Shopping for the Extra Special People in Your LIfe (on a budget)

As I've mentioned, we do small Christmases all around, so I put a lot of effort into finding and giving economical but useful gifts to everyone on my list.
I love to take this season to let my kids teachers and others in their lives know how much I appreciate them! I've typically done a tin of my family recipe butterball cookies (seriously, best cookie ever). But this year I was not sure if I'd bake or not, so I went another way.
This year, I attended a 31 purse party. I was on the verge of passing on ordering, as I just did not want to spend the money on myself, then I thought... hmmm Christmas.
I could not resist getting these adorable lunch totes for the boys main teachers, at just $15 each... in this cute and fun pattern called circle spirals. Perfect, and in budget.

For their teacher assistants , I managed to score a deal on Buffalo Night Out Books, at $6.00 each! Add a $5.00 Tim Horton's gift card to that, and I personally think it's a great gift! And, I love being able to bless those who love and care for my children when I am not with them. There's no way they'll ever know just how thankful I am.

I may do this for my bosses too, who doesn't like a good coffee and a great deal at their fingertips.
For my superwoman babysitter, Jessica, who I am 99.99% sure does not know I have a blog, I ordered some great sterling jewelry (having a jewelery store in my family makes it easy to get quality and quantity! Yes!), and for her little ones who share their mom for at least an hour a day I got some cute gifts for their rooms off Paper Coterie using a fabulous coupon code. (I'm being general here- just in case!)
I love being able to still get people neat and useful gifts without going nuts. Christmas is about so much more than stuff...