"Professional" Gift Giving on a Budget

Yesterday was "Black Friday".  Did you wake up at an unusually early hour to brave the crowds?  I woke up at 3am in an attempt to obtain the "deal of the day" one time many years ago.  I arrived at my destination by 4am for a 5am opening and the parking lot was completely full - I had to park several blocks away and walk to the stores.  I stood in a ridiculously long line waiting for the doors to open and when they did, I did my best to keep up with the crowd in fear of being trampled if I fell behind.  Once in the store I experienced utter shock as I watched people scooping every single package of specific items off shelving into their shopping carts.  I  experienced utter disbelief as I observed people becoming angry and very mean & rude when they thought someone was attempting to "cut in line" near the electronics department.  I was literally overwhelmed and within 20 minutes of walking through the doors and I walked out of the store with nothing.  In my world "Black Friday" is too expensive. Every Black Friday since, I have been found in my home caring for my family, watching a cheesy Christmas film or working on one of my homemade gifts.

 

This "Black Friday" we chose to make candy.  We made rum & pecan fudge, milk chocolate marshmallows, white chocolate peppermint bark and chocolate covered coconut almond balls.  This afternoon I worked on "professionally" packaging a couple tins to ship out to Grandpa's. My primary reason for choosing to make candy is that some of it will be gifts for my youngest brothers who own and operate a bakery - thus, I didn't want to send them cookies or other baked goods. 

 

 

We were surprised how much candy only 1 batch of each recipe made!
I think a few other people will be receiving candy also.

Several weeks ago I found the tins at the re-sale shop for 25 cents each.
Mini cupcake liners are the perfect size for one piece of candy.

We used waxed paper, cut to fit the tin, to cover the candy and placed a pretty note card on top.

I also found ten bows and 150 ft. of ribbon (brand new in packaging) at the re-sale shop
for only $3.00.  I have enough bows and more than enough ribbon for 10 gifts.

249 pieces of candy cost me $28.50 in supplies.  That averages only 11 1/2 cents per piece.  By utilizing the re-sale shop, each tin & gift wrap costs less than 65 cents.  Can you believe the total cost for the two gifts pictured above is only $1.80 each?  Yes, we spent 3 hours making four batches of candy and I spent a few minutes attempting to professionally wrap and package the candies.  But those 3 1/2 hours were spent in a relaxed, stress free atmosphere.  I didn't have to drive 65 miles one-way to find the "deal of the day".  I didn't have to worry that the person in front of me would clean off the shelf before I could get the item I had written on my list.   I also find it hard to believe that any store had their tins of candy marked down to only $1.80.