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Awesome, Cheapaholic Approved Homemade Gifts

With busy malls, crazy shoppers, and irritable sales people, why torture yourself this holiday season? Why not make (yes, make –bust out the hot glue gun, metal tins, and ribbon!) great gifts this year for your friends and family? After all, they probably have more useless objects lying around from last Christmas than they need.

Here are just a few really great gifts for everyone on your list.

1. Etched Glass Gifts

Just about every craft store sells glass etching cream. It is a small investment at first but it can turn many everyday items into gorgeous and most importantly, useful homemade gifts.

Ornaments
Drinking glasses
Pitchers
Votive holders
Or any glass object you want to have fun with

2. Knitted Gifts

If you know how to knit this is right up your alley! Time to pull out the needles and the yarn, or go buy a few skeins of soft yarn.

Scarves
Gloves
Hats
Sweaters
Blankets – great for those with new babies!

3. Concrete Gifts

Believe it or not you can make great gifts for the gardener in your life or really just about anyone. You could buy the expensive one time use kits from the craft stores or you could hit up your local home and garden center and grocery store for a Cheapaholic Approved gift. For inside use, buy a plate holder or wooden picture frame stand for the recipient to display their handmade gift

Garden Stepping Stones
Hand, Foot, or even Paw print keepsake


4. No-Sew Monogrammed Hand Towels

Monogrammed towels are always a great hostess gift. Plus, you can use any color you want to!


Here are a few How-to's -

Etched Glass Gifts

Materials:

Glass cleaner
Glass etching cream
Contact paper, painter’s tape or masking tape
Ruler or other straight edge
Stencils
Gloves
Paint brush
Anything glass that you want to personalize

Directions:

TIP: PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!!!

Clean and dry glass

Decide on the design you want and create a template from the contact paper or tape.

Cover your work area very well as the cream will ruin anything it touches (now would be a good time to use the left over newspaper you do not need after clipping all of your coupons).

Apply sticky medium of your choice (tape or paper) to the glass. Make sure there is not a chance for the cream to run under the template!!

Apply a heavy layer the cream with the paint brush and wait about 5 or so minutes

Rinse with warm water



Concrete Gifts

Materials:

Drop cloth
Wood paint stir stick
Mold(s) – disposable aluminum pie tins work great
Bag of concrete – decide how many gifts you are making before buying a bag
Old bucket that you will never use again or a buy a bucket that you strictly use for concrete
Rocks or broken glass – you can buy bags of broken glass from craft stores
Dowel rods for writing in the concrete
Gloves
Sandwich bags - if you want to make an imprint of your child’s hands

Directions:

Find a work area that can handle spilled concrete and cover with drop cloth

Mix according to bag directions

Pour concrete into mold(s)

Pick up the mold and drop to get rid of any possible air bubbles

Create your design: Press rocks, glass, handprints, etc into the concrete

Allow to dry and remove from mold(s).


Monogrammed Hand Towels

Materials:

Hand Towels
Washable Fabric Paint
Stencils
Paint Brushes

Directions:

Lay hand towel on a piece of cardboard or paper

Place stencil on the towel

Holding the stencil firmly, apply two to three coats of paint

Remove stencil and allow paint to dry

Looking for Cheap(aholic of course!) Airfaire??

As the Miracles once said “My mama told me, you better shop around.”

• Look at more than one website, there are plenty of deals to be had if you are willing to take the time and do your research. Besides looking at the airline sites directly make sure you visit sites such as: Expedia, Travelocity, Kayak, Travelzoo, Priceline, and Cheapseats.

• Check airfares by searching for just one ticket, even if you want to buy multiple tickets. Any given plane will have a multitude of different prices for their seats. You will find that sometimes buying multiple seats all at once is not always the cheapest. If you buy them separately, you might be able to buy more than one seat at a lower cost as opposed to buying them all together and getting one price.

• Flexible? Travel flexibility has its rewards. Sometimes changing just one date can make a world of difference in price. Be sure to check out websites that allow you to search within a range of days (Airfare Watch Dog, Travelocity, Kayak, and Fare Compare to name a few).

• Is your destination somewhere within a day’s drive? Compare airfares vs. the cost of driving. Savings by car can be considerable if you have a large group traveling. Check out AAA Fuel Cost Calculator to get a good estimate as to what the drive would cost.
  
• Frequent Flyer Miles/Rewards Points. Don’t overlook these resources if you know the flight is going to be costly. If you have a lot of miles or points saved up, don’t forget to calculate the value of your frequent flyer seat to get the most for the points you'll spend. If it’s a short, cheap flight, you might want to save these points for a later date.

Keeping in the song theme..."I get by with a little help from my friends!"

Thanks Celeste!

Gray

You want me to pay WHAT?!?!?!

I was really excited about trying something new. I love smoothies. I will replace a few meals with them occasionally – not a fan of high calorie ones though...

Yoplait has come out with smoothie mixes in the freezer section. Grabbed a few Sunday papers and clipped the Yoplait smoothie coupons - I really wanted to try it; that is, until I saw the price and what they were selling. A bag of frozen, over priced fruit. WHAT? $3 and change for a small bag of fruit? Insane. I can add my own fruit to a cup of milk and call it a smoothie.

My take: DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY

Remedy: Walk over to the produce section and buy real fruit. Search the circulars to see who is selling bananas, blueberries, etc cheap and freeze it yourself.

I bought a couple of pounds of bananas, chopped them up, divided them into equal parts, and they are sitting in my freezer begging to be a part of my next smoothie.

You could do this with any fruit your heart desires.

Enjoy and please do not over pay for frozen fruit!!!


Gray

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Save Money Lose the Waist!

Are you buying the foods because you have a coupon or are you using your coupons wisely? A lot of the coupons found today are for processed foods. Believe it or not, there are coupons available for milk, meats, and fresh fruits and vegetables. The processed foods add pounds to your waistline. So, how do you get the coupons for the healthy stuff? Sign up for special offers and programs with your local grocery stores. Publix has a great baby and toddler program. I have received many coupons for produce and dairy products through it. I just signed up with Kroger on their site and you will receive coupons for the fresh products from there as well. I have collected many coupons from the Sara Lee displays that if you buy milk you get a loaf of bread for free (up to a certain dollar amount). I just used a coupon that I received in the mail from Target, buy 1.5 lbs of deli meat and get ½ pound of cheese for free.

Also, tuna coupons are always available. Tuna is the key to many diets and plans for healthy living. Tyson, Purdue, and Springer Mountain Farms chicken coupons are available as well. Do not buy junk just because it is cheap. Always compare prices of meat and fish at every store prior to buying it. Do not discard Trader Joe’s! Trader Joes may not sell major brands but their prices are great on frozen fish.

For example, this week at Publix there are TONS of healthy foods to choose from, such as:

Publix salad blends 2 for $4

Cheerios BOGO (save up to $4.99)

Snow crab clusters $4.99 lb!! (A favorite at my house!) Instead of butter, try dipping it into extra virgin olive oil and fresh herbs

Purdue Boneless Chicken Breasts $2.99 lb (all though…I have seen them cheaper in the past)
Yellow Squash, Zucchini, or Green Beans $.99 lbs

There are many great deals on super healthy foods every week! While not everything that’s on Atkins or the South Beach Diet is not on sale, why follow one of those diets? They are COSTLY!! Instead, stop buying the JUNK.

If you really want to lose weight and you are serious about it, stop buying the cookies, cake mixes, potato chips, and especially PASTA (unless you are burning 800 calories an hour during your workouts you do not need the carbohydrates!!) IF the pasta is on sale plus you have a coupon, buy it – but not for you. Donate it to a food bank (see ThanksGIVING blog post). Yes, I love my pasta. But I treat it as a side dish and it’s rare that we eat it at home (exception to the crazy kid that loves macaroni and cheese – which is made with REAL cheese, not a lab created, orange, cheese-like substance and it’s from Trader Joe’s). I do cave at times and buy the Scooby Doo or Spiderman Kraft Mac and Cheese...

Keep in mind, "A Happy Cheapaholic, is a Healthy Cheapaholic"

Gray