Creative Gifts for Your Loved One (that just so happen to be cheap)

I use the term “creative” loosely…

Next week is my & my hubby’s first anniversary. 

While trying to think of what to give to my hubby for our anniversary I started remembering all the stuff we did when we were dating…teehee. These were all things that I did; I can’t share my hubby’s because I wouldn’t want to embarrass him (not that he reads the blog…). 

In chronological order:  

1. The I Like You book. When I was a cashier at a bookstore I had someone come and buy it. He told me it was his absolute favorite book so I was intrigued and looked it up. If you haven’t read it, you should. And you should give it to someone you love. I was poor at the time and this was a perfect gift.
2. Make your own love story in a blank book. They sold blank books at the BYU bookstore in the kids section. I don’t know if normal book stores carry them, but if they don't they should. I used one to write/draw a simplified version of how my hubby and I got together and gave it to him on our first Valentine’s day.

3. Pictures with a Message. I left for 4 months to go on a study abroad to Korea and made sure to get home right before my hub’s birthday, so I had 4 months to think of a good gift. Well, for part of his gift I took pictures all over Korea, and in each of the pictures I held a sign with only one word on it so that they all made a message. All of the pictures went into a photo album so that he had to flip to each new picture to see what the message was. On the back, I wrote where the picture was taken. The point is to show that you are thinking about them wherever you are. I can’t tell you what it said, but it had to do with The Little Prince. If you haven’t read that one either you need to. It will change your life.

4. Couple Gear. Maybe it’s corny in America, I don’t know. But in Korea if you start dating someone you immediately go out and buy couple clothes. I bought matching T-shirts from Uniqlo, a store the hubby loves. He bought us matching Toms lol.

5. Love Letter Book. When I was gone for those 4 months, I wrote him every week without fail. But sometimes I wanted to write more, so I started a love letter book. It was almost like a journal, with the dates and all. I gave it to him with the rest of his birthday gifts.
6. Love Flip Book. Be creative ;) I used a pack of post-its to make mine.

7. Video of messages from friends. I taped all of my friends in Korea saying happy birthday to my hubby and put them all together to make a video. Although he didn’t know them, he knew who they were because I wrote home about them, and they knew who he was because I talked about him all the time. This is even better if you can do it with his actual friends.

8. Clip-list of things to do while he is gone. The hubs left me for a while to go to combatives camp, and before he left I gave him an index card ring. There was an index card for each day he would be gone. On the front it said the date, and on the back it said one thing I would do to improve myself so that I would be a better person when he got home. He promised to only look at each day when it came.

9. Love Timeline. When we got married I wanted to make sure I didn’t forget all the little details of our relationship. So I made a love timeline. It took a lot of research…I even went onto Facebook and looked at our “relationship.” It took a while, but turned out well. (It was a cute book I picked up in Korea, so I had to translate all the cute little phrases & quotes.)
10. Coupons. I had to think really hard to make coupons that he would actually use. I made maybe 5 or so? And he used 2!! One was: “Free hug when I am angry” or something along those lines. He used it when I got mad at him right before an important event. Worked out just fine ;)

Bonus 11: Found these little gems while I was digging through all the other stuff. When I worked at that bookstore, I would take the ends of used-up receipt rolls and write notes to the hubby on them. They were like mini scrolls. Haha. It was so boring there.

**EDIT: I also made some Couple Pillowcase HERE.