I prefer the small paper envelopes over plastic envelopes and you are right that you can pick up bundles of small (2"x2" or 2"x3") manilla packets at the office supply store. You can also by dessicating packets there for including in your packet storage system. Or you can make your own decorative seed packets and print them on the computer. There are several websites that offer free instructions on making them. Accordian files - the alphabetized ones - will work. Or you can purchase one of the solid plastic manilla file containers and a set of alpha divider cards and sort your individual packets into it. Keep it in a cool dry place. For less seeds, paper packets stored in Mason canning jars is good and they can be refrigerated or even frozen for longer storage. There is a FAQ here on general storing and a search using seed storage will pull up several previous discussions to review if you wish. Hope this helps. ;) Dave

The past three years my nephews were all given money for Christmas. The first year, I glued a stack of 50 brand new crisp $1 bills together to create a book out of them, just like what was mention above. The second year, I did the 2-liter bottle thing. I pit a slit in the plastic, crumpled up the money loosley then applied a new, personalized label when the original label would be to cover up the slit I made. To make it more difficult for them to open the bottle, I glued the cap on. Because the money was loosely crumpled, it took them a bit of thinking before they found out how I got the money in there in the first place. Now that I think of it, I should have done some sort of origami folding of the money so they would have really been scratching their heads. I finished off the bottle with curling ribbon around the neck Last year, my mom rolled the money up in toilet paper (still on the roll of course) then wrapped it in various boxes from around the house (Mac n' cheese, pop tarts, etc.) This year, I plan to do something different; different than I've done in the past and different for each nephew (5 of them). In the past, since they all got the cash in the same way, once one of them opened the gift containing the money, the rest of them were not as surprised. I have to say that the money pad was by far the biggest hit. My son didn't want to spend which I was happy he was saving it but on the other hand he didn't want to put it in the bank either. Oh well, at least he didn't spend it foolishly, right. Lastly, if you are going to gift money, plan ahead so you can get brand new crisp bills. If the bank does not have any/enough, I'm sure if you ask them to "order" you some they will do it. New, crisp bills makes for a better gift! For this year I am for sure going to do the cold hard cash and the umbrella ideas....now I just need to find 3 more and I'll be set!

I am about to change my system. I have a system I liked in which I had a special coupon-type holder for all my receipts, one for grocery coupons, and another for coupons for various department or clothing stores--and those huge BB&B coupons! I usually carried all that in my purse. One reason was because for awhile I was using 2 different vehicles (at different times) and it was very frustrating to go off and have left something in the other vehicle. Also I really needed to keep good track of my receipts and so I could put it directly in my purse receipt-wallet. Or hated to walk back out to my car from halfway through the grocery store. Plus I also use and old purse-organizer that belonged to my mom, for travel brush, tissue, pen and paper, etc, so I can transfer to another purse. But right now, I am almost always in the same vehicle. Plus, it's not just the weight--although, I was amazed at what just one or 2 more items like that seemed to add-- but I have found that it really takes a much larger purse than you might think to hold these various items without being "stuffed" and hard to wrangle out--so few purses have the right compartments for my stuff. I don't really like the individual slots for phone or pen. So I'm considering changing to a glove-compartment system and keep all these coupons/receipts there. Sure, I'll have to traipse back to my vehicle sometimes when I've walked into a store without my coupon, and I'll have to develop a new good habit of filing my receipt as soon as I get back in, but the tradeoff will be that my purse is less stuffed, and less heavy. I had a Healthy Back bag and did not find it felt less heavy. Plus my stuff tended to slosh around in it since it is not directly upright.

I have a basket, random books with random "inserts", and looseleaf broken cookbooks.... So years ago I decided that I had to start typing up the ones my mother wrote out on several pages of notepad, the shriveled clippings, etc. Then I started typing up anything I was actually going to be referring to during cooking, because I have too many zones in my kitchen and it's easier to move a paper than a book. And I started typing up the changes I'd made when they came out well. And the things I threw together that came out well (like my olive drab soup aka green sludge, which looks obnoxious but is really yummy). Here's the secret for the techies like Buehl (from another techie who hates drudgery): Toss the programs. My recipes are in Word. No fancy gizmos to make shopping lists, calorie counts, etc., but the typing is fast and easy. Makes it easy to e-mail them to friends, print them out, etc. And in the end they're still just paper recipes that are easier to read than my own horrid scrawl, or my mother's beautiful, but impossible to read, hand. Oh! Important to only do several at a sitting, and to have a conversation, TV show or other amusement, or the typing becomes pointless busiwork rather than a nice way to clear out yucky paper clutter that's disintegrating. Which puts the printouts back in the basket--but the real recipe storage is on the hard drive.