In my quest for a frugal Christmas, I thought I'd share some inexpensive Christmas gifts that I've given over the years.
A home manual
When one of my college roommates moved into her first apartment, I put together an instruction manual for her on how to live on her own. It was basically a binder in which I put favorite recipes, cleaning checklists, shopping lists, money saving tips, and other assorted tips that I'd written. I decorated the front, and I taped a Bed, Bath and Beyond giftcard to the inside of the back cover. If I were doing this again, I might also include a coupon envelope and some other assorted knickknacks to help her get started. It was a very inexpensive Christmas gift for me because the only thing that cost was the giftcard, and I think I got that from a rewards program. It was really useful for her, though, and I think she still uses and adds to it herself.
A stress relief bag
A few Christmas ago, I put together a "stress relief" bag for my best friend for Christmas. It contained two boxes of herbal tea (from the grocey store, purchased for next to nothing), 50 cent marble notebooks in 3 different colors, a coloring book (from the clearance table at Borders) and 8 pack box of crayons, a small bottle of bubble bath and various little toys and balls. Most of the things in this bag, besides being useful, were appreciated because they had meaning for the two of us rather than because of how much they cost.
A love journal
The year my husband and I were engaged, I gave him a journal in which I'd written to him every day for several months. I had also glued in things like the stubs from movies we'd seen and pictures of what we'd done. He still keeps it next to his bed.
Pleas share any ideas you may have for inexpensive Christmas gifts which are also extremely meaningful.
You touched on this in your post already (which was excellent!), but doing something sentimental or especially useful to the person goes a long way.
ReplyDeleteI helped a friend get prints of her parent's wedding slides for them for theh holiday, and I'm working on a little scrapbook of a trip I took with my grandmother.
That stuff is so often well received, and worth keeping around for awhile.
(keep up the good work on the blog!)
--Kate