Mother’s Day

Each year, I struggle with what to get my mom and MIL for Mother’s Day.  I want the perfect gift that will show my appreciation, but mine seem to have everything already.  In my experience as a mom over the last 6+ years, my favorite gifts are the ones that are heartfelt rather than cost a lot of money.  Here are some of my favorite frugal ideas:

• Heartfelt Card – Does mom really want/need a gift? If your mom seems to have everything, perhaps she would best love a card with a message for your heart thanking her for all she’s done for you and meant to you over the years. I bet that she would appreciate that more than any purchased gift. You don’t even need to purchase a card…just whip one up with some leftover scrapbooking supplies or design a digital card.

• Digital Photo Scrapbook – My mom and MIL both seem to like pictures having of their grandkids around (for some strange reason), so in the past (when I had more time), I would whip up a digital scrapbooking project and digital card that I could print out for both of them. Then, they each get a personalized book, but it’s not double the work. Better yet, there are lots of quickbooks out there where the designer has already created the page, and you just need to slip in your pictures, saving even more time (and they’re usually much cuter than any page I could design on my own). The Shabby Princess has some of my favorite quick albums, but I also like some of the albums at Sweet Shoppe Designs. Basically, you just add your pictures and then I reduce the page size to 6×6 and print 2 pages on a 8×12 sheet at Costco (only $1.49 each). For a tutorial on how to add your pictures to a quick page using Adobe Photoshop Elements, click here.

• Photo Gifts – There are tons of cute ideas for photo gifts such as a magnet for the fridge, photo mousepad, coffee mug, etc.

• Memory Jar – Write down your favorite memories that you have about/with your mother on slips of paper and stick them in a pretty jar (could just be a decorated Mason jar).  You may surprise your mom with some memories that you thought were special and she didn’t realize were significant at the time.

• Flowering Plant – If your mom likes to have plants on her deck or porch, why not a practical gift like a flowering plant or some flowers to go into her garden.  You could even have your kids decorate a pot for the plant.

• Chore Coupons – Do you live near your mom? If so, is there anything that you can do to help her? Could you help her with a project she’s working on? Create a coupon book with some chores that she can use her coupons on. Better yet…this is a great gift to hint to your kids for yourself .  Although these coupons are intended for Valentine’s Day, you could leave out the title page and use this FREE digital coupon download for your coupons.

• “Experience” Gift – Perhaps you could take your mom with you on a family outing to the zoo or a local museum – somewhere where your family has lots of fun.  Give her the gift of time with her family…and pamper her.  Or you could take her out for a nice meal on Mother’s Day.

• Spa Basket – This would take some planning (maybe next year), but you could collect some “spa” freebies that you purchase throughout the year to create a spa basket for your mom.

What do you do for your mom for Mother’s Day?  Do you have any other cute ideas to add?  For more frugal ideas, please visit Life as Mom.