With the end of our daughter’s first-ever school year nearly upon us, we decided to gift her teachers a little something for End of the School Year. We had sent her to school on the first day with a $5 Dunkin’ Donuts gift card and a royal-icing shortbread apple-shaped cookie from our favorite local baker Touche Touchet Bakery in Columbia, Maryland and then gifted Amazon.com gift cards for Christmas time.
Now we needed yet another idea. An idea of something that was consumable (as we understand first-hand being on the receiving-end of non-consumable items), budget-friendly, and age-appropriate for a three-year-old to give to her teachers (sorry, no alcholic beverages as many of our teacher-friends suggested!) A friend suggested movie tickets (the teachers themselves or their family members could use), which sparked an idea. As a frequent Dollar Tree browser-shopper I remember small popcorn containers being available there. And, movie tickets to our local theater at Costco. And, now the creative juices were flowing.
Shopping List
So, this lead me to pickup the following items to make a mini “gift basket” presentation of the movie tickets:
- Costco Wholesale: 2 Cinemark movie ticket gift cards for $16.99 (each pair) – check your Costco for gift cards to movie theaters common in your local area
- Dollar Tree: 3-for-$1 popcorn containers, $1 bows, 2-for-$1 Hallmark “thank you” greeting cards
- Dollar Tree / Five Below / Grocery: $0.99 candy, like peanut M&M’s and Skittles
- Grocery: 1 box containing 4 mini bags (100 calorie Jolly Time) of microwave popcorn ($2.79)
- Michaels: spool of red, crimped curling ribbon ($2.39) – used a very small portion, the rest will be stored for Christmas holiday gift wrapping
- Already on hand: individually-wrapped Twizzlers candy (Walmart is a good source), cellophane, tissue paper* (Michaels would be a good source), scissors, clear gift packaging tape, 2 small rubber bands
*Another alternative to the tissue paper is purchasing yellow Easter basket paper stuffing at Five Below when it’s just $1.
Total cost, not including items already on hand or the spool of red curling ribbon, before tax: $22.20 each gift.
Assembly
For the inside of the blank $0.50 Hallmark “thank you” greeting cards, we used example messages found on Tosaylib.
Social Follow and Share
Brilliant, unique, easy, speedy, budget-friendly idea to give your children’s teachers for an End of the School Year gift. Here’s the How To: https://t.co/KdIt27DRSn #endofschoolyear #teachergift #moviegift #budgetgift pic.twitter.com/8UBf9m2OgJ
— Saving Amy (@savingamyblog) May 13, 2019
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