Mother's day gifts don't have to be one item with a price tag big enough to convince mom you're not cheap and small enough to survive till your next pay check arrives. There's an entire category of other items that can be combined to gift a wonderful experience to your mom without declaring bankruptcy or Ebenezer Scrooge syndrome on Mother's day.

Not all Mother's day experiences are meant to be had at spas. For a woman who loves to cook and experiment with ingredients, the kitchen is actually where she'll have a good time and mother's day is when you should try and make it a great time.

For moms who love to cook and are dire food fans, the choice in mother's day gifts is huge. You can create an entire ensemble of food and cooking related items. Combine things that your mom can enjoy immediately and things that she can experiment with later on.

Go online and look for a cook book. A lot of famous names in cuisine have special addition cookbooks published. Try and find one of them or try to finding a cookbook that features the top recipes by your mom's favorite chef. Just remember that this is only a gift you can give to someone who loves to cook. If your mom or your wife don't enjoy spending a lot of time in the kitchen, giving them a cook book isn't going to say anything other than 'you're a bad cook'. Remember that this is a fairly low priced gift so you still need to complement it with something in order to create a food themed gift.

Remember to give a gift that can be enjoyed immediately like mothers day fruit baskets that are filled with food or fruit bouquets. The good thing about gifts like this is that even if your mother or wife isn't a fan of cooking she'll still enjoy eating her way through a nice fruit bouquet. (Don't tell her to share it with you; she'll share if she wants to). As opposed to people who enjoy cooking, the number of people who like to eat is far greater so a fruit bouquet or a nice mothers day fruit basket will sit well with any woman, whether she's your mom, your wife or your grandma.

With all this talk of food, culinary related gifts and special experiences, it's only obvious that a lot of people will consider taking their moms of wives out for a mother's day dinner which surprisingly isn't as great an idea as it seems. The gifts aren't supposed to drain your entire life's savings and after Valentines Day; mother's day is next in line for restaurants to cash in big time so you need to avoid dining out. The real mother's day meal is actually breakfast in bed that you help your kids make for the wife or that you sneak in early to make for your mom.

Even if that special woman you're going to honor isn't a fan of spending time, slaving over a hot stove, don't go for the easy-way-out gifts like flowers and/ or chocolate because it's mothers day, not valentines day or Hallmark appreciation week. A nice original food to share will work just as well if not better. When you think about it, the time long tradition of breakfast in bed is centered on food. You just need to find something original!

Many companies sell unique fruit bouquets and Mother's Day gift baskets, and they roll out new lines of their products for special occasions like mothers day. Try something different this year and buy a fruit bouquet for your mom. Fruit bouquets come with chocolate sauce.