ALERT: Frugal Coast2Coast is TONIGHT
My fantastic co-host Lynnae and I decided that the evening of Memorial Day was probably NOT the most fantastic time for a show, so entirely without warning we rescheduled it for tonight, Tuesday, May 26th.
So please tune in tonight at the regularly scheduled time of 8:30pm EST. We will be discussing end of year gifts. Next week we will be at our regularly scheduled day (Monday).
Teachers are wonderful people. I think that the ladies and gentlemen we have in my local school system are phenomenal teachers. I also think that teaching is an incredibly important avocation-teachers quite literally are responsible for molding and shaping the future of this country by educating our children. I think it is a shame that their salaries do not reflect the importance of what they do.
I appreciate teachers, I really really do. All that being said, I think that end of year gifts for teachers and other folks in the school system have gotten completely out of control.
You know, each of my kids have a teacher and 2 aides in their classrooms. Well, ok, not all at the same time, but there are 3 teachers that interact with them daily. Then there are 2 Gym teachers, the Art teacher, the Music teacher and of course the bus driver. If each child gave each one of these folks who touch their lives every day a gift, that would be 16 gifts.
It wouldn’t take any effort at all to buy a small token gift and a card that added up to $10. . . if you did that for each person it would bring the grand total for end of year gifts to $160.
That’s a fairly drastic example, but even if I doubled up and gave a “from the family” gift to the ones they share (gym, art, music & bus) and dropped the price per gift/card to $5 that would still be 11 gifts and $55.
So what to do? Can you opt out completely? Do certain teachers “deserve” a gift more than others? Will how you treat these folks reflect on your kids next year?
Tonight we will be discussing all these things and more on the show (don’t worry if you read this later in the week-you can listen to it on demand). Here is a quick preview of my feelings.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but those words are worth a lot too (and they cost you nothing but time)! I think that a real, heartfelt note is worth a lot to an overworked, underpaid, unappreciated teacher. Not just a platitude filled “thanks for all you do” but a true note, with details. I know in particular that Buddy’s kindergarten teacher has been working hard both with him and with me to help him in school. He is extremely intelligent but has a hard time keeping still-she has gone above and beyond to understand him and to try to keep him engaged this year. I think a letter telling her I recognize that fact and appreciate it would really be much more worthwhile than a coffee mug!
Home baked goodies are always appreciated-and can be frugal as well. Most teachers are busy folks-who knows how many of them actually have time to bake themselves anything. Food doesn’t clutter up their homes, and can be shared with their family. As a bonus, you can usually make a big batch and then split it up into smaller portions to give to all of those 16 special folks-lots of gifts in one fell swoop. That’s being thrifty with your time as well as your money.
So what are your feelings about end of year gifts? Do you have any great inexpensive ideas you use?
No kids in school any longer, but I usually baked for them. I loved it when some enterprising parent volunteered to collect funds and present a gift card on behalf of the class … and I still baked something! I sent the recipe, and freezing instructions! I love having home-baked goodies ready to heat & serve, don't you?
I am a crafter by nature-so it’s pretty much uaranteed that they’re getting something handmade! My mom recently gave my a bunch of co-ordinating stationary, and since I make my own cards, I divided it in three (for my sons MAIN 2 teachers plus the principal),bundled it all up with a pretty ribbon and that was that. For the office ladies, (that truly care and help SO much) the bus driver, and others, I wrapped a pretty scrapbook patterned paper around a candy bar, tied a pretty ribbon around it with a small heartfelt card/tag, and that was that! The presentation was key-and I spent $5 TOTAL! We were creative, and that was key!
My kids go to a private school. We are lucky in that the school pays its teachers very close to par with the public school salaries. The down side, it there is an extremely minimal retirement fund.
Because of the lack of retirement fund, the parents contribute to a fund at the end of the year. The class teacher gets half of the contributions, the aide and specialty teachers (PE, Music, etc) split the other half. We give it in a lump sum at the end of the year, and the teachers put it in their IRA. This system seems to work well for everyone. The teachers do not get something they can not use, the donations are what ever the family chooses to contribute, and we do not have to pay thousands more per year to fund a retirement program.
I’m a primary teacher and one of the sweetest gifts I ever received was a small, pretty bowl (thrifted?) filled with fresh strawberries my student and his mom had picked themselves. Delicious, summery, I could share with my family or in the staffroom, and I never had to dust it!
Leslie in Canada
Hi, great topic. I love all the great ideas i’m reading. I enjoy cooking but I know of a lot of teachers who end up throwing baked goods away because they don’t trust students. Just a thought. I don’t think all teachers would do this just some. But I don’t blame them. For this reason I think a craft would be safer.
As I teacher, while I appreciate the sentiment- DO NOT send in baked goods. Just like everyone else, we watch our weight, have food allergies and cannot always know the cleanliness of your kitchen. So unfortunately, we often just throw them away. Teachers do not want another mug, lotion, soap, candle or other knick knack. I could open a gift store. Gift cards to Target, Staples, a mall or other place that we can use to buy things for our classrooms and students. Ask any teacher confidentially and he/she will tell you the same thing. My personal favorite is a letter from the parents and the child telling me how much they appreciate all of my hard work.
My mom was a teacher for 39 years, and we always saw the multitude of gifts she’d bring home (mostly cheesy). I agree that a heartfelt note goes a long way and that baked goods are frugal ideas that can be enjoyed by the teacher and his or her family. You have no idea how many soap dispensers, coffee mugs and tchotchkes pile up around a teacher’s home!