This year, Teacher’s Appreciation week starts on May 6th. Normally, I have this week on my calendar and budget for one nice gift for all of the teachers in the daycare. This saves money and helps in finding affordable Teacher’s Appreciation gifts. This year, the school has specifically requested that the teachers receive a different gift each day to go with the theme they’ve chosen.

I’m a pretty frugal mom. I would say we budget for $80-$100 for total gifts. Considering how much the teachers do, I don’t think it’s too much to spend. I was a little concerned about providing a gift each day, until I saw the structure. Below, I will provide a breakout of each day, my planned purchases, and total cost for the entire week.

TIP: Don’t forget the people who help your child at school who may not be teachers. Cafeteria workers, counselors, security…they also teach your children life lessons. If you can, even it’s its as simple as a kind word, make sure to acknowledge them.

Affordable Teacher’s Appreciation Gifts (Campfire Theme)

Monday

The school is providing cute templates at the front desk that we can write notes on for each teacher. We can write as many as we want all the way up until Monday. Cost: $0.

You can print out templates like these, and write your own notes at home. They could have song lyrics, bible verses, or just words of endearment. You or your child could decorate a shoebox or get a container from the Dollar Tree to place them in.

Tuesday

It gets a little tricky here, because our kids have multiple teachers. So how do I find an affordable Teacher’s Appreciation gift that looks like a survival kit? Again, huge fan of the Dollar Tree. You will definitely find a container of some sort there. Pack in toiletries. Think about things you wish you had at work. Gum, mini floss or those Wisps toothbrushes, chapstick, small tissues, Tylenol, mini or roll-on perfume. Add some tissue paper and a survival kit printout to stick on top and you’re in business. Cost: 1 Container, Tissue Paper, 6-8 items per container : $12-$13/box.

If you don’t have this whole week of gifts hanging over your head, you could add a few more toiletries and maybe a protein bar. If you only have one teacher, you could even spring for a gift card as well.

Wednesday

I LOVE to cook. Doing it smack in the middle of a work week doesn’t sound so great for my schedule. Potlucks are always hard because you either have to decide between a hot dish that involves leaving a dish, like a crockpot or something cold. There always dessert too.

I’m deciding between a couple of things. I happen to be in vacation that day, so I can be a bit more flexible. My number one pick is deviled eggs.

Deviled eggs are super cheap to make and easy to store. If there isn’t going to be a fridge, you can put them in a cooler bag with an ice pack. Wal-Mart has deviled egg carriers for about $6. Cost: Eggs, Mustard, Seasonings, Piping bag, carrier: $15 (it feeds at least 20!)

Thursday

Campfire Stories was a hard one. Books are expensive and I wasn’t sure if we should get adult books or kid books. So, I actually reached out to my church. We pass out Life Books which are super cool mini summaries of the entire bible with these cool graphics and interesting questions written in. It’s like it was written to answer questions people normally have about the Bible.

I wanted to know where they ordered the books, but they offered to donate 15 books at no cost. I really hope that they are read and maybe I’ll get the chance to talk to some of the teachers about Jesus. It gently opens the door for the conversation to take place.

Friday

Friday is a tough one. Teacher’s have listed their favorite sweets outside of their door for us to purchase. I was hoping to just do one blanket dessert. I’d really love to make mini sweet potato pies, but that could get pricey. Instead, I’ll buy the clear cellophane bags and fill them with their favorite candy. I’ll then put the ribbon on it and make it curly. However, the cost of all that would basically be the same as the cost of making my Banana Pudding Recipe. Cost for supplies for either idea: candy, bags, ribbon for multiple teachers or banana pudding ingredients: $30. The banana pudding could easily feed 20 people.

Overall Cost

It’s much easier for me to cut costs when I’m in the store. As of now based on my ideas above, this week would cost us about $45, not including the survival kits. Knowing that they may be a little over $10/each and I have 5-6 teachers to include lets me know that I’ll be getting very close to my $100 limit. That means that I’ll start looking for small bulk items to make one big kit to leave at the front desk for all of the teachers. It might not be doable, but if I can find something it will make this gift much more affordable. This would mean I only need one larger container, one label, ribbon to make it cute, and of course the unknown items/gifts.

Hopefully, this was able to give you some affordable Teacher’s Appreciation gift ideas. What things have you tried without breaking the bank?