Budget gift ideas for 36 old woman
I am a 36 year old woman who is happily married to a wonderful man and last year my husband gave me beautiful Kitchen-Aid stand mixer for Christmas.
I have wanted one for many years but they are very expensive so I could only hope to get one someday. We are on a very strict budget so I had no hope of getting one last year.
After eating a lovely pancake breakfast we sat down to open our gifts. I was thrilled with my new scissors and stocking full of odds and ends from the Dollar Store, a family tradition is going to the dollar store and filling the stocking till it bursts for under $15.
When we were first married we had a $10 Christmas where we each spent $10 at the dollar store on each other because that was all the money we had. After I cleaned up from breakfast, my hubby placed an enormous box in front of me, wrapped in 6 layers of wrapping paper, covered in dozens of bows and tied with about a mile of ribbon.
By the time I got down to the box I was so excited I was shaking. He had placed the mixer in a big cardboard box that said “A GRADE FROZEN CHICKENS” on the side. When I read this out loud he said ”
Oh no! I forgot to put them in the freezer, open it QUICK! Hurry, before they start to stink!!” I rip open the box and there is my butter yellow stand mixer. I started crying, asking him how could we afford it.
But he told me he picked it up at a Habitat for Humanities re-store the last time we went. He saw it on the shelf, told the clerk he wanted to buy it but I couldn’t know about it because it was a surprise and kept it a secret for 3 months!
He said the hardest part was not giving it to me when I was making cookies for all our friends and family. I had made 8 different recipes, triple batches and burnt out my hand mixer.
It was the best gift I have ever received…even better than my first 2 wheeled bicycle. I unpacked it, washed out the work bowl and proceeded to mix up a pumpkin Bundt cake, chocolate chip cookies and a salmon cream cheese dip.
I packed them and brought them to my Mother in law’s where I told everyone how I made them and all about my ‘Chicken Mixer”. I even made a mixer cover for it with fabric that has chickens on it. Sometimes great things come to those who wait. Merry Christmas : )
