Blog: The Frugal Vegan

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Showing 3 posts in the Gifts category for this blog.
Giving Frugal Guides for Birthdays!
Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Right after the holidays I already have to start planning birthday gifts as I have two friends in Feb and 4 friends at the beginning of March to get things for. Then the rest of the year, pretty much nothing till December! hahah...figures!

All my close friends (all born in March) are on tight budgets too, but not all of them are really good at doing research and coming up with money saving ideas (that's where I come in!). I decided to write them a mini "zine" which I will give each of them (quarter size about 10 pages with quick tips to save, websites, recipes and a few other articles). It's meant to be a quick resource guide. The zine mentions Dr. Bronner's Soap and Soapnuts, so along with the zine I will give them each a bag of soapnuts (purchase a small bag on their website for 1 penny each + shipping (you can only order two at a time, i already have two on  hand) and a sample of Dr. Bronners soap (I had emailed them last year and asked for samples, i got 5 of them!). The zine also mentions the Entertainment Guide which I might purchase when they go on sale for $10 plus free ship (usually in Feb) for two of these friends (the others won't have use for it). So for 4 gifts, I will have spent under $30! If I don't buy the entertainment guides, these gits will run me about $2.50 each. I can photocopy the zines at work for free and all I paid was for the shipping of the free samples on the soapnuts. Since I have two trips coming  up in Feb (Mexico & Montreal), I might have to stick with the $2.50 gifts! My friends LOVE my crazy homemade gifts and ideas, so it's sure to be a hit. For one friend, I will add a lotus tea light holder which I found for 25cents at a discount store.

So if you have any friends trying to live on a tight budget but they aren't so good at it, this could be a fun project for you and a great useful gift for them. It really only took me two days to write the content (as a lot of it is already information I use) and another few hours to put it together (I print the pages, then cut and glued onto folded quarter sized sheets, then photocopy). A quicker way is to use MS Publisher as they have templates to make booklets.

Good luck!

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Inexpensive "Green" Gifts
Thursday, November 27, 2008

Today I was thinking about what I could give the women who work at my temp agency. I've come up with a few ideas and will end up choosing one of them. I wanted to give them something environmental/green. Here is what I came up with so far:

*Travel Coffee Mug from the thrift store with a $2 organic coffee gift card in it and a few candy canes, then wrap it in newspaper tied with raffia (or a "one pot" package of organic fair trade coffee) - could also make soy hot chocolate mix! (I posted the recipe on this website)

*A plastic container filled with homemade biscotti

*HandMade Soy candles in vintage tea cups from the thrift store or mason jars

*Handmade Eye Pillows using flax seed or rice with lavender flowers and thrift store fabric or cut up clothing.

*To each give them a plant from clippings, pot them in thrift store found clay pots and decorate or paint the pots.

*Handmade Bath Salts using non iodized sea salt from the grocery store.

I find that people give each other so much food during the holidays that I was trying to think mostly of non-food useable gifts. I find that consumeable gifts are still always the best, like soaps, bath products, drink mixes...

I also went to the Salvation Army today looking for clothes for one friend but ended up finding clothes for another! I already had enough gifts for him but couldnt' resist because the clothing is normally VERY expensive retail and was in excellent shape. I paid $10 for a pair of pants and shirt that would normally cost probably $200. He loves these brands so he'll be thrilled. Also found an old Disco record  for $1 as he has dj turntables and loves retro music :)

Will go again this weekend to find items for the others! Phew..just two more people to go then i'm done "shopping"! :)

Peace.

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Quick Homemade Gift Ideas
Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Homemade Bread and Jam

In the summer and at harvest time I love to make jams, butters and salsas. If I am looking for a quick easy last minute gift for someone, I bake a loaf of whole grain bread in my breadmaker and give them a jar of jam/butter with it!

If you are making the winter salsa (recipe found on this site), then you can buy a nice bag of organic tortilla chips to go with it.!

I like to package these gifts in large brown paper bags :)

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Author:
freya1970
Halifax, NS Canada
About Me:

I am a 39 year old woman living with my sweetie of 13 years and two cats. I love photography, yoga, indie film, vegan cooking and baking, making all kinds of things like zines, soap, candles... I love to create using recycled materials as well.

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