This year I have to get especially creative with my husband's birthday gift. He's unemployed right now (but has a tentative job offer on the table... YAY!), we just had one car break down and the other one totaled. We just replaced one car and are saving up to replace the other, so in conclusion... money is a bit tight. That being said, my hubby's birthday is coming up and I want to make him feel special and appreciated, especially with all the stress in his life right now. The question is... How do I do that on a VERY small budget???
After scouring the internet for ideas, I adapted some to fit my man. *NOTE* We are going to be traveling down to Atlanta for his birthday, for a leadership conference. So the idea of doing a bunch of little gifts for him seemed perfect; however, this idea can easily be adapted even if you are staying home for his special day!
1. COUPON BOOK: I love, love, love this idea! I've been meaning to do it for years now but just hadn't had the time! All you have to do for your home made coupons is go into Word, select Mailings and then Labels and New Document. From there you can add pictures, clip art, borders, leave them blank to fill in by hand or type them up. Kevin is getting coupons from everything to "Get out of dish duty" to "You pick the movie"... I also had fun making the "fine print" clause in the back! It's personalized, very cheap and guaranteed to be a hit!
After scouring the internet for ideas, I adapted some to fit my man. *NOTE* We are going to be traveling down to Atlanta for his birthday, for a leadership conference. So the idea of doing a bunch of little gifts for him seemed perfect; however, this idea can easily be adapted even if you are staying home for his special day!
1. COUPON BOOK: I love, love, love this idea! I've been meaning to do it for years now but just hadn't had the time! All you have to do for your home made coupons is go into Word, select Mailings and then Labels and New Document. From there you can add pictures, clip art, borders, leave them blank to fill in by hand or type them up. Kevin is getting coupons from everything to "Get out of dish duty" to "You pick the movie"... I also had fun making the "fine print" clause in the back! It's personalized, very cheap and guaranteed to be a hit!
2. SUBWAY ART PAPER BAG PACKAGING: I've been wanting to print SOMETHING on a paper bag for a while now, just hadn't had the opportunity. But seriously, how cute is this idea for favors or something of the like??? And I'm a big fan of the Subway art-type font selection. You can see in the photo above one example of the bag I created. In total I did 7 bags. One for when we get to the airport, 1 for on the plane, 1 for when we say goodnight (we're not staying in the same room as there's a girl's room and a guys room for this retreat/conference), 1 for when he wakes up on the morning of his birthday, one for before the conference, one for while we're out and one for when we kiss goodnight. But again... the possibilities are endless here! To print on a paper bag, go into Word, make your image and line the font up on the left side of the page. I did a text box measuring 4inches by 11.5 inches so that I could see how it would look. In my printer, I put the flap side of the paper bag facing up and it worked marvelously! But again, how cute is this idea for kids on a trip or for hubby the night before his birthday, the morning of, one in his briefcase, one in the car on his way to work, etc... Have fun with it!
3. LITTLE GIFTS/GOODIES: I know this seems like a no brainer here. Going to the dollar store and getting cheap little trinkets may not be for everyone and typically, I wouldn't say it would be for my hubby either. But what I put in the baggies are little things that he'd appreciate that he typically wouldn't go out and get on his own. For example, he LOVES sour skittles. But they're a bit hard to find sometimes and no one else in the house eats them. Not to mention, they're a "luxury" right now when we're pinching pennies. So for the bag on the plane, he is getting sour skittles. Other ideas (some I'm implementing some just don't fit my guy):
- Homemade box of truffles ($5 or less)
- Favorite candy bar ($1 or less)
- Wallet pictures and insert ($3 or less)
- Coupon Book ($2 or less)
- Love Note (FREE)
- Pocket Calendar/Organizer with personalized dates/date nights/messages ($2-$20)
- Hershey Kisses
- Homemade Fortune Cookies with personalized fortunes ($4 or less)
- Homemade Journal with personalized messages here and there on random pages ($5-$20)
- Frame or magnet of you or ya'll together ($2-$5)
- Car Freshener ($1-$4)
- Alcohol: Little bottles of expensive liquor (like in a hotel room bar) or 1 bottle of a unique or different beer, etc... ($3-$10)
- Token from the past: If you took your honeymoon in cancun, buy a postcard off of ebay from there, or get him a shirt with the logo from the sports game ya'll went to see on your first date, etc... Reach back into your favorite memories and choose something that will remind him of you and your time together...
Fill that bag up and enjoy spoiling your man!