dad at a time when that was not done,etc. etc. Word came from other family members he cried when he read it and he recently let me know it sits on his desk and he re-reads it. Which one of us would not want to hear how appreciated we are/were?
Just a thought.
This year I found some nice boxes at my local "Just a Dollar" store....for $1. They are nice, they are about the size of a small jewelry box and have Scripture on them and look like they cost more than a dollar. I filled them with free candy which I snagged on sale at CVS or Walgreens with a coupon. So....a frugal $1.00 gift plus a card (which could be hand-made by my kiddos).
You could buy a tub of Crayola Air Dry Model clay, spread it out and have kidsput their handprints into it. Remember to label it with the names and the date!
I think Bed Bath and Beyond had a kit for about $5 where you can paint a plate.
Along the line of mother's day gift ideas - I would love to hear from your readers what inexpensive yet practical and nice gift ideas they have for end of the year teacher gifts. Thanks!
How about a gift basket from our stash from CVS? personal care items, olay bodywashes ,lumene, loreal maybelline etc.
Makeup from the walgreens covergirl deal would do good with it.
how about using a transfered Rx coupon and getting a $25 gift card to send to her? It would be a nice lightweight gift with a card
I sent my husband and kids to the mall (yes, the mall) with a $10 coupon from JCPenney. I actually browsed with them and pointed some of the PJs I liked. (I need new jammy bottoms.) Hubs said that they ended up paying only $2 for whatever it was they picked out. Not bad.
If you get the JCPenney coupons, you might be able to get something very inexpensively if you combine it with a sale or clearance. (And there was a LOT of stuff on clearance when we were there.)
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