Frugal Friday - Homemade Birthdays in 2013

I like being frugal.

Don't we all?

Saving a little money here and there is always a good thing.  And being able to be generous is always nice too.

Over the years I've had grand plans for making homemade, mostly inexpensive gifts.  I have items that were purchased and never used, things that were started and never finished, and gifts that were thought of but never got further than that.

That amounts to a household of "stuff" that isn't being used and a lot of money wasted when I had to go out and buy yet another gift since I didn't finish the one I had thought of/started.   It got so bad that the last couple of years I pretty much gave up.  I'd have ideas in my head and then decided that it just wasn't worth it - either due to time constraints or my being sick or something.

One of my intentional things for 2013 is to use up what I have, finish making projects that we started and just in general be a better steward of all we have been blessed with.  To that end, one of my hopes for 2013 is to make almost all of our Birthday gifts. 

Since we have almost all the supplies I need already, this doesn't get much more frugal than "FREE" does it?

So as part of Frugal Friday, each month I'm hoping to do a post of what I made for Birthday gifts each month.  This month we have two birthdays and next month we have one.  Summer is the busy time for birthdays for our families so I'm planning on making those three gifts this month and then using next month to work ahead so I won't be swamped when summer comes.  Hopefully I can get a few "extras" done this month too, but this is my goal, which I think is very do-able.

So for this month, January, my homemade birthday gifts include:

 John:  10/10 Journals and questions (I'm hoping to have a post all ready to go on this for Work Home and Family next week)
John's 29-year-old Brother:  Glasses/Contacts Care Kit
Our 1-year-old Nephew:  Name Pillows (each letter of his name a pillow)

And as I said, it doesn't get much more frugal than free!  Check back later for progress.

For more Frugal Friday, check out Life as Mom!

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