Little or No Money for Gifts, Ideas for Presents
I know some people have posted that they are tight on spending money for gifts this year, maybe these can help I found online….if you’ve already been to the Dollar store and nothing there looked good….


“1. Give the gift of your time.
If you are time rich but short of cash you might consider this gift idea....
you can give someone a gift card (like a gift voucher) stating inside that -
( you pick a skill you are good at and how much time you can spare)
For example...
My gift to you is that ....
I promise to spend two hours gardening for you.
or -
This gift to you is that -
I promise to wash the car five times for you.
You can buy a blank card or make up a card design on the computer. However if you are good at crafts a hand made card will make the gift more personal.


2. Look through your old photographs and where you have duplicates that you can spare put them together into a photo memory book for a gift. To do this well will take time but should not cost much money. You can include little 'snippets' such as poems or accounts of your memories of the events in the photos. This is a good idea for older family members who may say they do not want the usualthings we give as gifts.
If you do not have enough photographs to produce a personal photo book; make a collage of photos. If need be fill the gaps with pictures of something that suits the person.


3. Bake.
Biscuits are easy to bake and the ingredients may already be in the kitchen cupboard.
Find an easy to follow biscuit or cookie recipe and bake a batch for presents.
Wrap them up in a festive way - or put them into a pretty tin... if you have some ribbon in the house add a festive decorative bow. Add a gift tag that can be made from a cut down greetings card or a coloured piece of card slotted onto a ribbon or string.


4. Write.
Why not Write?
Write a poem or print out a poem; or piece of that prose writing you know the person the gift is for will like; and one that is available for you to use.
Use an attractive font or hand write it in a neat script.
Use an attractive paper or backing paper for the words.
Decorate it in some way if you think it requires it.
Put it in a frame, either one you no longer use or buy one cheaply from a charity shop.
The right words could be a 'priceless gift'.”

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Anybody else have ideas?

Great ideas. This year our family is doing an exchange instead of buying everyone.a gift. Since I do massage therapy, I bartered a massage for a handmade apron for my niece and got a cookbook. I hope she likes it.

quote Originally posted by WhiteDevil88: Great ideas. This year our family is doing an exchange instead of buying everyone.a gift. Since I do massage therapy, I bartered a massage for a handmade apron for my niece and got a cookbook. I hope she likes it.

and here I thought they took that section of CL down.

quote Originally posted by WhiteDevil88: Great ideas. This year our family is doing an exchange instead of buying everyone.a gift. Since I do massage therapy, I bartered a massage for a handmade apron for my niece and got a cookbook. I hope she likes it.

Cool idea.
My parents and siblings in my family recently began drawing names and get for only that person. Instead of each person getting one gift for everyone. But if there are little kids they usually still get something from everyone

[This message has been edited by 2.5 (edited 12-23-2010).]

Tho not zero cost, knitting or sewing could be a cheap way to nice 'personal' gifts.

One more day

We are all old, the family is fairly far flung and very extended now, so those in the immediate family have got into doing the "mean Santa" thing for the adults. Each person brings one wrapped gift and puts it in the pile with the others. We all draw a number. # 1 selects a gift and unwraps it. #2 selects a gift, OR instead of unwrapping a gift, "steals" the gift that #1 unwrapped. #3 then does the same, with the same option, till all the gifts are gone. (#1 reserves the right at the end, to "steal" any gift from any of the others.)

The trick, is to either draw the #1, which allows you to see all the gifts and steal whatever you want at the end, or draw a higher number and hope #1 doesn't take your gift. We put a $ limit on the gifts, or you can make one.

Some years, we insist it be a "gag" gift.

I also like the idea of making things.
One year, I built each of my sisters, a fireplace kindling box out of scraps from the old outhouse that was on our property, mostly from the door. I adorned one, with farm type stuff I found (an old spur, a John Deer emblem, a stirrup from an old saddle, etc) and since the other sister loves her Dodge, I decorated it with some old Dodge parts, like a horn button, a Ram hood emblem). I filled each, with chips from the same huge pine knot our mother had built fires with when we were young, which we, as kids had gathered and piled for her, and some slivered oak kindling. the outhouse was at what we called the white house, a small 1 bedroom woodframe house my mother stayed in when she came to the country place. I put a note inside explaining where the wood came from "Not everyone can say they have a box made from the outhouse door of the White House".

They cost me nothing to build but a little time.

Kind of late, but building things like bird houses or feeders are cool for people that like outdoors. Ive also done the 'do a project ' for someone. I put up mirror tiles on a whole wall in my moms living room once for a present.

quote Originally posted by maryjane: We are all old, the family is fairly far flung and very extended now, so those in the immediate family have got into doing the "mean Santa" thing for the adults. Each person brings one wrapped gift and puts it in the pile with the others. We all draw a number. # 1 selects a gift and unwraps it. #2 selects a gift, OR instead of unwrapping a gift, "steals" the gift that #1 unwrapped. #3 then does the same, with the same option, till all the gifts are gone. (#1 reserves the right at the end, to "steal" any gift from any of the others.)

We call that 'white elephant' in these parts. Did that at the office a few years.

We call the one where you give stupid or gag gifts a White Elephant Christmas. The last time, I really really hoped someone would steal the used toilet seat I unwrapped--no such luck.