Frugal Holiday Gift Ideas From The Kitchen
Hello and welcome back. I’m so glad you decided to join me on this Hillbilly Housewife Blog Tour. I’m having a blast sharing frugal cooking tips and ideas on various blogs of my friends. Yesterday we talked about easy holiday baking, today I want to share some simple and frugal gift ideas with you for things you can make right in your kitchen.
Baked Goods
Make up a big batch of your favorite muffins or cookies, allow them to cool and then arrange them on a plate or in a basket. I usually put together an assortment of muffins including my banana muffins, oatmeal muffins and donut muffins when I put together a basket. It gives it a nice bit of variety and almost everyone is able to find a muffin they like. When it comes to cookies I go with the always popular sugar cookies, chocolate chip, oatmeal and snickerdoodle ones. (You can directions for all of those in the cookie recipe section of HillbillyHousewife.com)
Mixes and Gifts In A Jar
Take your favorite dry mix to make biscuits, brownies, cookies, or fancy hot chocolate and coffee drinks, put it in a mason jar and add a pretty lable to it. Cut a piece of fabric to lay over the jar lid and tie with some ribbon and you have a beautiful homemade present.
You can even do savory mixes like bean soup, cheese biscuits etc.
You can find all sorts of mix recipes here under Homemade Convenience Foods – The various hot beverage mixes are always a big hit.
Freezer Meals
This is a little unusual, but if you know a busy mom or a young adult that has just moved out on their own, why not surprise them with a few freezer meals including thawing and reheating instructions. I would love to get this as a gift around the busy holiday season. Just be sure that they have enough freezer space to store your gift.
For plenty of freezer recipes, get a copy of my Freezer Cooking ebook. Remember 20% of all profits from it during the month of October will be donated to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
Recipe Books
Here’s one more idea for you. You won’t actually cook or bake anything, but it still fits our kitchen theme. Get out some of your favorite recipes and copy them into a notebook. This would make a lovely gift for a daughter or daughter-in-law.
You could also purchase an inexpensive recipe box and then write your recipes on index cards and include them in the box. Feel free to expand this into recipes from various family members. What a great way to pass some of your most cherished family recipes on to the next generation.
I’ll be back tomorrow with some more frugal holiday tips.
Susanne – The Hillbilly Housewife
http://www.HillbillyHousewife.com
Comments
4 Responses to “Frugal Holiday Gift Ideas From The Kitchen”
October 7th, 2009 2:06 pm
These are great ideas! I’m going to bookmark this page so I can come back to it when I get ready to do my Holiday baking. I’m sure so many others will be thrilled to have these ideas too, especially in these tough economic times!
October 11th, 2009 2:23 pm
So glad you like them Mary
Susanne
October 12th, 2009 4:08 am
Hi, this is awesome! Our whole family (3 sisters, 1 brother, myself, and my parents) we are married with kids, well we are all hurting financially right now.
I would love to get the adults in on a homemade christmas gift exchange this year…instead of our usual gift exchange. Any ideas on getting the kids in on this? They range in ages 15 to 17. Thanks!
Laura
October 14th, 2009 10:44 pm
I like your ideas very much. I think I will make a gift basket out of muffins. Thanks.