money saving idea for holiday gifts/added milk bath :)

THANKS LETA!! I think I will be using your bath salts as my "gift to many" this year. It really takes some thinking to find something that most folks would/could enjoy. You've posted a perfect one . . . at least for all the ladies. My family is very large (8 siblings plus their spouses and kids now equals 51 people!!). When I do a gift like this, I usually make a few extra in case we have last minute guests (kids bring a date or we invite a lonely soul last minute). Anyway . . . this is perfect! Thanks! GRAIN BAGS One year I made the grain bags (50 of them!!) and gave them to everyone! I bought a couple big bags of feed corn ($10 for 25 lbs). I used upholstery fabric (half price day at the fabric store) and edged them with some pretty piping. They were about 18-20 inches long and about 4 inches wide when they were finished. When I got to the party, I pre-heated some of them in the microwave and handed each the men a hot one. They LOVED it!! I had people calling me for two weeks, saying how special they were. You can also buy plain white men's tube socks at the dollar store and fill them 3/4 full, then stitch the top shut and fold it down and stitch again. Works just as well. I do them for kids that way, but I use colorful fleece and make a washable cover for it. The kids love them too. Do you crochet? One year I made crocheted borders for hand towels and then stitched the border to the towels. I used all earth tones so they would match most any bathroom. That was a great hit too. When I visit my siblings, I often see those nice towels in the powder room!! Lots of great feedback with those as well. Very inexpensive because the towels were from an outlet store. PUMPKIN ROLL If you like to make Pumpkin Roll . . . these freeze beautifully. I make them up and then wrap them in a nice length of waxed paper. Next I wrap them in foil and freeze. They do take quite a bit of time to make . . . but they are a favorite too. CHOCOLATE CARMEL APPLES Melt carmel. Insert a tongue depresser sized popsicle stick into an apple. Coat the apple with caramel. Pack coarsely chopped mixed nuts around the caramel apple. Coat that whole thing in melted chocolate (Hershey bars). Then drizzle with white and green melted chocolate and sprinkle with holiday sprinkles or a bit of crushed candy cane. They are absolutely delicious. The one draw-back on this one is that they need to be done with a couple days of giving, because they don't keep too long. FLASHLIGHTS All kids love flashlights. So this is an easy, inexpensive "one size fits all" kind of gift too. I'll be watching for ideas!! Thanks Leta!! Blessings!

Hi well this is exciting. I am absolutely no good at sewing knitting or anything else for that matter. But I'm going to be watching to see if there is somthing on here I would be ale to do. I am a very good cook if I do say so myself. I thought about baking different types of cookies that I can mail out to my family in arizona. I really loved those blankets that I mentioned getting. I'm sure others could make them by themself.
All they are are fleece blankets that you put a collar on so it goes over your head and has warm floppy arms. That way you can walk around with it and use the computer without taking the blanket off. It also has pockets which is really cool . Somone that can sew would be able to whip them out in no time at all.
thanks for starting the link I will keep checking back in.
Oh those blankets I think even guys would like them if they are designed with their favorite football team or somthing. and kids with their hanna montana or what ever they are into. Like I said I'm not much at arts and crafts but it's just a thought somone else might like it.

If anyone wants a link to them please email me. I'll be happy to send you the link so you have an idea how to make them yourself. My email addy is on my profile.

hugs
carol

Hi Marji,

Yes please I would love the site as I was up until 2am last night looking for something like that. My skin is so sensitive I wanted to be able to use the stuff I made for others. I believe Alwaysrosie said we could list it as we are not trying to solicit, promote, advertise etc, just trying to help for holidays.

Leta

We have to be really careful what links we post. If they are outright selling stuff, they are a no-no . . . if they are giving information or recipe's they are likely ok. Kind of a fine line. So getting them by email will sometimes be the answer. You can name the "store" though. Like if something was sold on Eboy.com your could say something like "Its available at Eboy" or "Eboy dot com" Maybe reading all of Rule 4 would be beneficial. Sorry this is so gray. Blessings!

Did so, sorry.

*hangs head* sorry the rule is a bit gray . . . its meant to keep folks from self promoting . . . some of the links are fine . . . I'm just not real clear on the boarder-line calls. *sigh* sorry friends. I'm enjoying the topic though!! Blessings!

I have a great idea for turkey leftovers that my son and I sort of invented but probably someone else came up with it. You take a pie shell (or two) depending on how much leftover turkey you have. You make or buy an alfredo sauce. I make it so I make it really thick. Take all your leftover steamed veggies or add some frozen, cooked and drained. put turkey and veggies in the pie shell, pour on the alfredo to fill in and level the pie, then put leftover stuffing on top so it looks like a Dutch apple pie. Cook just long enough to cook the pie shell (see instructions on pie shell) and make sure filling is hot.

It's so cheap to make and my family loves it, though it is fattening because of the alfredo. It beats the heck out of the soup we used to always have and even sandwiches get old.

Thanks, leta, My son would like that since he uses the oatmeal stuff forhis skin all the time.

Hey-I thought of a really cheap on kind of neat gift for people this year.  We normally exchange a gift with one person at work, but the last few years its been getting out of hand.  I mean, everyone is giving gifts to everyone.  It gets really stressful especially when that adds another 15 onto your shopping list.  Last year I felt bad because I couldn't afford, nor did I feel well the last 3 months of the year to go out and buy gifts for everyone.  This year though I visited a craft store near me and purchased little celephane gift bags.  I'm going to fill 2 bags for each person.  The first bag will have homeade hot chocolate mix it in-very inexpensive to make in bulk and the other will contain some dipped pretzals (also inexpensive and easy to do).  This is my solution.  I will tie a few ribbons around each bag and call it a day.  If they don't like it, I'm sure their kids will.