I’ve Paid For This Twice Already…

5 Absolutely Free Gifts, and 5 Almost Free Gifts

So, it seems a bunch of people I know from my pre-blogging days have now started blogs of their own.  One of those blogs is maybe the longest blog name I have ever seen, Are You Going To Be This Way The Rest Of The Time I Know You?, and she nicely contributed to the M-Network writing project on cars earlier this week, so I’m returning the favor to her and contributing to her writing challenge, which is to come up with 5 absolutely free gifts and 5 almost free gifts for this holiday season.  Your mileage may vary, because you can use whatever you have around the house, and around my house is different than around your house.

Unless this is my spouse reading this, but then again, he has no idea what we have in our house so basically the above still holds true.

So…  5 absolutely free gifts, some of which I have actually given in the past:

• Chore coupons - I’ve given these to my spouse to let him have a free pass on chores a few times.  Don’t give too many or you’ll be doing all the chores all year ;).

• Babysitting - again, one I have actually given, all it takes is your time.  And that you are reasonably competent around children.  or whoever is being babysat.

• Pet sitting - kind of the same thing but one I would love someone to give to me.  We travel a few times a year and I need people to check in on my cats.

• Hobby sharing - This is what my spouse wants from me.  A promise to spend a few hours playing computer games with him.  I’m broke this year so who knows, he may get it!

• A collection of their favorite TV on DVD, made by you - We have blank DVDs sitting around and we own a DVR (thanks mom and dad!) so I can do this for free, you may not be able to.

And 5 almost free gifts, this was a lot easier and all again things I have given in the past:

• Homemade Jam - In the past I worked in a fruit lab and got lots of experiment fruit for free.  No, not poisoned lol, just yield studies and such of different varieties.  I have tons of mason jars left from making jam from the fruit, so I could make more jam pretty cheaply if I pick the fruit on sale.

• Homemade Fudge - It makes a lot and is very well received!!  One year in high school I made everyone fudge.  It cost $30 for 17 people.  SO cheap.

• A computer-made DVD of pictures of the kids in a slideshow format, set to music if you desire:  Most computers have software built in to do this.  it takes a lot of time but if you have little kids, the relatives love it.  I did this for my son’s first year.  I should do one for my daughter’s too.

• Scrapbooked pages of your kids, their kids, or other important people to them:  I scrapbook so I have tons of supplies - but you can buy a bunch of supplies for a page or two rather cheaply.  Get some 4×6s printed and go to town.

• Inexpensive posed pictures:   You can do it yourself or at an inexpensive chain studio that you get a lot of pictures for a small price at.  Again, if you have kids, the relatives eat this stuff up.  Heh.

So there you have it!  Do you have ideas of your own?  Feel free to join the writing project too in the comments on the challenge post or on your own blog!  There are a LOT of more creative people than I am.  :)  Give me some ideas… I will need them this year!

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