That’s Swell

I mentioned that we had spent $5 on Eric & Sarah’s wedding present, but how did we do it?

First off, we decided to go this route because we’d already given them an engagement present ($25, which is usually our wedding gift for people, Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover); we already had chipped in on a shower gift ($12); and David was in the wedding, so we were buying the tux already.

I decided to make them a cookbook, full of my favorite recipes. I wasn’t thinking it would end up costing me only $5, but that was a pleasant surprise! I realize not everyone is like me and just has the supplies ‘lying’ around – so I’ll also put the estimated price of what you would spend if you were making this yourself. So it wasn’t only that I wanted a reasonably priced wedding gift, I also wanted something thoughtful, and thought she might enjoy some recipes.

Supplies Needed:
4×6 Photo Album – $1-$5 – I spent $5 on mine at Big Lots, it holds 200 4×6 photos. I knew I couldn’t fill the whole thing, but I wanted it to be the right size that she could add other recipe cards she receives.
Double Sided Tape – $3 - I already had this, so no money spent
Scrapbook Paper - $5-$10 – I already had a large pack, the cheapest is to buy it all in a pack or pad- and I got the 12×12 instead, so I got 4 ‘pages’ out of each. I cut all my paper down to save to make more cookbooks like this.
Computer/Printer – I typed up nearly 50 recipes (including some basic homemade cleaners) in Word, then printed them (about 14 pages). I saved the document to be able to do this again for someone else.

Step by Step
1. I spent days typing out the recipes. I went through all my favorite recipe books and typed them up (I almost wanted to make one for myself, since it’s so handy to have my favorites in one place!). I tried to only put things I had made, but that was only about 30 recipes, so I added a few more from my mom and grandma, that I had tasted, but never eaten. I also tried to offer a few “meatless” meals and recipes that called for “whole” ingredients (ie no Bisquick or cake mixes), so recipes I would actually make.

In the document, I set up a “table” that had 1 column and 50 rows, and was a fixed size of 3.5 x 5.5 so I knew the recipes would fit in the album.

2. Then I used the cutting machine at work and cut down the 12×12 paper to be 3.75×5.75 ( a little room to be sure to fit). I cut up all the stack of paper I had, so I can use them for more recipe books.

3. Then I printed out ‘labels’ or categories (in this case: Cereals/Breads, Easy Dinners, Side Dishes, Baking: Cookies, Cakes, etc. and Misc.).

4. Then I went to work cutting out the recipes and affixing them to the scrapbook paper (I actually did this in the car on the way home to Pekin).

5. Then I organized them by category, inserted them in the book and viola! It was finished!