DIY Gift Idea: Yummy Stuff in Trendy Glass Jars
Forgive me frugalistas, but I’ve only recently discovered the retro trend that I call YSIJ – Yummy Stuff in Jars. A friend of ours recently provided homemade passionfruit butter in classic Ball glass jar, which was awesome. Another friend gave us this cookie mix from Williams-Sonoma, which they sell for $19.95:
Upon closer inspection, it’s a Weck jar, which you can buy for under $4 at Crate and Barrel. Aren’t they sexy?
So for a nice DIY gift for well under $10, simply find/create/steal an awesome cookie or brownie recipe and leave out the butter and eggs. Layer the remaining dry ingredients all pretty-like in the jar, stick a nice rustic-looking label on it, add a bow from extra fabric, and you’re done. You don’t even need wrapping paper. Make them in bulk.
You could also bake something that keeps for a while and put it inside – candied nuts, toffee, trail mix, etc. Or cook something like grandma’s marinara sauce. Or actually preserve something, which I have never tried beyond some easy pickles. After they ingest your gift of love via food, they’re still left with a cool reusable jar.
p.s. These glass bottles with stoppers look like great gift ideas too, even better if you can add a homemade drink to put inside.
(End Martha Stewart Hipster mode.)
By Jonathan Ping | Frugal Living, Simple Living | 12/13/12, 12:46am
December 13th, 2012 at 1:26 am
This a great idea for most people, Jonathan. Unfortunately for me, I’m hopeless at making yummy stuff, which is why I outsource all of my yummy-stuff-making to other people. XD
December 13th, 2012 at 5:21 am
(End Martha Stewart Hipster mode.) LOL!
December 13th, 2012 at 5:24 am
I love the jar trend:). Another place that has great jars for good prices are IKEA, Marshall’s/Ross/TJ Maxx.
Also, we clean out our salsa/spaghetti/other food jars and reuse them! My husband’s pickle jars have a cute little cartoon on the top of a girl–it really adds to the gift.
December 13th, 2012 at 7:10 am
@Andrew – It’s not as hard as you think, baking is more like chemistry than cooking
Sugar, carbs, chocolate, how can it not be yummy?
@Christine –
@Amanda – Good tips, I also like the extra-large Classico spaghetti sauce jars from the bulk pack at Costco. How do you do the custom jar lids?
December 13th, 2012 at 7:32 am
What, no finished product from the author showing just how easily this can be done?
December 13th, 2012 at 7:39 am
That is actually what i am doing for christmas gifts for the office this year.
I am not doing the layers since I can never get it to look great.
I’m not sure if people actually use it since i saw the same jar i gave to a co-worker still sitting at her desk a year later!
December 13th, 2012 at 7:41 am
Nope, but here’s enough pictures and ideas to last a loooong time:
http://pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=food+in+jars
December 13th, 2012 at 12:31 pm
My wife is doing all of our holiday gift giving from Pinterest, partially because it’s less expensive to hand craft and also because it’s cuter. I have no hand in this but it looks like I spent a lot of time making gifts. Works out well for both of us!
December 13th, 2012 at 4:54 pm
This is a great idea! I will be doing it next year. Last year my girlfriend and I did Limoncello at home; it took over 60 days to make but it was well worth it!
http://fefesfix.com/2012/11/homemade-limoncello/
P.S. I sent you an email through your site and never heard back. Did you get it?
December 14th, 2012 at 8:25 am
One very similar idea that I’m doing this year – buying some smaller glass jars, some vodka and vanilla beans to make liquid vanilla as a gift.
It’s even easier – no baking required!
December 15th, 2012 at 2:11 pm
Mmm… limoncello and vanilla vodka. Makes me want to make adult eggnog.
@Andres – No, I don’t think I got your e-mail.
December 18th, 2012 at 12:23 pm
I did something like this for our holiday party this year. As parting gifts, we layered hot chocolate under marshmallows and put it in a Ball 12-oz jar. We then used ribbon I had around the house to tie on a mini bottle of Irish creme liquor and now you have a fun and easy parting gift! Walmart sold the Ball jars (not as cute as you could find elsewhere, but cheap) for $1.35 each. The cost came to be around $3.25 per jar. It was great! (totally took this idea from Pinterest!)