Guest Post: Creative Grocery Deal Gift Ideas!

Guest post by Candra from Creations Made By MOI:

How to take the great grocery deals, and turn them into gifts for family, friends, co-workers, & neighbor’s

My name is Candra and I have been reading Collin’s blog for about 6 months now and cannot thank her enough for all the money she has helped me save. Almost a year ago I quit my job to stay at home with my daughter, 3 and was expecting our son, now 4 months old. Quitting my job was a big leap of faith and at times I felt foolish for not helping contribute towards our income while my husband is going to school for dentistry. I wanted to find a way that I could contribute and help stretch our money without having to be at work 40 hours a week. A friend introduced me to Collin’s blog and I have been hooked ever since. I love going to the various store’s and watching people astonished when they see the total on the screen verses the things in my cart. It really gets some good conversations going let me tell ya! Coming home and telling my husband that I spent $5 and saved $40 feels so good, and I now feel confident that I am a contributor to making our pay checks go as far as possible.

I know most of us get stressed out around the holidays. There is so much to do…. Decorations, cooking, shopping, getting the house ready for company etc. and for me, it’s the one time of the year that my budget generally goes out the window. Not on purpose, but because there are so many “little gifts” and extras that really add up. You know the “little gifts” that I’m talking about…. you or your spouse’s work secret Santa exchange, the many of gifts you hand out to your neighbor’s and friends, the gifts for all of your children’s teachers etc. The list goes on forever. It’s important to give those gifts, but more important not to break your budget by doing it. This year I gave myself a challenge to set a budget for the “little gifts” and STICK TO IT (that’s the hard part!)

So here are some cute ways I found to jazz up those GREAT DEALS Collin has helped me find!

First off, remember the sparkling cider deal at Walgreens a few weeks ago? I got 2 bottles for $1. Well I made a tag that says “Wishing you a Sparkling Holiday Season”. Put a couple of rhinestone’s on it, a ribbon and its ready to be delivered to a friend of mine that LOVES sparkling cider!

The next one is from a Target deal on Chex Mix. I got each bag for $0.50. The saying that goes with this pretty thing is “Remember Santa “chex” his list twice to see who’s been Naughty or nice… So be good for Goodness Sake! I got 6 bags and these are going to my husband’s co-workers!

This last one is my favorite, mostly because its light hearted and funny and we all need that around the stress of the holidays. This would be a great gift for the friend that has a great sense of humor, a white elephant gift ect. It is a bottle of Root Beer that I got at Walgreens this past week for $1, and a can of pork n beans that I got from my local Fry’s for less than a $1. The saying that goes with this is, “Have a ‘Rootin’ ‘Tootin’ Christmas.

There is nothing like homemade goodies during the holidays. Last week my Fry’s had raspberries on sale for $1 each. I grabbed as many as the limit would allow, went back a few more times, and threw together a couple of batches of raspberry jam. Now I know from experience that any of my friends would take this delicious sweetness off my hands so I made my list and got to work. I made 9 containers of jam, and put this saying on top, “Jelly is like Love, you can’t spread it around without getting some on yourself!” Happy Holidays.

This jam would go REALLY well with some homemade bread. Here is a loaf that my sister did for me attached with the saying, “For being there when you were ‘kneaded’, For ‘Rising’ to the occasion, for never ‘Loafing’ on the job. No matter how you ‘Slice’ it, we hope you have a Merry Christmas”

This would make a great gift for extended family members that you want to do something for, or a teacher that has gone above and beyond.

I hope this gives you some ideas for cute, inexpensive gift ideas. It is so important to tell all those special people in your life how much you love and appreciate them and as always it’s the thought that counts. I am a big believer in doing those “little” things that will brighten someone’s day. Thanks to Collin for helping me be able to do all the little things in a budget friendly way. I hope everyone has a great holiday!

If you are interested in seeing more ideas for simple Holiday gift ideas or to purchase the tags shown on the gifts above you can visit Candra’s blog at www.creationsmadebymoi.blogspot.com!