Once you have a child (or children), you find yourself going to a lot of birthday parties. Buying gifts can get pricey, so I want to conserve a bit where I can. Starting with 2010, to keep track of who gets what and keep from going insane, I’ve decided to select a “book of the year” as the birthday gift for every child we celebrate. I’ll choose a book that is less common than some so as to (hopefully) not give a duplicate. Then I’ll buy the books in bulk and save some money. I like that idea very much.<\/p>\n
When I was pregnant, I bought a huge roll of butcher paper for future crafts. I assumed I’d be going through a lot of paper in the next five years. I was right. Now, what does a mom do<\/em> with the swaths of painted and colored paper? I decided they would make excellent gift wrap, thus saving me money on wrapping paper. Until Bean is actually painting a picture of something that she might want to keep, we’ll make use of her creative endeavors this way. (Except for Christmas, in part because I have a ton of holiday paper, and in part because I don’t want Bean to receive gifts in paper she wrapped; it seems a little Oliver Twist to me.) Here’s a photo of just-wrapped gifts:<\/p>\n
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