Saturday, December 19, 2009

Stocking Stuffer Coupons

Are Christmas gifts as hard for you to buy for your sweetheart as it is for me? This is my first year buying gifts for my fiance and I am having a hard time trying to figure out something original, fun, surprising, and something I am okay with him owning.

One thing I have decided is that coupons for his stocking are a must.


Idea #7 Coupons for his sock



We grew up making coupons. My dad's favorite thing to get from us was coupons. Coupons to do the dishes, clean his truck or make him sugar cookies. Here are some tips for coupon writing.

I've tried making them on the computer, but this year mine will be homemade-nothing fancy but still very much from the heart. When making a coupon think about something he would love for you to do for him that is really not your favorite thing to do and include that as one of the coupons. He will love it!

It is also fun to have an expiration date on the coupons. (That way if he loses it or forgets then you are off the hook ;)). Sometimes I give the coupons a week, a month, a year or make them with no expiration date.

You can also include phrases like "subject to change without prior notice", "some restrictions apply. See ____ for details", "cash value of this coupon 1/100 of a cent", "void where prohibited, not available in all areas, continental United States only", "not available in NY, UT, FL or NM". (The state one can be fun if you are going on a trip or moving sometime soon but doesn't need to be. It can also be for something you don't want to do or give and make it void in your own state just to do something different).

I love to include fine print on mine. For example, I am giving my fiance a coupon for me to make him a pecan pie. I usually only make pecan pies at Thanksgiving time, but he loves them and would like me to make one again. Problem is I hate making pie crust (he doesn't). So my fine print will include something like "The fine print: user of this coupon must be available to help with the pie crust" or "user of this coupon must be on-call to assist with kitchen clean-up after pies are made". I think that is fair, don't you :).

Some ideas for what to give coupons for:

*can use Hersey kisses to be exchanged for real kisses whenever recipient wants

*baked goods, favorite meals

*activities: date nights, weekend getaways, evening activities

*organizing or chore like coupons: cleaning his car, doing a task that is usually something he does

*a night off from bathing the children, helping with dinner, doing the dishes. . .

*a chance to watch what he wants on TV or rent what he wants with no input from you. . .

Enjoy making and giving these coupons. Best thing about them is that they will probably be one of his favorite things he gets this year-and they don't have to cost you anything!

Let me know if you have done this before and what ideas you have for coupons. It might help me or others think of things we could do too!! Have fun with it.

P.S. Another fun stocking stuffer is a box of cereal with a prize of some sort inside (see sweeten it up blog from Dec. 5th). When you look for a box of cereal it makes it easier if on the outside it already has "Free inside. . ." then you just have to make a little tag to put over what they said is free inside and write what you have inside. It makes it stand out a little less that way. For example if they write "Free book inside" and you want to put in movie tickets you would just make a tag for movie tickets and put over the word book. My fiance is also getting a box of cereal in his sock.


Here is an example of a few I did. I made mine on scrapblog but my sister also made some really cute ones from some clip art on Microsoft Office I believe. They were really easy to make and a lot of fun to give, and even more fun when he redeems them!

2 comments:

Savvy Moms Save

My husband does Taxes -we own a tax business- so most of his time working on taxes is in the evenings. One year he gave me a coupon saying "Good for one stop-and-drop taxes and have a date night! *not valid April1-15th" I loved it!

keller

I am making coupons this year as well. Mine is a year of dates. One a month for the whole year and I am writing what the date idea is on the coupon. I am pretty excited about this one and have already talked to babysitters :).

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