Offer a free Christmas gift this year, such as a night of free babysitting, a day of house cleaning, an afternoon tutoring a child or adult, or even just spending time with a shut-in person who is unable to get out. The recipient will thank you for your thoughtful gift.
By Ron from Cortez, CO
I have 2 kids (grandparents), 6 grandchildren (all grown), and 18 great grandchildren (oldest ones are 6 years)! What do I do at Christmas when I live on low income Social Security?
The best gift you can give is yourself. You may record stories of your youth, memories of them when they were young, or stories about people who have passed away. They would also appreciate old photographs or treasured recipes. As the saying goes, they need your presence, not your presents!
How about searching through all your family photos and giving your children a nice inexpensive photo book, one enlarged and framed special photo of them or even just an envelope full of their childhood photos?
You may or may not want to write out a special memory to go with one or more of the photos too!
These memories are gifts that only you can give!
I just came back from my weekly thrift store run and found small ceramic flower pots, already painted for 40 cents each. I am adding a envelope (downloaded from Alenka's printables) of seeds from my garden and a candy cane. I will give these as a small gift for office co-workers, since I am known as mother nature--this fits perfect with everyone's thoughts of me.
I have a friend that I met online and we've been emailing back and forth for almost two years now. I wanted to send her a little something for Christmas, but don't have a lot of money to spend. Any ideas?
Because this is someone you know online, why not take excerpts from the emails you have been sending back and forth. Find the passages that mean the most to you and put them together in a "friendship" book to say "You mean a lot to me" and thank her for her friendship.
In two years I'm sure you have impacted each others lives. Let her know when and how this happened.
Just an idea,
Susan
I love Susan's idea! Just a thought also - by now you two have worn out at least 1 mousepad - how about sending one with a picture or saying that would mean something special to her or both of you?
Roxsie
I send one of my very close on line friend, that I also met 2 years ago from CA, a box of my homemade Christmas cookies every year. She looks forward to them as they are ones she doesn't make. It's a way of sharing part of my traditional Christmas with her every year.
I always have canning jars around. At Christmas, I fill some with assorted Christmas colored candy; those star brite mints, gold and silver foil wrapped candies, etc.
One way to make a great Christmas gift is to take pictures of the children in the family unbeknownst to the family. This is tricky, and then make a photo album.
I am already thinking about Christmas. I know it's early, but with my budget I need to plan ahead! My whole family buys for each other, even though I have suggested many times to maybe draw names, but this never seems to go over well.
I often choose one thing/theme each year. This year, I'm making personalized Xmas ornaments for people in my family. A couple of years ago it was knitted scarves
What is the best gift you've received that was not expensive?
Some of my favorites are:
A book of poetry by my adult daughter.
A picture of me drawn by my younger daughter.
I buy teacups for decorative jars {with lids} at a thrift shop and decorate them. I hot glue ribbon and bows on the jars and bows on the handle of the teacup. I then fill with tea bags, cinnamon sticks etc for the tea cup and cocoa for cafe mocha in the jars. You can adjust these to the tastes of the gift receiver. They average about 1-3 dollars a piece and people love them! - Lisa
To give of your time to someone that needs it. Be it a job to be done or to listen to someone.
I find it challenging to give all the gifts I'd like to without exploding my budget. For many friends and their children, I have a $5 budget. I feel like this can work when 1: the gift is thoughtful and original and 2: the gift is well wrapped and comes off looking more expensive.
Large and multigenerational families can make gift giving at Christmas quite expensive. This is a page about thrifty Christmas gifts for a large family.
Many of us frugal folks know that when we don't have money to spend on gifts, we sometimes choose to give people "coupons" for things like babysitting, cooking, mowing the lawn and other useful chores or activities.
Purchase a glass shaker jar. I found one at the dollar store. In a bowl, mix one tablespoon of cinnamon with a half cup of sugar. This will give you enough to fill about two or three jars.