Frugal Packing Tips for Homemade Gifts

If you need too many gifts and have too little wallet, making homemade gifts in your kitchen is a thoughtful and frugal alternative. But the money you saved by cooking and baking your gifts can go right out the window if you pay retail prices for packing supplies like gift baskets, fancy jars and bottles, boxes ribbons etc.
If you love to look for bargains or haunt swap meets, flea markets, thrift stores or even garage sales, you can save a bundle while still giving unique one-of-a-kind gifts for pennies. Follow the tips below. I'll share some of the items some friends and I picked up, along with the actual prices paid for them.
Finding fun, frugal packing supplies is like a treasure hunt, be creative, use your imagination and have fun with the process. Almost anything can be turned into gift basket.

· For instance, trays - the kind you serve breakfast in bed on. Fill each tray with some home baked tea breads, some coffees and teas, and some homemade pancake and muffin mixes, wrapped the trays in pink and blue cellophane with big ribbons and had a gift for a couple.

· Stylish metal wastebaskets from surplus stores. Fill the new baskets with a small living Christmas trees along with some home baked goodies and decorated them with Christmas tree ornaments and ribbons.

· Baskets are almost always easy to find at garage sales or thrift stores. People practically give baskets away at garage sales. All you need to do is put a cellophane, ribbon and packing material with them then add some homemade goodies and they were out the door.

· Look for packing items throughout the year. You might find an awesome cookie jar for a few dollars at a flea market in July. Buy it and put it away for next holiday season when you can fill it with delicious homemade cookies and give it away. The middle of the summer is a great time to pick up ribbons and gift-wraps at garage sales for pennies on the dollar. People moving or cleaning out their closets tend to get rid of seasonal items on the off season. You can also pick up ornaments for the tree as well as the lawn and enough lighting to put to put a major drain on the neighborhood's electrical consumption should you ever decide to use it all (not that I'm suggesting you should).

· Shop the week after Christmas sales and stock up on giftwrap, ribbons and packing supplies for the following year. Even expensive retail department stores practically give this stuff away after the big day is over.

· Don't forget gift bags, those decorative shopping bags, are great containers for homemade gifts. Shop the after holiday sales and closeout shops to save big bucks on these handy items.

· Look for interesting mugs, pitchers or coffee or teapots. These are perfect to pack with homemade drink mixes, cider or wine mulling spices, along with some homemade cake, brownie or cookie mixes.

· Thrift stores, flea markets and garage sales are great places to find interesting plates on which to package homemade cookies or candies. Some plates even have a Christmas theme decoration which is very suitable for the occassion. While many souvenir plates are not suitable for holding food because of the paints used, most of the vintage ones have the decoration under the glaze, making them functional as well as decorative.

· Styrofoam or plastic cooler chests and insulated bags make great gift containers that let you give items that need to be refrigerated as you can pack your goodies on ice. You can pick these items inexpensively at discount and drug stores. A white Styrofoam chest encased in bright red ribbons looks quite festive.

· Cookie jars are a wonderful way to present homemade cookies. Attach a big bow to the top and your gift is ready.

· Closeout shops are wonderful places to find inexpensive and interesting boxes and packing supplies such as jars and bottles, silk flowers, even plates, cookie jars, mugs and pitchers, not to mention ribbons, gift bags and gift wrap.

· If you have a paper shredder, you can easily make basket or gift bag filler material by shredding colored paper - for instance mix red and green papers for Christmas, pastel colors for a baby shower, etc.

· Reynolds makes a wonderful line of colored plastic cling wrap in a variety of colors that are perfect for wrapping homemade gifts and baskets. Look for coupons usually in newspapers this time of year.

 

BACK TO HOMEPAGE