The $100.00 Christmas Gift Challenge

It's Christmas shopping time and each year I look forward to our $100.00 Christmas challenge. That doesn't mean that the challenge is to spend $100.00 on each gift, but $100.00 on all your gifts! We exclude the children from this challenge, adults only!

We've become very creative with our gift choices, making some, buying things and putting them together in unique ways, each person using their own individual talents and skills. My 11 people means I can only spend an average of $9.09. To accomplish this I'm going to need to consider several factors. t

Gifts are supposed to be personal and fit the person. So my first thought for all my girls, (dtr-in-laws, dtr, best friends) is to find something that reflects my love of gardening and scents.

Wonderful unique homemade soaps and candles make a personal affordable Christmas gift

Hmm..I head to a website to see what Nature's Emporium might have. It's a tiny homemade soap company run by a mother and her two sons. I have personal knowledge of their soap as her business used to be located in our town several years ago. It's a great product, beautifully packaged, wonderful scents, and darn good soap! When I get to the website I see that her prices have went up, but decide to buy three bars of Black Raspberry Vanilla for my dtr-in-laws.

I have a huge amount of saved glass jelly jars and I plan on making soy candles with essential oils that I already have. A vanilla scented candle in a clear glass jar, with raspberry colored ribbons to decorate it will add another $1.00 to each of those three gifts, bringing the total spent to $9.00 on each one. I tuck the candle and the soap into three pretty white baskets I had on hand and add a sprinkling of Dove chocolates and wrap it all in pretty red Christmasy cellophane tied with a big white ribbon bow. Okay, the wrapping costs another $1.00 so I'm over budget already!

Great Chocolate and Candy always hit the spot with young women for a budget Christmas gift with love!

On to my two daughters, both who are young women now, one at college and one on her own. Hmm, well I start with a homemade candle in their favorite scent. They always love getting them, since they're both candle users.

But it is kind of boring, what can I jazz it up with? I rummage through my tea cup collection. I buy used victorian type tea cups all through the year when I find them cheap at sales or Goodwill. Aha, two with red delicate print scenes on them that are in perfect condition. I fill each teacup with their favorite chocolate from Lady Godiva. I purchase the Dark Chocolate Truffle Gems, 22 in a bag and divide them between the two cups, along with some 10 teabags, tied with red ribbon.

I place the tea cups that have been wrapped with red cellophane and beribboned with white and crystal curling ribbon in a basket, along with the teabags, and their candles. I also include a coupon for 2 dozen homemade chocolate mint cookies to be redeemed whenever they feel the urge to have their basket refilled. So, I spend $9.00 on each of the girls.

Personal Food Baskets made great personalized gifts packed full of treats!

The guys are the easiest for me, because they are big fans of their mother's cooking! This year each of the three boys are getting a pancake kit. I traded homemade blackberry jam this summer for some real maple syrup in 4 oz jugs. I'm counting this as a no cost item for me! I purchased a large bag of Krusty's Pancake Mix at Costco and divided it into four packages in decorative Christmas plastic bags with more ribbon around it. In their basket, I place the Krusty's pancake mix, the maple syrup, a jar of homemade apple butter from this fall's Crockpot Apple Butter, and a huge man size coffee mug that looks and feels like an old fashioned diner cup that I found at Amazon shops online. The cost for the guys baskets after they are wrapped in red cellophane with manly green ribbons is $9.23.

I'm right on target to keeping that Christmas budget of $100.00 for all my gifts the bottom line this year! Who's next? Aha, my two best friends.

Favorite books are another inexpensive and very personal gift to give close friends.

I head to the bookstore and know just the thing. My favorite book that I read this year was The Elegance of the Hedgehog. I simply adored it and it's a perfect read for my friends. It's on sale with my Member's Discount at Barnes and Nobles and I have another $5.00 gift coupon I'd been saving. I get both books for $17.00. I enclose a coupon for a coffee and cookies at my house in January so we can sit and chat about the book and enjoy our time together. Books always make great gifts for Christmas, especially if you really know the person well.

As I tally up my totals, I see that I have spent $91.00 of my $100.00 and I still have my husband to buy for. Neither one of us are huge on buying or receiving gifts on the usual holidays. We much prefer a spontaneous gift of flowers or a book or special music, but we still like the token gift to unwrap on Christmas morning with everyone else.

So what can I buy the dear man that is fun and sweet and fits him....for $9.00?

Nuts Online (the eating kind)

The man loves nuts. I'm serious, they're his favorite snack item. Hmm..Okay I fudge a bit by going to the Nuts Online website and I order 4 lb of peanuts in the shell at $2.49, free shipping for a total of $10.00 and I make up a gift card to go with the peanuts that states he will receive a monthly nut order with a different variety of nuts each month. I know, I know. That will be $100.00 for the year. But hey, that's next year. This is a great company with a reliable and safe product. Our office used to buy from them. The order arrives in timely basis, is always fresh and tastes delicious.

And there I have completed my entire Christmas shopping list of 11 gifts and I only spent $101.00 and I'm done! Of course...there are the grand-daughters!

The idea of only spending $100.00 is a United Methodist Church challenge that was popular in the 1980's and has continued to be an idea whose time might be this year with so much unemployment.

You can do it too!

Resource for colored cellophane wrap (which I used a lot and keep on hand for quick easy cheap gift wrapping!

Nashville Wraps

http://www.nashvillewraps.com/ShowSku.ww?Class=040&Type=052