March 27-April 1
-I limited my purchasing of Easter candy and focused on other types of gifts, especially homemade. I made chocolates that did require the purchasing of molds. I used a 40% off coupon on one of the molds and I look forward to reusing them time and time again. I also made candles. I had to purchase wick but I already had the beeswax and used vintage canning jars that I had on hand. This is something I can easily see myself doing again in the future so I will by buying beeswax with a 40% off coupon periodically. I also included socks in their Easter baskets. My boys love socks. Over a year ago I had purchased a slew of socks that were on clearance at Kohl's. I put some in their Christmas stockings but saved the brightly colored ones for their Easter baskets. I did in fact put those in their baskets and I still have some for birthday gifts or next Christmas!
-Making chocolates and candles for Easter, as well as the great success we had gifting Bishop's baklava at Christmas, has truly inspired me to make more gifts. I am thinking about gifting things that I make for myself or that I have been wanting to make. I had never really considered some of these things gift-worthy but I think I may have been wrong. I never considered gifting baklava before despite the fact that my family is the only one who makes it, both in my family and amongst my friends. Baklava is considered a specialty item. People pay quite a bit for it. Why haven't I been gifting it? Bishop and I make violet jelly and want to make dandelion jelly, why aren't we gifting that? I want to learn to make lotion, lotion bars, salves, soaps, lip balm and tea blends. Those would make great gifts. I make great cookies and I am nearly a hot chocolate bar expert, both of these "talents" could be parlayed into gifts. I love my flowers. I have sedum's and bulbs and herbs that could be divided and packaged and gifted. I think I am getting in a gift giving groove. If I act on it now I will learn new skills while building the gift pantry.
-I harvested violets, dandelions, red bud blossoms and began making jelly. Thus far, I have made fifteen jars of violet and dandelion jellies. I hope to make the red bud blossom jelly tomorrow. I have never tried the dandelion and red bud blossom jellies but I love violet jelly. I want to give them as gifts. I imagine packaging three, one of each variety, as gifts, possibly with a vintage spoon or butter knife tied onto the package. Have you seen The Vicky Challenge? It is about calculating the value of our homemaking efforts. I haven't been participating in the challenge as I have found it difficult to assign a dollar amount to the things that I do. I do most things as frugally as possible and don't even think about purchasing or hiring out (i.e. I never buy cake for the kiddos birthdays or hire someone to mow my lawn) - I never have and don't imagine I ever will. But I did get curious as to what gifts such as these would run, what value would be assigned to them? These jellies cost me $1.04 each to make. It is difficult to purchase these types of specialty jellies but if I did they would cost me about $6.50 each. So the value of my efforts less my expenses would be $81.90. Not bad.
-I can do the same thing for the Easter gifts I made. The candles I made the boys were made with wax and jars that I had on hand. I did have to purchase wicks for these candles. I do know that I purchased the beeswax with a 40% off coupon and the jars were purchased years ago at a thrift store. If I calculate all the expenses ever incurred on this project it would cost me about $2.25 per candle. I found similar candles for sale on etsy for $15 each. I calculate that it would cost me $11.25 to make the five candles that I made but would have cost me $75 if I had purchased them. So the value of these efforts less my expenses would be $63.75.
Likewise, the cocoa dusted dark chocolate ganache truffles that I made for the boys for Easter and for days afterwards cost me less than $15 to make but would have run me $50 if purchased through Williams-Sonoma. So the value of my efforts here less my expenses would be $35.
-I did a good job of resisting temptation regarding eating out. I made spinach stuffed chicken breasts (served with the leftover Easter mashed potatoes), chicken fettuccini alfredo, chili dogs, ham sliders (with the leftover Easter ham) and leftovers, leftovers, leftovers. I did purchase pizza for the boys to take to a friend's party and I used a coupon for that. I also did take Bishop out to eat for lunch between science and history groups. We are going to try to picnic between those groups as the weather warms up; that should save some money.
-I limited my purchasing of Easter candy and focused on other types of gifts, especially homemade. I made chocolates that did require the purchasing of molds. I used a 40% off coupon on one of the molds and I look forward to reusing them time and time again. I also made candles. I had to purchase wick but I already had the beeswax and used vintage canning jars that I had on hand. This is something I can easily see myself doing again in the future so I will by buying beeswax with a 40% off coupon periodically. I also included socks in their Easter baskets. My boys love socks. Over a year ago I had purchased a slew of socks that were on clearance at Kohl's. I put some in their Christmas stockings but saved the brightly colored ones for their Easter baskets. I did in fact put those in their baskets and I still have some for birthday gifts or next Christmas!
-Making chocolates and candles for Easter, as well as the great success we had gifting Bishop's baklava at Christmas, has truly inspired me to make more gifts. I am thinking about gifting things that I make for myself or that I have been wanting to make. I had never really considered some of these things gift-worthy but I think I may have been wrong. I never considered gifting baklava before despite the fact that my family is the only one who makes it, both in my family and amongst my friends. Baklava is considered a specialty item. People pay quite a bit for it. Why haven't I been gifting it? Bishop and I make violet jelly and want to make dandelion jelly, why aren't we gifting that? I want to learn to make lotion, lotion bars, salves, soaps, lip balm and tea blends. Those would make great gifts. I make great cookies and I am nearly a hot chocolate bar expert, both of these "talents" could be parlayed into gifts. I love my flowers. I have sedum's and bulbs and herbs that could be divided and packaged and gifted. I think I am getting in a gift giving groove. If I act on it now I will learn new skills while building the gift pantry.
-I harvested violets, dandelions, red bud blossoms and began making jelly. Thus far, I have made fifteen jars of violet and dandelion jellies. I hope to make the red bud blossom jelly tomorrow. I have never tried the dandelion and red bud blossom jellies but I love violet jelly. I want to give them as gifts. I imagine packaging three, one of each variety, as gifts, possibly with a vintage spoon or butter knife tied onto the package. Have you seen The Vicky Challenge? It is about calculating the value of our homemaking efforts. I haven't been participating in the challenge as I have found it difficult to assign a dollar amount to the things that I do. I do most things as frugally as possible and don't even think about purchasing or hiring out (i.e. I never buy cake for the kiddos birthdays or hire someone to mow my lawn) - I never have and don't imagine I ever will. But I did get curious as to what gifts such as these would run, what value would be assigned to them? These jellies cost me $1.04 each to make. It is difficult to purchase these types of specialty jellies but if I did they would cost me about $6.50 each. So the value of my efforts less my expenses would be $81.90. Not bad.
-I can do the same thing for the Easter gifts I made. The candles I made the boys were made with wax and jars that I had on hand. I did have to purchase wicks for these candles. I do know that I purchased the beeswax with a 40% off coupon and the jars were purchased years ago at a thrift store. If I calculate all the expenses ever incurred on this project it would cost me about $2.25 per candle. I found similar candles for sale on etsy for $15 each. I calculate that it would cost me $11.25 to make the five candles that I made but would have cost me $75 if I had purchased them. So the value of these efforts less my expenses would be $63.75.
Likewise, the cocoa dusted dark chocolate ganache truffles that I made for the boys for Easter and for days afterwards cost me less than $15 to make but would have run me $50 if purchased through Williams-Sonoma. So the value of my efforts here less my expenses would be $35.
-I did a good job of resisting temptation regarding eating out. I made spinach stuffed chicken breasts (served with the leftover Easter mashed potatoes), chicken fettuccini alfredo, chili dogs, ham sliders (with the leftover Easter ham) and leftovers, leftovers, leftovers. I did purchase pizza for the boys to take to a friend's party and I used a coupon for that. I also did take Bishop out to eat for lunch between science and history groups. We are going to try to picnic between those groups as the weather warms up; that should save some money.
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