Want to show your appreciation for all your childrens' teachers, coaches and such do for you and your family? Here are two ideas that can get your point across on a frugal lifestyle. First are bath salts. These are fabulous - we make these all the time to use in our baths. All you need are epsom salts, essential oil and food coloring. I actually put these into glass ornaments (you can find these at crafts store for very little money) and put a ribbon on the ornament hook - it was a very cute Christmas gift for my daughter's dance teachers.Epsom salts are found in the pharmacy section of most stores. Regularly priced, they cost about $1 for a half gallon carton. Essential oils are available at health food stores. These tend to be $4-$5, but a bottle will last a very, very long time (years) AND you can use them to make cleaning supplies (if you are interested, check out my post on Monday). Good scents would be lavender (relaxing), eucalyptus (healing, soothing) or peppermint (energizing). It is fun to coordinate the color with the scent, so you could make lavender a purple color, eucalyptus gree and peppermint a reddish color (it will probably turn out pink). For the photo above, I used some neon purple coloring and lavender oil.
You just pour some salt into a bowl, add 2-4 drops of food coloring and 2-3 drops of essential oil and stir. Add a note that the user should put 1/4 - 1/2 cup of the salts into the bath and enjoy! Make a cute tag on your computer and put it in a container and you are good to go. Even younger kids can select the colors and scents and stir - how sweet is that? Their teachers will love it! Something a teacher can actually use. Who would have thought?
The gift I am giving this year are these cute, hip Chico Bags that my friend, Michelle turned me onto on her blog, MomIsBroke. You can get these bags at ReusableBags.com. They are $4.95 each, but if you buy 5 or more of one color, they are $3.95 each. They fold up easily into this cute little pouch, but open up to hold a lot of groceries or other goods. I use these when I am shopping and I am feeling very good about leaving all those bags behind at the store. Another useful gift that anyone is sure to enjoy.
Another good idea is office supplies that you may have stocked up on. Teacher of younger grades like Kindergarten and First Grade often spend a lot of their own money on things like supplies, post its, glue and fun extras like unique markers or crayons or highlighters. Put those kinds of items in a container and give them a gift they can use for next year's class.
When you find frugal ways to give, you are able to show your appreciation to more people. People that are giving their time and energy to help your family raise great kids. Taking time to do ANYTHING says an awful lot and is sure to be meaningful to these special people.
2 comments:
I do love my Chico bags! I have also given Wrap-n-Mats to the kids teachers last year. They are are reuseablebags.com too. The kids teachers were wondering what they were at the end of the year last year. So I bought two extra, and gave them each one with a baby Maple tree to plant in their yards. I think there was also recycled pencils and notebooks that I encluded also. The kids made a card that said something about, "while this maple grows, remember me". Both teachers loved the gifts. Ali's 1st grade teacher wanted a tree too, we had an extra that she brought her too!
I love my Chico Bags too. At the grocery store people are always so amazed by how strong and roomy they are and want to know where I got them.
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