Christmas gifts for under $1
What kind of gift can you give an adult for under $1? Now that's a challenge! Meredith has some great ideas, and so do her readers. What can you think of?
$1 Christmas Gifts
- I think Meredith's idea was spectacularly classy: fresh pineapple from Aldi, adorned with a red ribbon and a printed history of the pineapple. Too bad we don't have Aldi in our area!
- Coffee mug from The Dollar Tree with a small bag of ingredients for Dangerous Chocolate Cake or this cocoa mix, along with the recipe and instructions. This is my idea. I want somebody to do this for me. I might just do it myself.
- Dover Thrift Edition of A Christmas Carol. One of Meredith's readers mentioned this, and I think it's a fabulous idea.
- A dollar lottery scratch off ticket. My brother has done this in the past for all of his nieces and nephews, and the kids loved it. One of mine won $10, another won $2. Even those who didn't win thought it was a fun gift.
- A small package of DeMets turtles for 99 cents at Walgreens. I've also seen enormous Hershey bars for 99 cents. Baked goods are nice too, but prepackaged ones like this will have a much better shelf life.
I love that each of these gifts is primarily consumable, though something truly useful would be a winner in my book too. When you're not spending much, it's too easy to buy a cheap bit of fluff just out of a sense of obligation, leaving the recipient with the uncomfortable decision of what to do with it.
What great gifts can you think of for less than a dollar?
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13 Responses to “Christmas gifts for under $1”
December 17th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
[...] would love to hear your ideas over at Frugal Hacks. No ideas? Go see what others have [...]
December 17th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
I just wrote about something I did with my daughter here.
December 17th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
Wal-Mart has very cute girl socks for $1 a pair. They had frogs, turtles, puppies, rainbows, etc. and oodles of colors.
December 17th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Thanks for the link!
We also did the XL Hershey’s Symphony bars for a group of 14 musicians. They were $1 each at Kroger last week.
My husband was ready to bring them in the plastic bag, but I got my hands on them first!
I knotted and dovetailed red velvet ribbon around each bar (huge roll from yard sale) then arranged them concentrically in a natural basket iwith excelsior.
It made an ordinary gift into a festive presentation.
If only I had the camera with me! Darn these early winter nights!
December 17th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
I pulled a Maria Von Trapp and cut up some drapes and sewed pillowcase sets tied up like a package with ribbons for our married relatives.
Cost: Free
I found several vintage nutcrackers in good shape at the flea market.
Cost: .50 cents
I save up Walgreen’s rollover and use coupons combined with easy saver instant coupons to get bath and body products for free from Walgreen’s and then put together Spa Stockings.
Cost: Free
December 18th, 2008 at 1:24 am
I made a ton of biscotti for my coffee-loving friends. I like the fact that since it’s already dried out, it keeps well. Thus, they can put it away until mid-January when all the Christmas cookies are consumed or stale, and it will still taste good!
December 18th, 2008 at 1:47 am
One year (8 or 9 years ago) our family gave each other gifts for $1 each. The children just drew pictures. DH made an ornament by covering a baby food jar with felt to make a Christmas scene. I made my baby girl a necklace out of yarn and wooden spools – each one hand decorated. We still have the ornament and the necklace.
December 18th, 2008 at 10:46 am
Being an avid couponer and Walgreener:) I have been getting makeup and chocolate for my female relatives for under a dollar (for the nice brands/types) for a few months. Another idea I used was to find like-new frames at thrift shops or on clearance for a dollar and frame artsy family photographs for certain relatives. I also quit buying the huge tubs of popcorn in the decorative tins for my dad but instead make several gallons of caramel popcorn homemade for him in the old tin for about $1! Another idea I’ve used before is to do plant starters in cute pots from thrift shops from my “spider” plants. Grandparents and friends have loved these:)
December 18th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
shopping at the dollar tree you can find a lot – i’ve purchase hand sanitizer, puzzle books, & reading material as gifts for this year alone.
oh and the pregnancy test i bought for a gag gift…
December 20th, 2008 at 4:47 am
I am giving my newlywed daughter and her husband a deck of cards and a handmade booklet of instructions for card games for two people.
December 22nd, 2008 at 3:18 pm
I always bake bread for my friends. Each loaf is less than $1, and everyone LOVES my homemade bread!
December 27th, 2008 at 8:03 am
Every year my brothers and sisiter and I exchange a $5 family gift. This year I used a laundry soap bucket from Sam’s Club and sewed a covering to slip over the bucket inside and out that had pockets on both sides. I filled the pockets with banana bread and goodies I made. One year I bought a popcorn bowl at the dollar store, a movie rental gift certificate and a box of microwave popcorn. Something anyone could use!
December 11th, 2009 at 7:59 am
the pineapples at Aldi are $2 now.
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