Christmas is done, for under $100

[mom-from-missouri]

My Christmas is about done, and I have spend less than $100. This is including all my family, consisting of the kids, grandparents, aunt, uncle, neice, nephew, great aunt & great uncle, 8 teachers, and 6 close friends. By "about done", I mean I still have a few stitches to make, or finishing touches to make, but no more money to spend!! Halloween is not even here yet! Anyone else done?

[crosses]

wow! that is fantastic. would you mind sharing the gifts you got for everyone to give me some hints on saving on my own Christmas shopping?

[terry1156]

Wonderful job. It must be liberating to have it all done. I'm still working on my list. Half done, half to go.

[mom-from-missouri]

A lot of my list involved the sewing machine. I found some fleece blankets on sale at the dollar store (twin size) for $5. Each is enough to make 3 little girls pant and shirt sets, with 3 matching doll outfits. So, I got 2 of those blankets, made each of my daughters and neice an outfit apeice, and a doll outfit to match. Still had some left over, so nephew is getting PJ's out of the same material, and all 5 kids are also getting a pair of mittens cut from the same material. Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt, Uncle, and 2 teachers are getting an apron-full sized--Grandma, & Aunt have the kids and grandkids handprints on them in fabric paint. Grandpa and uncle aprons have BBQ motif. Teachers will have the handprints of the classroom kids on them-still need to get a couple more kids to finish that. The aprons were in a sale bin at walmart in the craft dept for $1 each. Kids are also getting poddle skirts and scrubs-I am making the playclothes all out of rements that were not more than .75 each. Also found some "leather look" vinyl, with a felt back that I am making the kids western vest out of. Teachers are also getting a mason jar (recycled from speg jars) with the dry ingredents in them for either a cake or cookies. 4 people are getting sofa throws made from rements of velvet, fleece and corderoy-again, all in the marked down walmart bin. Made the nephew a dinosaur matching board game-downloaded & printed the pictures off the internet, glued them onto recycled stiff cardboard, and covered the whole thing with clear contact paper. (Looks store bought) Everyone is also getting a scrap/photo book-I have started them-they can finish them-Each has a few pictures in it, and is taylored for the person who is getting it--2 are for high school seniors and I have already put in some newspaper clippings and photos from this school year. Found some picture frames (ugly) at a garage sale-stripped and repainted them, used some discounted wall paper & boarders for the matting (found this dumpster diving behind the local paint and wallpaper store,) and inserted some photos--school pix for the grandparents, homecoming pix for the seniors of them with their best friends. Also made some small picture frames out of scrap molding found cleaning out the shed, and put foam board for the backing, and added magnets to a few for refrigerator pix. Some little girls are getting dress up jewerly bought at a flea market-old beads which I restrung, along with a bottle of clear nail polish and bubble bath from the dollar store. Also for a couple of real little ones, got a couple of books with bright pictures from the dollar store, and read the book onto a cassette tape, and ring a bell when it is time to turn the page. One book is about a fire engine-I went the the fire station, and the fireman had a blast sounding the horn and siren so I could record it to include on the tape. Those kids will get the book and tape combo. Also making lots of doll clothes and baby blankets, and a couple of "diaper bags". My mom and sister n law are also getting a gift certificate for a facial, manicure and deep hair conditioning at the local beauty school--that is a total of $6 for each certificate. Its sooo relaxing! Lots of government sites on the internet have "free" posters, which send for, and collect all year long for the kids. My nephew is real outdoorsy and I just got a poster that identifies all the trees in Missouri-he will like it. Another I got for him shows all the different wildlife we have. For the girls, they are each getting a poster that shows all the wildflowers that grow in Missouri and KS. Sometimes they hang the posters, sometimes they like to cut out the pictures on them for crafts they make. Do a web search under free posters to find these. I also got the kids a bunch of used books at the library fundraiser--they had them on sale for 15 to 25 cents each. The kids love these-each get a box every year and they trade them after they have read them. Grandpa and uncle are also getting slippers, which I made-got the suede leather to make it as scraps for under $2. Cost me more to get a new leather needle for my machine than for the leather to make them. I also get pillow cases, cording and christmas colored fabric whenever I see it on sale-with this I make Christmas gift bags with drawstring tops. Our family uses these now instead of wrapping paper. You can reuse them for years and years. A lot of my fabric I get at garage sales, and sometimes you get more for your money to buy sheets if you are sewing something ligh weight such as summer pj's.

[Tree0164]

Wow Sherry! That is awesome!

[2moretrees]

Amazing! I'm very impressed and thank you for the loads of hints.

[rabbitfoot]

That is great. I'm just curious how much time you put into everything? I can see that you are very organized - I need to work on that.

[mountainmist]

Yikes, this is really amazing.

[mountainmist]

Yikes, this is really amazing.

[Broken Arrow]

Yes, amazing would be an understatement. I have far fewer people to shop for, but my conservative budget (by my estimate) is still higher than yours.

[jodi]

Wow, that's great. I haven't even started yet. I'm so jealous of your creativity and abilities! I've been toying with the idea of making some baked good, jams, etc. for gifits...thanks for the inspiration!

[b4freedom]

Can I get a gift receipt with my gift?

[Cheetahwoman7]

FANTASTIC MFM!!! What time you took to truly think of what each person wanted or could use. Not many people do that anymore. Great job on your part!

I used to make homemade stuff as gifts too, but on a much smaller scale. My big thing was to bake goodies or make candy for everyone. I was "famous" (or was that infamous?) for my chocolate fudge and pies. I had one friend who accused me of buying the fudge to give out! Shoot, she should have known that I would have never spent almost $10 a pound for fudge when I could make 5 pounds for under $3 using REAL products, like fresh cream butter, cane sugar, and true vanilla!!!

People still ask me why I don't do that anymore. Hmmmmm, maybe I should give it a go this year? People LUV homemade gifts. I think it shows you really thought about the person and were willing to give of yourself and your time....which both are so precious.

CJ

[nanamom]

I am basically done, I have material but have to sew one gift, everything else is done (I hope!) Now my DS2 (age 3) gets to start his craft projects for everyone.