If you have an expectant Mom on your gift list, you surely want to honor her and her new baby with a gift that expresses your best wishes, love and care. However, this economy has all of us strapped, struggling to make ends meet, with not much leeway in our budgets. Here we’ve got an answer that fulfills all of your objectives, while also being an economical solution. A baby gift basket can be good-looking, filled with helpful items that, while reasonably priced, Mom may not have or have thought to purchase herself. A nicely decorated basket can become a keepsake with a practical use in the nursery too. Here are several ideas to get you started.

You can key off that info with a color-themed basket, if Mom knows whether she’s expecting a boy or girl. Start with a basket in pink or blue shades. You might also consider framing a series of small pictures from a cheap story book to add some visual interest and activity to baby’s room. You can also weave lengths of ribbon around the edges of the basket, using a yarn needle to pull the ribbon through the basket weave. The same goes for baby tee-shirts, which Mom can never have enough of and which are outgrown in a month. Crafts stores are full of cute, decorative items, such as strings of hearts, little faux birdies, dried flowers and baby bracelet alphabet strings you can fix on the basket with a glue gun. Mom will love you for your thoughtfulness. So now you have lots of ideas on how to fill and beautify a baby gift basket on a shoestring.

Pick a neutral beige shade of basket, if she doesn’t know the gender of her baby. Practical nursery items, such as diaper rash ointment, baby shampoo and oil are inexpensive sufficient – unless you’re the Mom buying them every couple of weeks! Lining your baby gift basket with fabric or cloth adds a nice touch. A mobile is another good choice, hung above the crib or changing table. Baby stores are replete with stuffed animals, a favorite with any child. You’ll want to decide on the contents of your basket, so you can procure the right size and shape. Get online and Google ‘baby coupons’. Now for the contents. Those tiny story books, made of thick cardboard-faced, glossy, easy-wipe pages, with simple illustrations offer some amusement for baby at meal time. You can spend a couple of hours that Mom isn’t likely to have, gathering up coupons for baby products, from food to baby care products.

Yet another wonderful adding to your baby gift basket is an envelope full of coupons. This also helps expand a baby’s depth perception, once they reach the age of focusing their eyes. When you go shopping at the grocery, go down the aisle of baby food and gather more valuable coupons. Packs of baby washcloths are another positive goodie to put in your baby gift basket. You’ll doubtless come up with lots more ideas as you go browsing the baby aisles. Teething rings are available in lots of colors and cute designs. Another virtue of the baby gift basket is that it’s a lot of fun for you to put together!

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