Freecycle is indeed an excellent idea. You might even get more stuff then you have use for! Another idea along this vein is watching out for announcements of toys and clothes exchanges “for and by parents”. They are plentiful where I live. Some enterprising parent or some charity arranges the neighborhood community centre, and hangs up an announcement that on date X everybody can come to sell all their toys and clothes and spend the money on stuff other parents have brought. Then the news spreads through word of mouth to other parents.
Especially if you come in late in the afternoon when everyone is packing up I bet you can get some amazing deals.
Have you checked out what stuff is freely available for kids under 18 by your city government? In the Netherlands, for instance, all kids under 18 get a free library card. All they have to do is go into the library and sign up. Maybe similar offers are there for sports memberships, music classes etc.
It’s not too late to get on the list for many places. The longer you wait the less likely you will get on the list. They do have to cut off at some point, and the closer to Christmas it is, the less likely they are to add you to the list. Your situation is what people do these drives for. Having done this type of thing in the past, we felt obligated to provide presents to all that were signed up, and never let a kid go without a present, even if the general public didn’t buy them something. Sign up now, because the people giving really want to help you and the kids. They really do want to help even though they don’t know you.
You can do the same for other kids next year if you have the means.
What’s wrong with your elder child’s laptop and xbox? There’s a good chance a friendly doper in the area can figure out how to get one or both of them working again. If it’s one of the common problems it’s possible the manufacturer has extended the warranty. HP did it for thousands of laptops it shipped with bad nVidia video cards, and Microsoft has done it for several xbox issues. Failing that, there are guides on how to repair xboxes which suffer from common problems, and depending on what’s wrong with the laptop it could be as easy as $12 for a new power adapter(ordered one for my wife’s laptop and got it two days later).
Down here in S. Florida, there’s a small thrift shop I’ve worked with a few times. I’ve donated alot of stuff to them, and they let me bring needy people in to pick up things for free occasionally. To them, it’s just an exchange.
Also, I second the comment about trying to get the XBox or laptop fixed. I used to work for a major cell phone manufacturer based near Chicago (guess which one ), and I can tell you there are lots of people in the area that know how to work with electronics.
-D/A
Stocking Stuffer: Butter Toffee
Ingredients: sugar, butter, nuts (if you want), chocolate (if you want)
The beauty part of this is – it takes NO special ingredients and not even a candy thermometer – it takes 10 minutes – it costs $25/lb at the fancy candy store.
Take 1 cup sugar & 1 cup butter (or any equal volume of each – 1/2 cup & 1/2 cup, etc)
Melt together in a small sauce pan, over high (electric stove) or medium-high(gas stove) heat.
Stir continuously. Mixture will melt together, then foam up, then collapse back on itself and start to look sticky. Keep stirring! When it turns the color of toffee (approx 10 minutes), it’s done.
Quickly, either
a. mix in a big handful of chopped nuts and pour out onto buttered cookie sheet
or
b. don’t add the nuts, just pour out onto buttered cookie sheet.
Cool in the fridge or stick out on the window ledge on a cold day.
When cool, smear some melted chocolate over it (if desired) and when that’s cool then break into chunks. If you’re short on chocolate “spatter” with a handful of melted chocolate chips with a fork for that artistic look.
Go to your local Chinese Take-out place and buy a couple paper-folded pint cartons off them for a quarter. You know, like rice comes in. Smile when they look at you like crazy white lady. yes, yes, just the cartons, that’s all.
Line cartons in wax paper, drop in toffee.
Amaze your friends and annoy your enemies with your cleverness and thrift!!!
Thrift store clothes (both of my boys like to shop there) I also found interesting books at Goodwill ($1.00 for hardback books, 50 cents for paperback), and videos/CD’s
Crochet/knit an afghan in his school colors (high school or favorite college/pro team)
T-shirt quilt- see google images for ideas I made one for my son using his t-shirts-used yarn ties rather than “quilting” it. If this looks interesting-I am thinking of some ways that you could make it with what you probably have on hand.
Not free but cheap and spread out over time, get the 17 year old Netflix at the cheapest level. If you’ve given up cable he’ll really appreciate the choices of movies and tv shows.
Adding to Pábitel’s cool ideas for self made gifts: a jungle gym. In fact, I’m making this myself for my nearly three year old in his new room.
Measure the room. Buy or get second hand wooden pole the size of the room minus half an inch. Perhaps an old broom handle or curtain rod or clothes rod, from Goodwill. Or they are cheap at the DIY shop. Or chop down a small tree yourself.
Saw and sand two square small wooden planks, about one inch thick and 8 inches square diameter. Use two thinner ones together if you don’t have thick wood.
Make an little cut-out slot in each square plank, like an elongated U where the bottom part goes gound a corner.
Screw the planks to the wall, near the ceiling or lower. Now you can easily slide the rod in and out of the planks.
Paint pink for girl if you’re sexist The rod can be used for plain acrobatics, to dangle a rope from for climbing and swinging, or to throw a curtain over for play, do Punch and Judy shows or to make a tent.
Fat lady clothes. At thrift stores. Seriously, there are usually tons of huge muumuus and other shapeless outfits for 24XXX sized women in the thrift stores, a lot of them are made of really pretty fabric.
When my daughter was small (and I was also small and slim, no so anymore :D) I used to sew some really cute stuff by reusing the fabric from fat lady clothes. Since most people don’t want to buy huge shapeless dresses (except me nowadays), the thrift stores usually sell those dresses ultra cheap, like 4-6 bucks. I’ll bet you could make your little girl some really cute stuff. Heck, I made my daughter an adorable pair of overalls from a pair of XXX sized ladies’ jeans once.
And thrift stores often have craft and fabric sections. I don’t know about your area, but where I used to live, many of the churches would host free clothing and household item giveaways once or twice a month. Catholic social services is a good place to start. And no, you don’t have to be a member of any of the churches, they don’t ask they’re just there to help.
Best wishes, I’ve been there, more than once, it’s tough and I feel for you. Your 17 year old doesn’t have a game system? Would he be interested in a play station? Please IM me
Another idea for those scraps of material is to make little dressing-up accessories; a pirate eye patch and bandanna, a waitress apron, a bride’s veil etc. Dress up is always fun!
If you decide to make the sock-puppets, how about making a theatre for them out of cardboard boxes? Maybe your 17year old could even do this as a gift for the little one?
And not so much a gift as an activity to do as a family, but why not try making a gingerbread house? The ingredients are very cheap and everyone can join in decorating it.
The five year old will probably be the easier of the two.
As a kid, during a hard candy Christmas, my dad made wooden doll beds for us girls. Mom made little blankets and a rag doll each out of flour sacks that my grandfather brought home from the mill where he worked and outgrown clothing. It was one of my most treasured gifts of childhood. Some curtains and other items from the household fabric section of the thrift store would be transformed to a tutu, a bridal outfit, a princess costume, etc with a bit of her imagination.
I would go along with finding someone who can fix the electronics for cheap for the boy. That stuff is important at his age.
Here’s hoping that the money situation is looking up by next Christmas.
Middlebro loves boxes, so one year that he’d refused to give us a list of Christmas wishes, I bought three matching tin cans, filled the first one with one of his favorite kinds of soft candy, placed it in the middle one, filled in the space with another favorite, placed it in the third one, yet more candy. Total cost was (about 6 years ago) less than $15.
I once got a muñeca reversible, looking for images of them brought me the translation instead: topsy-turvy doll. One side was black with a white-and-pink dress, the other side was a redhead, dressed in white and blue. I’ve never seen a little kid who didn’t find that doll utterly fascinating, and I think one should be well within your skill.
I can’t believe your kids are so big! Caileigh is 5 already- seems like yesterday she was that tiny scrap in the incubator, and Whykid is almost grown up- time flies!
When I was 6 and times were tough my mother made us a doll’s house out of a tea chest and decorated it with wallpaper. Nothing too fancy- partitioned to make 4 rooms inside and with a lift-off roof so it had an attic. One of my most favourite toys ever. If Caileigh doesn’t have a doll’s house you could think about somethinkg like that, and Whykid could be involved in making it.
Both of my children have asked me for a recipe book with all their favourite homemade dishes written in. They are 12 so it may not be the right thing for the youngest but the 17 year old would probably appreciate knowing how to make familiar stuff when he moves out on his own.
I’ve purchased a nice recipe book and am handwriting the recipes but it could easily be accomplished with a nice binder from Staples and printing out the recipes. My sister printed them out on card and inserted them into plastic photo sleeves.
Thank you all for your amazing suggestions (and the ones that have come in by PM, as well.) I’ll respond in more detail later tonight - I’m away from the computer all day in Clinicals today.
Awesome idea! FWIW, when my two (former) stepsons were teenagers, I gave them cooking lessons: basically, just a primer on how to manage a few essential kitchen tasks (using knives safely, proper food handling, defining techniques/terms like “baste,” “saute,” etc.), and how to cook a few cheap and filling foods, like spaghetti, chili, rice, and so forth. As they got older, both boys really came to appreciate the ability to eat well on a budget, and both are very comfortable in the kitchen. (And, according to them now - at ages 20 and 26 - women think that men who cook are sexy!)
So: Cooking lessons for the Boy. Girls will think he’s sexy.
(And I’m stealing the recipe book idea, for the stepsons and for my 13-year-old son.)
I think the recipe book is a great idea, and if you can include Whykid’s favorite recipes, so much the better. It’ll be good for when he gets out of the house.
A few years ago, my grandmother sent me something small from my grandfather’s estate. She packed the item in a small box (think jewelry box), put that in a larger box, put that box in a still larger box, and then in one more large box. I think there were five layers of boxes. It was annoying for me to have to open all those boxes, but the sprog thought it was fun. Perhaps you can do something similar for Cailiegh and wrap a small gift inside progressively larger boxes.
Ooh I thought of a couple more, Get some scrap lumber and make a “playstage” Complete with curtains (I saw free scrap lumber available on your local Craigslist and there seems to be several Lumberyards in your area, though I don’t know how much they charge). This would be espically fun if you end up making the puppets.
If she’s the type to go girly, invite her and “guest” to Christmas High Tea, Print her an invitation and stick it in the mail, make sure you both are Dressed up And make itty bitty Sandwiches ,Cambric tea (Cambric Tea is a hot drink made with milk, water, sugar and a dash of tea. ) and her favorite cookies. As a party favor have someone take a picture of you both all dressed up and frame it.
Also, (and this may be more appropriate for oldest whykid) are there any family heierlooms that you can part with now? Somthing that belonged to his Grandfathers, or a favorite Great Uncle? My mother has done this several Christmases and I treasure the things she’s given me very much.
Hope things are looking up soon! And best of luck in Clinicals!
), and I can tell you there are lots of people in the area that know how to work with electronics.