Our Frugal Stocking Stuffer Plan

Last week I shared our frugal gifting plans for this Christmas, and I promised to come back and share our stocking stuffer plans this week.

(BTW, if you're a member of my immediate family, you better not be reading this post or you won't be very surprised on Christmas morning ::grin::)

There's no doubt about it, you can rip right through your entire holiday gift budget on stocking stuffers alone if you're not careful. Our stockings are by no means extravagantly filled, but I'd rather have a smaller amount of good quality items than a large amount of crap! Since we are all foodies around here, you'll notice most of the items are of an edible nature :)

I actually happen to (mostly) know what's going in my own stocking this year, too, which is fine with me. I think hubby also has a couple of small surprises up his sleeve to add to the goodies I already know about.

What goes in ALL of our stockings:

-Homemade candies (cracker toffee, candied peanuts)

-Chai-Chocolate Chip Biscotti
-An apple and a clementine or two (traditional for the very bottom of the stocking!)

What's going in the boys' stockings:

-Mint Meltaway chocolates (from Walker's Chocolates, a local business)
-Gift cards for Subway and Tim Hortons (These will cost us nothing out of pocket as my husband received them as gifts. There are locations of each right in our neighbourhood, and since the boys are now teenagers they enjoy going there with friends)
-Glee Gum (an all-natural chewing gum)
-Gingerbread Spice tea (a favourite with both of them)
-a can of Blue Sky natural soda (These were on sale for 69 cents each at Fortinos. I used a $1.00-off-when-you-buy-2 online printable coupon from The Healthy Shopper and got both cans for 59 cents total, including tax!)
-Assorted pens, pencils and erasers (they've almost used up their stash from the fall)

What's going in hubby's stocking:

-Camino chocolate covered coffee beans (Fair Trade, organic, and yummy, purchased through ONFC)
-Camino Dark Mint chocolate bar (purchased on sale at Fortino's)
-A homemade citrus-spice herbal tea blend
-A bar of the manly-scented "His" glycerin bar soap from The Guelph Soap Company (locally produced)

What's going in MY stocking:

-Camino raw cacao nibs (Fair Trade, organic and kind of addictive - purchased through ONFC)
-Vanilla Body Butter from The All Natural Face (I received a $5.00 gift code from this company, no minimum purchase. I ended up paying only $3.00 *with* shipping for this product. This contains both mango butter and jojoba oil, neither of which I've tried before, so I look forward to giving it a whirl).
-A bar of Honey, Goat's Milk and Oatmeal soap from The Guelph Soap Company

There may be some other last-minute additions to this list, but these items will make up the bulk of our stockings. I don't have an exact total spent because I still have to buy a few of these items, but my rough estimate is that we will come in under $30 to fill 4 stockings! The cost for the homemade food items comes out of our grocery budget so I'm not counting them in the total, but that would probably add only another $5-$10 even if you did add those expenses in. I'm pleased that we were able to include a variety of locally and/or ethically produced items, while staying within our modest budget!

What are you filling stockings with this year?