Be Creative With Money Gifts

I remember when my grandparents gave us money for birthdays or Christmas it would be a crisp bill in an envelope. Now as the grands get older it’s more challenging to come up with gift ideas since everyone has their own taste. There is no way I can even attempt to pick out clothes or video games for anyone! To make things a bit more interesting rather than just using an envelope I wanted to be creative with money gifts. These are a few of my projects I came up with for Christmas gifts. It works of birthdays, anniversaries, or just an I love you gift.

For my first gift I used a decorative gift box normally used for cookies. After putting the box together, I taped the bills together in a long row. I carefully stuffed the billes between the handles and through the slot of the box. After the bills were all tucked in, I taped to two sides to make sure the box stayed together.

I had to figure out a way for the bills to be pulled out of the box so I taped a piece of ribbon around the bills and then added a matching bow. I left about 1″ of the bills out of the box so they wouldn’t get stuck on the inital pull and covered the opening and exposed bill with the bow. Since we delivered the package before it was going to be opened, I wrote some instructions so they would know not to unwrap the box or pull the bow off.

When my granddaughter and son-in-law opened their gift, they sent me a video! I think it was a big hit!!

Since I didn’t want to make the same style box for my other granddaughter and her boyfriend, I put my thinking cap on again for ideas. I just happened to have 2 boxes about the same size so I decided to use those. First thing I did after taping the boxes was cut a slot in the top to drop the taped together bills in. Then I wrapped each box making sure to tape the edges around the slot so the paper wouldn’t rip. I taped the money and stuffed it in the boxes just like the first one I did.

I taped the ribbon to the top bill and then I realized I had cut the opening a bit too wide to have it covered with just the bow. No problem, I just pulled a huge Christmas ornament out of my extra decorations, threaded the ribbon through the hole where the hook goes and it was a perfect camoflauge to cover up the money opening slot!

The packages were ready but we still had a week before Christmas so when Lia came visiting, she would guard the boxes.

Christmas arrived and what fun they had opening their gifts. The ribbon stayed attached, the bills stay taped and the money gift project was a super surprise and a complete success!

From the looks on their faces I think Alexandra and Stevie were surprised.

This isn’t my first rodeo when it comes to thinking outside the box when giving money gifts. Another cool idea I came up with for a birthday gift was to use an empty heart shaped candy box and fill each little candy compartment with folded up bills. This is my blog I wrote for this successful idea: http://themarthareview.com/money-box-instructions/

I’m always looking for different ways to do things, I love to be creative and use things that might otherwise go in the trash. So besides making a unique gift, I’m also recycling!