This is the third and final post in the #MerryMoney series, about the different strategies I’m using to keep my holiday spending under control. They aren’t rocket science (think how to have the awkward holiday money chat and how to set a simple gift budget) but if you’re looking for ways to get through the season without having to tap into your TFSA to do it, you’re in the right place.
Last year was my first Christmas celebrating with The Boyfriend’s family. We’re so lucky that he has a wonderful extended family in town, because it makes for really fun get-togethers throughout the year.
Buuuut it also meant that it was my first holiday with a lot of people, all of whom I like, and all of whom I want to (continue to) like me. By complete fluke, I managed to find a budget-friendly and frugal way to…
- give gifts to each family unit we were celebrating with – four in total!
- give gifts that everyone liked, and
- give gifts that cost me under $10 each.
Let me introduce you to…. the brownie jar.
I was scrolling through Pinterest – as one does – and I stumbled across this blog post, with all these gorgeous images of pre-packaged Mason jars filled with everything you need to make brownies, minus some butter and eggs.
And I thought to myself, that can’t be that hard, right?
Right?
Well.
Let me just tell you, putting a layer of flour into a Mason jar and expecting it to lay completely flat in a nice line is not as easy as you think it’s going to be. But in the grand scheme of Pinterest fails, they turned out pretty well, and the resulting brownies got rave reviews from the families who received them.
Each brownie jar cost me just under $10 to make, including a 12-pack of Mason jars and all of the ingredients, which I scored at Bulk Barn, my favourite place for frugal bulk ingredients. When I look at the other $10 gift options I had available to me, this one hit the perfect sweet spot of interesting, fun and widely enjoyable. There weren’t any others that quite hit that mark in my $10 price range.
All this is to say that DIY Christmas gifts have been a budget- and life-saver for me in the past, so this year, I doubled down on my Pinterest research to find my next great DIY gift for this year. In the process, I noticed there were five main categories of DIY gifts that could save you money this holiday season.
Without further ado…
#1. Baked goods
Cookies are some of my favourite budget-friendly treats when I have a long list of people I want to acknowledge, but don’t want to blow my budget on a $20 gift for each person. Coworkers have been on the receiving end of many a cookie gift from me.
These soft-and-chewy peanut butter cookies have only ever gotten complaints from people with peanut allergies. They’re seriously easy and seriously yummy, if you’re looking for a new cookie recipe.
#2. Build- or bake-it-yourself kits
This is the category my beloved brownie jar falls into. You gather up a bunch of ingredients or items, hopefully without blowing the bank, and the gift is more than the sum of its parts because you package it together with a specific intention.
You can find some great ideas out there, like hot chocolate kits for adults. Who wouldn’t be happy to get this on Christmas morning?
#3. Knitting
Ok, full disclosure, it took me two years to knit an infinity scarf.
Two. Years.
So knitting isn’t exactly my forte, but I plan to work on that. Why? Because knitting – once you’re good at it – is the kind of thing you can do while you watch TV, and at the end of the process, you’ve created a treasured gift for the cost of some yarn. Yarn is not that expensive!
For the longest time, my great-grandmother was known for her hand-knit socks. You knew you were welcomed into the family when you got a pair of her socks made for you, and these socks were – and are – treasured beyond belief. She passed away this summer, and someday, I hope to follow in her warmly-socked footsteps in terms of knitted gifts.
#4. Handmade cards
The most frugal hobby I took up this year wasn’t actually this blog. It was hand-lettering.
I got into it because I wanted to do something completely different than my day job, where I’m online all day, and what’s less “being online” than writing on paper? It combines everything I love about working with words with everything I like about making art and being creative.
What I didn’t anticipate was that I wouldn’t buy a single greeting card after I got comfortable with my rough sketches. I stocked up on a box of blank white cards at Michael’s last March, and I still haven’t made a dent in them. Meanwhile, friends have gotten completely custom birthday cards, and my Christmas envelopes are so fancy.
And I’m no longer spending an extra $5 on every single occasion that needs a card.
#5. Crafts
Lastly, there are oodles of crafts you can do that don’t require much in the way of true crafting skills. Pinterest is full of ideas, and a go-to favourite of mine is the A Beautiful Mess craft page. Seriously, those ladies know their crafts.
My only advice? Pick one craft that you know a majority of the people you want to give it to will like. Nothing sinks a craft budget like buying specialized small items at Michaels for five different intended projects.
Michaels is my achilles heel of spending, did I mention that?
Regardless of whether hand-making is really “your thing” year round or not, taking the time to really nail at least one DIY gift can save your holiday budget, big time. Even just having a go-to cookie recipe or signature “brownies-in-a-mason-jar” gift in your back pocket can be a lifesaver when you run into situations where you’d rather not show up empty handed, or show up with just a card.
Do you have any killer DIY gift ideas? Share them in the comments if you do, I’m always looking for new ideas!
PS. Inspired by Mixed Up Money, Smart Women Can and Two Cup House, this is officially my last post of 2015. I’ve got some big projects planned for the new year, and I want to focus on them – and ok, drink some egg nog – over the holiday season. I’ll see you bright and early in the new year, and if all goes to plan, I won’t even be semi-anonymous by then!
I’ll still be over on Twitter though, because you’ll have to pry Twitter from my cold dead hands. Come hang out with me there over the holidays!
Great list, Des! Seeds from a garden in a snazzy little envelope are lovely little gifts.
Oh I LOVE that idea! That’s awesome Penny – thank you for adding it! Especially because snazzy little envelopes are a) my jam and b) super easy and cheap to source!
Fantastic list!! Two years ago, I made DIY photo snow globes for the family (http://christmas.wonderhowto.com/how-to/make-your-own-photo-snow-globe-0132068/). They were an absolute hit & cost less than $3 a piece to make! I chose neutral colors (light blues & silver), that way they can be on display all year long vs. just Christmas time. Last year, I teamed up with my fiancé’s mom & sister to make all of our Christmas cards & tags homemade! Luckily, my fiancé’s mom used to teach small art classes from home & her craft room is phenomenal – like a mini Michael’s. 🙂 Enjoy the rest of your 2015, Des! Excited to see what’s in store for the new year!
I literally spend entire days dreaming about craft rooms like the one your fiance’s mom has (in my head, anyways, haha.) That’s awesome, and must have been such a fun holiday activity to do together! I love the snow globe idea too, especially because my boyfriend has a pretty strict “glitter is only ever to be in packages, never lose in the house, we’re not animals” policy. Our first Christmas together, I wrapped his gift in gold glitter paper and he was NOT amused.
I hope you have an amazing rest of the year too, and a wonderful Christmas!
My favorite DIY gift is fancy towels!! I used these as a present for three different people and they definitely cost less than $10. Simply buy a pair of towels, as fancy as you can find within the budget, then head over to a lace shop and buy a few supplies. Head home, stitch the two together, wrap them up and Voila! The other person values them more if you tell them you made them yourself. Well, not all people, but most do anyway.
That’s such an amazing idea! Hahaha if anyone turned up their nose at my homemade towels I’d totally cross them off my list for next year. They sound gorgeous – great idea!
I love handmade gifts! I’ve always wanted to do the adult hot chocolate thing, maybe I will next year. 🙂
My favorite handmade gift is fold over elastic hair ties. I wrote about how to make them on my blog, but you can find directions on practically any blog. Everyone loves them and they’re easy and crazy cheap.
You can make homemade hair ties?!?!?!
This is one of those moments where it seems totally easy for you, but I’ve never even heard of this, so I am HUGELY impressed. That would be such a great gift! I’d love to read the post on your blog about it – do you mind sending me the link?
In love with the DIY baking jars!!! So cute, and way cheaper than DIY hampers (which I’ve done in the past)
They really are! The most expensive part by far is the walnuts, but you could totally position them as “nut free, because allergies!” and they’d be just as delicious.
Also, the biggest perk is that you can totally make the recipe for yourself first, for “quality control.” (They’re seriously good brownies, and way lower maintenance than most recipes.)
Love these ideas, particularly the edible ones 😉 I’ve tried knitting a few times but never managed to complete a project, you did well to stick at it for two years!
Hahaha I’m not going to lie, the two years was punctuated by several months-long periods of the half-finished scarf sitting on a closet shelf. I’d pick it up for a week and then forget about it for a season (and then have to re-learn what I was doing every time I got back into it!) Definitely not the recommended way to knit a scarf 😉
I am giving eight pairs of hand knit socks this year and I loved making them! Once you are more advanced in knitting, I’d recommend checking out Cookie A’s sock designs, they are super-fancy, and you will make your grandmother proud!
Ooooh I totally will, thank you so much for the suggestion! And kudos on your mad sock-making skills!
I’m feeling inspired by this! I got kind of into drawing this year and was already planning to make homemade cards for people, but I love the baking kit idea too. (Too bad I can’t knit. People have tried to teach me, and people have failed.)
By the way, one of the many, many things on my to-do list is to try one of those DIY art prints that you did a post on!
Looking forward to the un-anonymizing! 🙂
Yay to ALL of this! Homemade cards are the best, and trust me – people will be SO impressed! I’m impressed that you draw – my “art” is strictly of the words variety, haha.
And oh my god I’m so excited to not be anonymous. Secrets are my One True Weakness and it feels super weird that you guys don’t “actually” know me, since I feel like I’ve made some really wonderful friends in the past few months through blogging! If nothing goes too wrong, there may or may not be a video planned for the big un-anonymizing, haha.
This is the ULTIMATE list for DIY gifts. I love making things for people, but my biggest complaint is that some of the projects can get so pricey, so before you know it, you’re actually spending MORE money on something homemade. Your list is perfect because it addresses all of my frugal (*cough* cheap *cough*) concerns, hah. This gifts (especially the baking jars—so amazing!) will definitely be on my list for next year. (I’m weird and shop in November for all my Christmas gifts, haha)
Enjoy your very well-deserved break! I can’t wait to officially “meet” you in the New Year when you become non-anonymous (is that a word??) Happy Holidays, Des!
The secret to those perfect layers is layering parchment paper in between each layer. Believe me when say I didn’t know that, because I haven’t made edible gifts. It’s just that my dear friend and spouse have told me that’s how it’s done in photos shoots. I am a more of a handmade rubber stamp and card girl.
I love all of these ideas! Over the years, I’ve given out quite a few homemade gifts (lavender lemon curd, body scrub in nice flip-top jars, various jams, lip balms, etc.), and maybe people are just being nice when they’ve said this, but they’ve told us that they actually look forward to our homemade gifts. (It helps that we try to put them in nice jars and always decorate it with stamps that I make.) So I’m firmly in the camp of giving out pretty homemade gifts instead of purchasing something impersonal. Hope you’re having a nice break! Happy holidays!