Cheap Easter Basket Fillers - Think Outside the Box!

I just wanted to show you once again how you can save money and use past holiday stuff to work for upcoming holidays and gifts!!! I was shopping at Walgreens a few weeks ago and I came upon a tall shelf in the middle of an aisle. There was a sign on it that said "Valentine Clearance". I started looking through it all and I found some great stuff that I will be able to use for Easter baskets!

These "sets" were $1 each!!! I could not pass them up!

I just took the valentine stuff off this dog and now he will be perfect holding or sitting in an Easter basket (I have many little ones that are really into dogs right now!)

These were only 10 cents each. Cute Easter basket fillers!

 

I had the Easter baskets from last year Easter clearance. I added some $1 coloring books and then some Valentines clearance finds (play dough,  helicopters, crazy straws). I will not be spending loads of money on candy and I think the mommy's like that a little better because the kids get so much candy at Easter!

I just wanted to blog this to show you how you can think outside the box and really put cute things together on the cheap. I didn't take a picture of all my baskets, but you get the gist of what I did. I didn't spend over $10 and was able to put together seven baskets! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another St. Patrick's Day Gift for Classmates

Another great post to say that you have to get creative with post-holiday clearance because you can use it for upcoming holidays!

We put together my son's St. Patrick's Day "gift" for his classmates. After Valentines Day, I picked up bags of helicopters on clearance at Target.

For his classmates, I typed up this saying: "I am "lucky" to spin around third grade with you! Happy St. Patrick's Day! From: Landen"

We cut them out and stapled them onto green paper. Then we took the strips of paper and taped them onto the helicopters! So easy, very inexpensive and yet so cute!

St. Patty's Day Gift for Child's Classmates

My kids love handing out little "gifts" to their classmates when a holiday rolls around. We also like to treat the teachers too (you can check out this recent blog post for an idea for the teachers in your life). Anyway, after Valentine's Day, I was browsing all the stores for their clearance "valentine" stuff (as I have posted before here, you have to be creative and you can usually find really good deals on past "holiday" stuff and make it fit for a holiday coming up) and found lots of interesting things at Target. One of them was a bag of bouncy balls. This reminded me of something I received for Christmas. I got this "ball ornament" from my mother-in-law that came with this little saying:

A Friendship Ball

A ball is a circle,
no beginning, no end.
It keeps us together like our
circle of friends.
But the treasure inside
for you to see
is the treasure of friendship
you've granted to me.
Today I pass the friendship ball
to you.
Pass it on to someone else
who is a friend to you.

This is what my mother-in-law gave me at Christmas.

The valentine bouncy balls on clearance.

So, of course I bought bags of the bouncy balls at 50% off. I changed the little poem so it would be more fitting for St. Patty's Day. My St. Patty's Day poem is as follows:

A Lucky Friendship Ball:

A ball is a circle
no beginning, no end.
It keeps us together like our
circle of friends.
But the treasure inside
for you to see
is the treasure of friendship
you have granted to me.
I am lucky to pass the friendship
ball to you.
Pass it on to someone
who is a friend to you too!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!


I printed off these poems and cut around them with decorative scissors and then I glued them onto some green scrapbook paper. I hot glued the ball to the paper (they will easily come off ). I think I am going to take a green highlighter and go over the word "lucky" with it.

Inexpenisve St. Patricks Day Teacher Gift Idea

I am always trying to come up with inexpensive ways to show our teachers how much we appreciate them. I try to do a little something each time a holiday rolls around. St. Patrick's Day is going to be here before we know it so we want to tell our teachers how "lucky" we are to have them!

I was in Bath and Body Works this past weekend and they have little St. Patty's Day hand sanitizers for $1. I bought one for each teacher (B&BW has tons of coupons out there that you can use with to make your purchase even sweeter!).

I think I came up with a cute little "thank you phrase" to go along with the sanitizer: "We are so lucky that you are "handy" at teaching!" For the helpers in the class, I wrote, "We are so lucky that you are so 'handy' at helping us!"

There were packages of these shamrocks on the $1 bin at Target. I just added some glue and put the "tag" on the shamrock.

 

I hole punched the shamrock and then I took the bottle of sanitizer and laid it on the back of the shamrock. I then took packaging tape and put it over the bottle and then to the shamrock so it would stay. I put a green ribbon in the hole so that we could hang them from the teachers door handles to their rooms.


The total cost is maybe $1.10 for each teacher! Cheap, but yet, it is a nice little gesture to say thanks on St. Patty's Day!

Inexpensive Twist to Jingling Your Friends

We have always "Boo'd" our family and friends for Halloween, but wanted to start something for Christmas and found "You've Been Jingled" (you can make copies on www.beenjingled.com). It is pretty much the same thing as Halloween. Take this little note and some goodies to friends and families and ring on their door and RUN! You don't want them to know it was you. Then, they are suppose to keep it up and do the same thing with their family and friends.

The kids look forward to these activities each year. We added a little "twist" to ours. Along with some homemade cookies, we include a game for that family to play together during the holiday season! And, with all the great coupons out there for games, it is not that expensive to do. I just went to Target last night and they had 2 Elefun games on clearance for $4.98 and I used the $3 off 2 so that made them pretty inexpensive! You could even just give them a deck of cards and then print off the rules to some of your favorite card games to give with it. I think our lives get so crazy and hectic that to sit down and play a game anymore is sometimes forgotten. This way, a new game shows up at their door and we add a little note from our family: "Tis the season to spend with those you love. Here is a fun game for you to enjoy together! Happy Playing!"

Just a thought for the upcoming holiday season!

Easy St. Patrick's Day Gifts for Classmates

I came up with a fun, easy and inexpensive little treat for my daughter and son to hand out to their classmates at school for St. Patrick's Day. I bought 2 big boxes of Fruit Roll Ups (Fruit by the Foot). Their package was green so it was perfect! I typed up a message (in green ink) that read: "I am LUCKY to roll with you!" "Happy St. Patrick's Day!"

I cut out the messages, rolled them around the Fruit Roll Ups and secured with tape!