Hi everyone! With the Holidays coming up and my budget currently being really tight, I'm in desperate need of some low budget gift ideas. I'm shopping for my boyfriend, my parents, and two sets of in-laws. I'm trying to sped as little as possible (ideally around $200 – $300 MAX for everyone combined) but I don't want gifts that come off as cheap or too homemade. Any suggestions are appreciated! TIA
Holiday Financial Stress – Low Budget Gifts?
byu/FaithlessnessFun6007 inFrugal
Posted by FaithlessnessFun6007
27 Comments
I’ve never had anyone turn up their nose at cookies or candied nuts
Group experiences for the parents and in-laws: cooking/crafting/woodworking class for two, a tour or tour voucher if you know of any upcoming trips they are taking, etc.
Boyfriend if he cares about you can get homemade and like it. Who tf doesn’t like a homemade gift?
Some homemade bread or other treats! Brownies, a favorite snack, zucchini bread, banana bread, peanut butter blossoms, colorful sugar cookies, etc. I like to thrift some nice containers and those little seasonal ceramic bread pans to make the gift look nicer.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Anticonsumption/comments/z8pbz2/just_few_low_no_waste_ideas_for_gifts/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Anticonsumption/comments/z8pbz2/just_few_low_no_waste_ideas_for_gifts/)
Do you sew? Sew up a set of cloth napkins and make a baked good. Total cost… $50 max for the parents and in-laws sets. Then something for your boyfriend.
Buy a really nice version of a cheap thing instead of a cheap version of a pricey thing. Buying someone a 20 dollar pen/socks/box of chocolates/soap bar/whatever is going to feel a lot more luxurious than the temu version of something that normally cost 40
Spouse and my’s favorite holiday memories are of drawing a scrabble tile, keeping it secret, and then getting $50 of gifts that start with that letter. We shopped used book stores (from libraries), thrift, buy nothing groups, and got lots of funny things.
Parents and in-laws do not need more stuff. All the stuff you get them will end up being yours to clean out when they die. They will appreciate your effort far more than the money you spend.
If they drink, get a small bottle of Port, if not, a collection of tea with a thrifted tea towel or soap/lotion with a washcloth. Any food gift you make that works for whatever their diet is will be prized. I’m giving mine dried herbs from my garden this summer.
Free coupons! You can get quite creative!
– House/Pet sitting
– Lawn mowing/raking
– Sober chauffeur for an evening out
– Baked Goods
– Cook a Favorite Meal/Personal Chef for a night
– Vacuum/Cleaning
– Airport ride
– Etc – so many ideas 💡 especially if you know what they don’t love doing.
I gift homemade pickles or pickled veggies and my friends love it!
Make something! People appreciate hand made gifts with thought behind them rather than a mass made piece of dust collecting crap from China.
I make small baskets of goodies for our immediate family and neighbors. For your parents and in-laws: If they like coffee or tea > Add a small bag (I know coffee is $7-8 a bag right now) to start. So, while coffee is expensive: the in-laws, parent basket will count as one combined gift.
– I make 3 recipes each season and add to the basket. Reindeer chow, Almond bark ritz cookies and Crockpot turtles. One recipe of each of those would make easily 3 baskets. I would say the ingredients for those would run around $100 or less if you hit the sales on Ritz crackers, cereal etc. Package them up in cute little decorative Christmas cellophane cookies bags etc.
– Presentation is key
– If you are not against thrifting, wicker baskets can be found cheaply and spraypainted. Other options for baskets are dollar tree, etc. Most of them are recyclable as well.
– Add tissue paper or a festive cloth dinner napkin and arrange the coffee, tea and goodie bags. I also like to include a small bag of starlight mints in red/white and green/white. Sometimes if holiday towels are on sale, I will add one.
– Tie a nice big bow with a cute hanging tag and call it done.
– Other ideas: IF there are food challenges: Universal remotes, nail clippers, Emory boards, movie tickets, wine, liquor, specialty beer, etc.
So if I’m understanding things, it’s a little less than $50 per person at your max. That’s actually not that hard…we have a $50 limit in our family so I do it every year. It helps to know what people like though.
Generally speaking for parents include wine or other spirits–there are some decent sales around Thanksgiving on this. I usually include a wine stopper, chocolates, or even glasses to go with this. Other ideas include candles, pictures/picture frames. I once got a personalized outdoor mat for family for around this price. Black Friday and Cyber Monday will have good deals for things like this with free shipping. I also love receiving ornaments…TJ Maxx has some really pretty glass ones eery year for under $10. If it’s for one or the other, there’s candles, face masks, bath bombs/salts, etc, blanket/throws, journals, books. Even board games or cards, etc could work for certain couples. Gift cards/certificates also work…you can get a $50 for the couple to a local restaurant (it doesn’t have to cover their whole bill), gas station gift cards used to be a big hit in my family, movie theater gift cards (these go on sale), manicure gift cards for the mom’s, etc. If any of these sound interesting, I can give you ideas of where might have some of the better sales.
For your BF, I’d just tell him money is tight and ask him what he wants. Most of the men in my family want basic sweatshirts, socks, boxers, soap… comfy things that you can get at good prices. I’ve purchased Hanes hoodies from Amazon for under $15 multiple years in a row for different people. If he drinks, bourbon, local craft beers, etc. If he’s a gamer, maybe a steam gift card or a GC for whatever platform he uses.
Personally I like to make something as well, but that’s always icing on the cake of the gift, not the gift itself…no shame to those who bake or only make things, it’s just not how we do gifts in my house. Because of that, I’ve gotten really good over the years at shopping the sales or off price to stretch $ to get the most out of the limit as possible, especially since we have a range of tastes.
The best “gift” our family has done is to agree not to buy each other gifts for the typical gift occasions (winter holiday, birthday, Valentine’s Day, anniversary). SO much less stress. We gift things when we feel like it, not because of some calendar obligation.
Penzeys has lovely little gift boxes for seasonings and baking necessities (like cinnamon, sugars).
Food. Homemade bread, sweets, canned good.
Last year I made vanilla sugar cubes and put them in a jar with cinnamon sticks, drink infusion kits. I made a little instruction book. Less than$2 each and I had extra jars
I’m making sourdough puff pastry this year, and possibly a few pumpkin shaped sourdough loaves. The puf i can make a batch a week and freeze. Then I will have plenty to bake for each occasion. I have also been collecting seeds from my cosmos plants and will put them in little decorated envelopes.
If you don’t need gift receipts, consider secondhand. This is, of course, easiest when the person is easy to shop for.
For example, I have a friend I gift to. She’s getting novelty socks (retail), a political pin (antique fair, $2), and some adhesive nail polish from a former MLM consultant who just want to get rid of her stock (Facebook Marketplace, $5). All told, I’m spending about $25 on her and most of it “secondhand.”
So maybe the question to ask is not, “What are some cheap gift ideas,” but rather, “Here is what I would like to gift, how do I get those things cheaper?”
Custom gift baskets wrapped like store bought: coffee lover-nice mugs or thermos with small bags of exotic coffee, spa lover-nice bath salts and towels, pedicure set fm Amazon, outdoor adventure lover- cooling towel, wool hiking socks, bird or plant book, bug repellent, mini first aid kit, you get the idea
Can someone take you to Costco? I got a brand name pull-over there a few years ago and the gift recipient was concerned because he knew I didn’t have brand name money. But it was only $20!!
One of the biggest hits that I have done is making each one their favorite baked good or desert type gift. It was personal and from the heart. One year making everyone a custom hot cocoa bomb was the biggest hits. If they loved butterfingers, crushed butterfingers were added on the inside and also sprinkled on the top. White chocolate for the ones that loved white chocolate. Purchased the mugs from dollar tree and each mug was something that reflected that person. One of the other things was to create a basket for each containing their overall favorite movie, a blanket and their favorite snacks for them to have a chill night. We keep a shared note for everyone to update their favorites, share their favorite movies or tv shows, share their favorite memories…. You get the idea. This way anything gifted is always personal and not guessed or out of times. Purchasing the movies is easier if they still own a DVD player. The year I got my parents their favorite older movie “Cool Hand Luke” and did them a joint basket… you would have thought I had gifted them a million dollars. It created them an old fashioned, in home date night with their favorites. No negatively meant with the upcoming statement, women have a tendency to not purchase things for themselves no matter how small and men normally don’t remember the small things that they love. I believe this contributes to them enjoying these types of gifts so much.
Can you bake or at least follow a recipe? Spend $10 on some of those really nice holiday-themed treat containers and gift everyone a gourmet assortment of cookies, poundcakes, fruitcakes, etc. You can also put together things like hot chocolate or tea kits by just putting a fun themed mug and a little tin of hot chocolate or gourmet tea in a gift bag, maybe with a little spoon or coaster or something or make personal care kits with some mini hand creams, lip balms, face masks, etc that you can buy multipacks of and split into little gift bags. Mini cocktail kits are also good, just buy a few mini bottles and some mini mixers and put them into a gift bag with a little themed glass or something. Anything you can conceivably buy the materials for in bulk and then split them up into goodie bags is my go-to.
I love to put together hampers for everyone! I use thrifted baskets and tailor the contents to each person’s interests so it’s still thoughtful. You’ll just need a big roll of cello from Amazon to wrap them up, and a full reel of nice wide Christmas ribbon to tie the top and look more professional.
Things I’ve included before:
Their favourite candy
Vegan treats and snacks
Fluffy or fun socks
Books (can be thrifted if spine not cracked/obvious)
Cans of different craft beers
Pre-mixed cocktails with pretty glasses
Hot chocolate making kit with all the toppings
The possibilities are endless, and with lots of little things you’ve got to hope that at least a couple of the things will spark joy!
I like to get a consumable gift and pair it with something thrifted. Last year I got a variety of nice olive oil tasting samples and thrifted a dish for the dip. Then I went to the bakery and got baquettes.
I have realized that it’s best to give things that are consumable that people will actually use! Someone gave us nice chili oil last year. I have also made herbed salt in the past.
The best gifts come from careful observation.
Someone who knows me might see that I drink tea and get me an assortment of teas. I probably won’t use them.
Someone who knows me well knows my two favorite flavors of tea and will get me a little packet of those or something close and I will love them.
Be that person who finds out the favorite flavor and gets that. Putting in the work to discover the thing for each person is the tricky part.
Just an fyi today bath and body works is having a $5.95 total body care sale. All the shampoos, conditioners, body lotion and butters, body washes, skincare, deodorants and such are $5.95. You could do self care baskets for everyone. I just ordered enough to do gift baskets for my husband and 2 sons.
I make everyone a Tupperware of Nutella puppy chow. They look forward to it every year, and it has become my ‘thing’ because I do it every year. Its not complicated to make, but it is time consuming and tedious because of the dishes and tools. The gift ends up being the time and craft rather than the cost because all in it probably comes out to a cost of around $10 per person.
Last year I bought a $30 Woobles kit for each of my siblings and their spouses and everyone got a crocheted gift.
Fudge is SO inexpensive to make and easy to make, and you could make up a nice tin of a selection of flavors. Same for cookies, but imo fudge is cheaper and easier than cookies.
I know you said ‘without it looking homemade’ but homemade gifts are a treasure and can be done very inexpensively. Christmas is truly not about how much money we spend on each other. And there are many different ways to do this.