Many of you shop from week to week, and your trips may sometimes include picking up trial size items… everything from Tide, to Johnson and Johnson, St. Ives, and more.
What do you do with all your trial size items? I know I keep them for small family trips, so I don’t have to lug a huge bottle of Pantene with me and risk it leaking on my clothes.
Reader Melissa down in Tucson took the pile of freebies and trial size and made beautiful teacher gifts – 7 in fact! One for each of her daughter’s teachers:
Teacher gifts under $4 each. Paid $1 for flip flops & bucket (at Family Dollar). Everything else was free or under $1 from Target travel section. Had lotion, scrub, nail file, polish, lip gloss & hand soap.
Every week, I usually include many different “trial size” items in the Target Deals & Wal Mart Deals. Keep all those coupons handy so that each time you make a trip you can pick up a few – toss them all in a bin in the closet and you’ll have an easy, fun gift to put together for teachers.
Keep in mind you can use any containment device – Dollar Stores often have Popcorn Buckets and baskets for inexpensive prices too. Here are some more ideas of previous gift baskets made by Freapers:
Thanks Melissa 
You always have the best ideas, now come & make my teacher baskets for my daughter!
Fun idea with the flip flops…if you can’t find them at family dollar, they will be at Old Navy tomorrow for $1.
I make little goody bags for girls I know…. they love that stuff!
I took a bunch of things to a girlfriend who was in the hospital. Toothbrush, toothpaste, olay face wash, razor, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, some candy, she was so happy!!
What a great idea, thanks for sharing! I was thinking of filling Christmas stockings for family and friends with our stockpile this year :)
Or fill stockings for the homeless shelters! That’s what I’m going to save them all for! :)
I know a wonderful lady that keeps zipper bags of these type items in her car and gives them to homeless people she encounters while out running errands. Gotta love that giving spirit!! Love you BLJ!
that freaper lady is BEV and I do that too!! Bev taught me how!!! LOLOLOL!!! Just hard in AZ cuz in the Summer the deodorant melts in the car!
Isn’t she just the coolest? I loved her first! LOL
What a clever idea with the buckets for the teachers :) end of summer and flip flops!
I keep our items in the guest room – I picked up dollar store shoe hook plastic hanging thingy. When the guest come they know where to look.
Another idea…You can also donate the travel size items to your local school nurse. These items are needed for students in need of various hygiene care items who need to shower or clean up at school.
I feel so loved :)
“My hubby serves his country. His life is on the line for you DAILY. In that aspect, I could toss the same back at you. Why would YOU, or others, send cheap and Free stuff to Soldiers then? Why not buy them am gift card? Why not buy them some great magazines, movies, etc? Why not send them a package once a month like I do? That’s what I thought. You want to complain about how poor teachers have it, I think you need to take a step down and realize that this is my blog. Not yours. ”
You know what they say about ASSUMPTIONS, Sheryl?
I do send items to OUR soldiers…not just YOURS…PHONE CARDS…for phone calls HOME…not a bunch of CHEAP stuff they don’t NEED/WANT…like some of your readers…go ahead and close this blog too…I won’t be reading yours anymore… :-D
Thank goodness Amy, one less jackass! Sheryl works so hard to help sooo many people save money @ a time when just about EVERYONE could use the help…teachers, nurses, managers…EVERYONE! The fact that you can’t fathom the idea that not everyone can afford gift cards & what you consider to be the “good gifts” goes to show you that you’ve completely lost touch with what’s happening around you…lay offs, budget cuts, foreclosures…does any of this ring a bell? Obviously not. So please take your obnoxious comments elsewhere! And try opening up your eyes honey…the streets ain’t paved in gold & people don’t shit rainbows. Just take a walk one of these days to downtown phoenix…9th ave & jackson…i bet anyone of the numerous amounts of homeless people that live…yes LIVE! on these streets will gladly accept what you consider to be cheap crap! Oh & I’m pretty sure you’re still following this blog
I just read on the VA hospital website that they take donation of deodrant, toothpaste, etc. They give it to the vets who check in to the hospital and need it. I like that idea too.
My coworkers and I are planning on pooling some items this Christmas for a local women’s shelter. I’ve started setting aside some of my freapy items for that!
I just had a Bunco party and the 4 prizes were gift baskets of all the freebies I had collected. Everyone loved them :)
Don’t know where to put this comment,
Has anyone sold any of there extra supply in a garage sale to make extra cash?