One of the things that I like to do to help save me money (and time) is stockpile gifts. Whenever I find toys or other nice gifts on clearance I buy them and keep them in my closet. Then when my kids get invited to a birthday party or I get invited to a baby shower or any other event that I need a gift for (teacher gifts, etc) I go into my closet and look through my gift stockpile.
For example, I got 4 of the Pictureka Penguin games at Walmart awhile back. They were on clearance for $3.50 and I had $5 coupons so not only did I get them free, but I got $6 in overage towards other purchases. Now the next time my kids are invited to a party or have a gift exchange, I have a gift to give that cost me NOTHING.
Another thing I have done in the past is use my Swagbucks to get $10 Starbucks & $10 Barnes & Noble gift cards. I then let Kaley give one card to each of her 5 teachers at Christmas.
Baskets are another way to use up items that you get for free. I find big baskets in good condition at garage sales and then fill them with items like candles, body wash, lotions, chocolate, etc and give them as gifts to teachers, family members and friends. They are always shocked at how many things are in the basket and it cost me very little to make it.
I do this too..my hubby thinks its insane, but it saves so much money! But I ONLY do it when I can get items for VERY little to NO money OOP. I can't tell you how many times doing this saved us since for some reason my kids always wait until the last minute to hand over those Birthday invitations..sometimes the same day of the party lol.
Right now I am working on gift baskets for my in-laws for Grandparents Day. I have body wash, shampoo, soap, deodorant, razors, etc that I paid nothing for after coupons plus I am making them photo books (I have two $20 Shutterfly gift cards that came in the Target baby registry bags). Can't wait to give them to them!
Amy, you said you had $5 in coupons. I was wondering if these were coupons from newspaper, online, or from another venue?
This was a year or more ago but from the link in the post: https://www.whosaidnothinginlifeisfree.com/2010/02/local-readers-money-maker-on-pictureka, it said they were from coupons.com