I know you’ve been there. Thinking of allllll the things you want to get all your girlfriends for Christmas, then adding up the numbers in your head and realizing the $5,000 worth of things you just neeeed to get them doesn’t fit your $100 for all 15 of them.

This year, I have built an incredible bond with so many girls that I work with that I wanted to be able to get them all something to let them know how much I love all of them and wish them a Merry Christmas and the BEST new year. Knowing that I didn’t have a lot of cash to spend on them (since I was too busy buying too much for Lola, Mell’s daughter!) I knew I had to get creative.

I decided that I wanted to do something beauty-related…since that’s what I’m good at! I decided to find a few good holiday sets that would be easy to gift seperately to save money and still get them something special I knew they would like.

The 3 sets I decided on were the Tarte Fantastic Foursome ($28 w/ VIB sale), the Buxom Time to Shine ($24 w/ VIB sale), and the Smashbox Studio Pop for Lips ($19 on sale) set. I knew that within these sets, I would be able to expertly match all my friends to something they would like.

Long story short, I went to the Dollar Tree, found take out chinese boxes that were white that came 3 for $1 and picked up 5 sets! (Total of $5) To fill these, I picked up some tinsel for $1 and some tissue paper for $1. I already had some ribbon at home to wrap them up all nice and pretty! Since I wanted to get them each a special gift, I needed gift tags, which I ALSO found at the Dollar Tree….I’m telling you, that place is a GOLD MINE for gift-giving.

To complete the gifts, I added my favorite chocoalte candy, Hershey’s Nuggets (2 bags for $6) and in some, I added a little Yankee Candle that I had just sitting around from a recent sale.

Below is a gift that Stephanie (the sweetest girl in the WORLD) put on Twitter. She captured the gift beautifly and they all loved their special little presents. :)

I don’t know if you were adding this up, but for 15 people, the total cost for what I had to immediately purchase was $83…or just $5.50 per girl. And I even got to keep a lip gloss for myself!

I hope this gives you guys some ideas. Be sure to comment and let me know if you tried this or tweet me pics of your inventive gift giving @theprettyplus!