Good morning! I have 2 tips to go into this.
With three children who go to parties all the time it gets expensive not only for the gifts but for the wrappings too. Whoever invented gift bags is an angel sent by God strictly to Mom's! lol Anyway I do two things to make this easier and more affordable. The first tip is during the year especially after xmas and other holidays I pickup toys on clearance...usually I get some that i know are hits for the year and for both boys and girls and I have an actual "toy space" in my closet so when we get those invites I don't have to break the bank running out to buy a gift at regular retail. I usually pick things that can be used a lot and anything that encourages "family time" such as puzzles, games, movies (I have been known to make movie baskets) etc. This way I know it is something the birthday child will love and can use. ;) My 2nd tip is one of my favorites. I not only reuse the gift bags (come on we all do lol) but instead of wasting money on tissue paper I actually use empty grocery bags to fill in the gift bag. It is cheap and also helps out the parents of the birthday child by creating a "self cleaning" gift. The kids can take out the grocery bags after taking out gift and use the grocery bags for cleaning up any bows, wrapping paper,empty card envelopes etc. Or they can use it to hold the "little parts" of gifts, or one to hold the gift cards. I found this tip by mistake when I ran out of tissue paper one year and was in a panic so I stuffed it with that and was about to apologize to the birthday girls mom for such a tacky filler when she got all excited and realized how she could use them. She still thanks me for that "tip". Little does she know it was my blunder lol! I do it all the time now.
Works for me!
The Cheerio Queen
Right on! I like using the plastic grocery bags as packing materials, too. Good tip!
ReplyDelete