January 2018 – Relatable Roni

This post does contain affiliate links but all opinions are honest and my own.

Here are a few tried and tested gifts I’ve either given or been given on special occasions:

Sephora Gift Card – This is the easiest gift a guy can buy for his girl. But make sure it’s not the only thing you get her. Put A LITTLE thought into it. And make sure you tell her she doesn’t need make-up to look beautiful because you can screw yourself over on this one.

Couple’s Massage – ALWAYS a good idea.

Dinner Cruise – We’ve done the Odyssey cruise around the Boston Harbor and it was a really good time. It is a little expensive and probably extremely expensive on Valentine’s Day but you can purchase a gift card voucher.

Try the World Subscription – I thought this was a good gift for those that love both traveling and food so I bought my husband a year’s subscription for Christmas in 2016. 90% of the items we’ve tried so far are delicious. We got a bunch of mustard items in one package and those have gone unopened so the challenge is utilizing everything they send you. With a discount code I found, it was ~$18/month. You definitely get your money’s worth.

I think my favorite was the Thailand box because it included tom yum soup, green curry paste, and Thai iced tea. The last box of our series was from Africa and the tea was out of this world. I’m a big tea person so trying teas from all over the world has been amazing. The mushroom risotto from Italy was also yum.

Clearly, this box ended up being more for me than him because he’s too busy to utilize the ingredients. They used to offer the items sold individually on the site if you especially liked something but they don’t anymore. Some of the items can be found on Amazon. I definitely recommend this (and I have no affiliate links for this).

NatureBox subscription – This would make a good gift for the health conscious people in your life or those trying to change their snacking habits AKA all those people with New Years Resolutions to get in shape. My husband got this for me for my birthday one year when we were still dating. When I first opened it, I thought this isn’t a very thought through gift. But he said he was giving me what I love most in life: FOOD. He knows me so well <3. He bought me a subscription for 5 snacks/month for 6 months. There were some hits and there were some misses but they’ll credit you for the snacks you don’t like which is a big win (I don’t think that was a policy back then).

They did discontinue my favorite snack but they still have the lemon tea biscuits I really enjoyed. The dark chocolate almonds were really good too. I definitely wasn’t ordering the healthier items. Below, I’ve linked some discounts they’re offering now.

Scratch Ticket Bouquet – This is a good idea for the girl in your life that says she doesn’t want a bouquet of flowers for Valentine’s Day. When I did this for hubs, I spent $50 on scratch tickets and he made $48 back so it may be worth the gamble.

Shutterfly Mug or Custom Item – I love our custom mugs and I use mine constantly. I had them made at Shutterfly but now there’s tons of other websites that do the same thing. My husband has his mug at his parents’ house and puts his pens in it…so that was a bust. Not a good gift for guys, but the girl in your life will at least appreciate it.

Date Night at Home Basket: I have not given or been given this gift before but I would personally love this *hint hint.* Buy two bottles of wine (because one isn’t enough), some cheese/snacks and games and put it in a basket. Two card games I suggest are: What Do You Meme? (but it requires 3+ players) and Monopoly Deal (2+ players). I’ve played Monopoly Deal with people before and it was a lot of fun and it can be played in 15 mins unlike Monopoly the board game or should I say bored game!

Poo-Pourri – This is a gift for both of you if you live together and have just one bathroom. The commercials are hilarious:

And yes, it really works.

What’s your favorite gift you’ve ever received? Leave a comment below!

I originally forgot this point on my post about Building Better Money Habits but I thought I’d write a separate post on it to explain things in more detail. You probably won’t be ordering any of this online because you have to order in bulk and I don’t see many people doing that unless they’re wedding planning but this post does contain affiliate links and I may be compensated. BUT all opinions are my own. FYI, a nice option Dollar Tree does have so they don’t run out when you need a lot of one thing when you get there, is free pickup at your local store.

Hello again!

In adulthood, you realize you need a lot of shit. Shit costs money. Sometimes you don’t want to spend money, but you still need that shit. What do you do? You go to a dollar store!

It’s great for getting those minor things like gift packaging. Above, I have a picture of my “Will you be my bridesmaid” gifts. The items I used to make these that are from dollar stores are: the container, the letter stickers, and the decorative shred inside. I also bought little sachets that I filled with personalized M&M’s. If I went to Michael’s, I would’ve paid at least double for all of that.

The dollar store I frequent here in Vermont is Dollar Tree. It’s concept is that everything is $1 of course. I’m not keen on buying a lot of things there but some things that make sense buying are:

1. Hangers

A pack of 10 hangers on Amazon is $4. It’s $1 for 8 hangers at Dollar Tree. So to compare for you math whizzes out there, at Amazon you might get 80 hangers for $32 but at Dollar Tree you’d get 80 hangers for $10. I bought a ton of these yesterday so I can finally put away my laundry.

2. Spray Bottles

This spray bottle would be ideal for diluting bleach and using to clean. It would also be great for spritzing water in your dog’s face.

3. Plastic Bins for Organizing

I’ve been using these bins to organize our bathroom and kitchen. They’re really low quality but they get the job done. The smaller ones come in sets of 2-3 for $1.

4. Toilet Brushes

Nobody needs to brush their toilet and then keep it just chilling next to the toilet. I like to buy them from the dollar store and then toss them out after one use. Nastiness…If you’re going to get anything from the dollar store, just get this. I’m all for saving the earth and creating less garbage but I just can’t with this.

5. Greeting Cards

Most people don’t care about getting fancy cards. They just want the money inside. Just get a cheap card. Dollar Tree‘s cards are 50 cents to 1 dollar. Other stores often have cards that are 99 cents or up.

6. Gift Bags

I feel most stores completely overcharge for gift bags. The bags here are $1 and sometimes they come in sets of 2-5 bags for $1 if they’re smaller.

7. Decorative Shred and Tissue Paper

It’s shredded paper and tissue paper for goodness’ sake so it shouldn’t cost a lot and it’s going to end up in the recycling anyway. Michael’s charges $3.99/bag of shredded paper. I use paper confetti or tissue paper often when I’m putting together a gift bag. I mixed white and pink decorative shred in this picture for my “Mean Girls” themed bridesmaid’s gifts.

8. Vase Fillers

The glass gems and seashells are nice for filling vases. I think the seashells would be great if you were having a beach-themed wedding.These are half the price than what I see on other websites.

9. Foil Balloons

Balloon, Paper Shreds and Base all from Dollar Tree

I put this together for my husband’s 30th birthday. The balloon overall is sort of small but it lasted a veryyyyy long time. How do I know? Well, I like to see how long balloons take to die. It died after a month or so. This actually really pissed me off because I had bought other balloons from iParty as well for his 30th….

Above are the balloons I bought from iParty . And I attached them to our porch the night before my husband’s birthday since he was working overnight and would be back in the morning. Well…I woke up in the middle of the night and heard the whistling wind and realized putting out the balloons the night before may have been a bad idea. And FYI the big balloon cost me about $12 and the smaller ones at least $1 and iParty charges you extra if you want the balloons to last past the 12 hr mark which is, I think, absolutely ridiculous.

So when I got out of bed the next morning, I immediately checked on the balloons.

^^^^^^ This is what I saw. MANNNNN, WAS I PISSED! The giant balloon was GONEEEEE!!! Never have I ever been so disappointed in life. And I could only think about how the neighbors were like “No shit Sherlock, of course that’s going to happen.” I was especially concerned because my brain surgeon of a husband’s boss lives across the street. He must’ve thought my husband married a dumb girl. Obviously, I was also upset my husband wasn’t coming home after a 28-hour shift to a nice surprise while driving up.

Anyway, I tried undoing the strings that I so uselessly securely affixed to our porch, but they were there to stay so I had to cut them off.

So the lesson here is: USE THE DOLLAR STORE BALLOONS OUTSIDE AND THE EXPENSIVE BALLOONS INSIDE or just put them out later. By the way, about a week later is when that windstorm happened that knocked down tons of trees and power lines in the Northeast…so ya…

I’m clearly still upset about this balloon fiasco.

Do you shop at the dollar store? What do you buy? Leave a comment below!

Month: January 2018

Valentine’s Day Gift Ideas For Him or Her

Here are a few tried and tested gifts I’ve either given or been given on special occasions:

9 Things You Really Should be Buying at the Dollar Store