Creative ways to give cash

[mommyto2]

We hate to give cash to our teenage niece and nephews for Christmas, but it is what they're asking for since they don't have jobs. What creative way have you given cash as gifts? I've done a tootsie roll bank filled with singles, a Christmas mini tree decorated with dollars, and I've also adorned a jewelry holder with dollars. I'm all out of ideas. I'd just like to do something more fun than just opening up an envelope with money.

 

[JohnZ46]

Google "money origami". You'll find some fun things that you can make by folding money.

For example, you could fold a bill into a ring put it in a ring box.

 

[ncmickeyluvr]

When I was in high school, my boyfriend's father used to get several thousand brand new $1.00 bills to give away at Christmas. I think he had to special request them from his bank. He loved the idea of his children ( who he complained were spoiled but he was the one giving them thousands of dollars worth of stuff for Christmas ) trying to buy things with a big stack of brand new bills. They had to be new so that they would stick together and be difficult to count. He was a weird guy but I liked him because he gave me a stack too .

 

[TheRustyScupper]

1) We have done the dollar-bill thing listed by ncmickeyluvr
. . . ordered singles from the bank two weeks ahead of time
. . . put 15,000 into each big box
. . . gave one box to each daughter
2) We have also done
. . . gift cards
. . . checks
. . . store gift certificates
3) This year for cash, we have decided to do a scavenger hunt
. . . we have ordered several American Express gift cards
. . . we are giving each child and grandchild their own clues
. . . if they stumble onto someone else's envelope, they can't touch it

 

[JohnZ46]

Google "money origami". You'll find some fun things that you can make by folding money.

For example, you could fold a bill into a ring put it in a ring box.

 

[dyna]

For my brother's birthday my uncle once cracked English walnuts in half took out the walnut meat folded dollar bills( of course any bill can be used) glued the walnut shells back together. This was also the year brother learned not to give anything away till he knew what he had.....Brother was disappointed to only get a couple of handfuls of walnuts for birthday so he gave most of them away in doing so gave away his money.
Not all the walnuts had money in them some was still full of walnut meat.

 

[buzz5985]

We had one of the Balloon Time Helium tanks and put the money in balloons, along with confetti etc. They were just floating around the house with the kids hames on the balloon. But they weren't allowed to break them at my house - had to be done at home. LOL DSIL wasn't happy!!!

Or I have seen money tree's made. Dollar bills fanned to look like leaves ont he tree and quarters around the base of the tree.

Have fun with it.

 

[Colinsmom]

Put it in a ziploc bag and freeze into a block of ice (use a breadpan or similar) - it's a gift of "cold, hard cash".

 

[Maggie'sMom]

We hate to give cash to our teenage niece and nephews for Christmas, but it is what they're asking for since they don't have jobs. What creative way have you given cash as gifts? I've done a tootsie roll bank filled with singles, a Christmas mini tree decorated with dollars, and I've also adorned a jewelry holder with dollars. I'm all out of ideas. I'd just like to do something more fun than just opening up an envelope with money.

A few years ago I was told by my SIL that I should give my nephew cash for Christmas. I had been planning to get him a Best Buy gift card and was a little taken aback by the demand. My SIL isn't the most tactful person and the way she worded it came across as a demand rather than a request. After I got over the shock of it, I decided to have a little fun with it. I generally spend about $25 on my nieces and nephews. So I put together $25 in denominations ranging from a dime to a $5 bill and individually wrapped them. I had one big box, wrapped, filled with smaller wrapped boxes. And some of the smaller wrapped boxes had more wrapped boxes inside of them. I loved the confused look on my nephew's face when he unwrapped the first small box and found a quarter. But he started laughing as he realized each box held some money. The only drawback was the time it took to wrap all that.

 

[blackforest]

Unroll a roll of toilet paper and roll back up with the ones inside!

 

[LSchrow]

Unroll a roll of toilet paper and roll back up with the ones inside!

i've done that one - a lot of work, but fun
also, a treasure chest filled with jewels and gold dollars.
the multibox.
big box filled with crumpled newspaer pieces, cut into the size of a dollar bill, along with 50 crumpled real bills.
one of those boxes that they have to solve a maze to open the box.
in photo frames, or clipped into a clip frame.
inside a cd case (keeps them guessing until unwrapped).

every year it's something different, and the kids love it!

 

[4HppyCamprs]

DH's Aunt and Uncle would do rolled bills in a box for G-Grandpa. It was fun

 

[V4dice]

One year we gave all the nieces and nephews money in plastic money maze games. (You need to get the marble through the maze to get the money out). They all had a blast racing to see who could get to their gift first. The mazes range in price quite a bit (usually around $10) and I usually wouldn't spend money just to give a money gift but it was worth it since they had so much fun and still talk about that gift.

 

[Green Tea]

Put it in a ziploc bag and freeze into a block of ice (use a breadpan or similar) - it's a gift of "cold, hard cash".

That's cute!

 

[BillSears]

One year I got cash in what looked like a coupon/check book. The bills had been pasted into the spine of the book. It was cool to detach a bill as needed.

 

[Petals & Pixie Dust]

I put money through out a loaf of bread for DH one year when the only thing on his list was money...I wanted to giv ehim 'dough'...Warning-the dollar bills get soggy b.c they absorb the moisture from the bread...

 

[stich1fan]

one year we did a gift card hunt....wehung clues on the tree that looked like paper ornaments and hid them in the room where the tree and gift opening was.

 

[libinatorsmom]

Get a Big Balloon... Roll the $$$ into the Balloon - you can also have a florsit do this and they can insert other items too.. its so cool and a HUGE conversation piece.. I like to use $1's because it can really fill up the balloon...

 

[mickey grandmom]

When my DS graduated from high school I bought a very cheap dress shirt. Then I made a bow tie out of 100.00 dollar bills and put on the shirt collar. When he saw the shirt box I could see he was disappointed;but he was all smiles when he saw his expensive bow tie.

 

[mommyto2]

Wow! There are so many great ideas here! I will DEFINITELY be borrowing a few of them!