$5 Christmas Gifts - Works For Me Wednesday

***This is a repost from last Christmas time. Since it's that time of year I thought I'd repost to hopefully inspire you to get frugally creative in your gift giving.

Gosh, it just feels tacky to put a price tag to a gift. But in an effort to get your creative juices flowing (and mine) I thought I'd post a thrifty gift giving idea since we ARE getting close to Christmas and most of us ARE aware of the cost.

And if I know you in real life I might at some point post YOUR Christmas gift. Do me a favor and act surprised when you get it. OK?

If you have co-workers, secret sisters, hostesses, neighbors, or friends on your gift giving list this year then this just might do the frugal trick.

I got the cookbook off paperbackswap.com for free. (if you decided to join please use my e-mail address as your referral gaylebryant4@gmail.com) It's called 101 Things To Do With A Cake Mix. I found a simple recipe inside and bookmarked it so the receiver would be able to find it.

I had a basket stashed away so the cost was again free. You could use any sort of container...a garage sale mixing bowl, a decorated box, pretty Tupperware. Then I decorated it with a star Christmas ornament that I found in my craft stash.

I purchased a wooden spoon for $.25, a holiday towel at the dollar store for $1, a cake mix for $.99, and a bag of M & M's for $1.99. The recipe was for M&M cookies.

I laid the towel in the bottom, tied a scrap of ribbon around the wooden spoon and arranged the ingredients in the basket.

And the fun doesn't stop there. If you have lots of people to give this kind of gift to then the possibilites are endless. Each cookbook can be different, each basket will have different ingredients, different colors, etc.

So there you have it. The grand total was $4.23 and I have a nice gift for my friend who constantly has people over at her house and needs to have a quick snack ready to put together. And I didn't break the budget or need a credit card to pay for it.