Gift ideas for the frugal person?

**Sara Noel** · 05-17-2007, 03:59 PM

Looking for your top 5 ideas that are good gifts for the frugal woman.

ie. I just splurged on a few nice pieces of cookware (Le Creuset) and am on cloud nine. I would have absolutely loved this as a gift, but hey it's still a gift from me and to me. lol I love it so much that I'm going to collect more pieces bit by bit. This ranks right up there with my KA as one of my favorite "gifts" I have. I rarely spend money, but these items were well worth the money invested. I don't know about you, but I rust the heck out of pans.

It's really pitiful how long I hold onto them even (foiling them) when I wonder if we'll die from some foreign rust disease.

It brought me to thinking about what you think the top 5 great gifts would be for frugal women.

**Hollyhandi** · 05-17-2007, 04:19 PM

for me atop one would be a Food Saver with bags
then a dehydrater
and just for fun
a cotton candy machine.

**Radish4ever** · 05-17-2007, 04:36 PM

oooh I'd love a breadmaker.... a really nice mixer..... a juicer.... lol do you see where I'm going with this? LOL I'd love items that would help me to be more frugal by making my own stuff using them!

**Radish4ever** · 05-17-2007, 04:39 PM

Oh! Just thought of another one - a gift certificate/card to the lady's favorite frugal shopping place

(i.e. Target, the grocery store, an outlet store, etc)

**kittykatstrong** · 05-17-2007, 04:45 PM

I would love to get a breadmaker. I was also thinking I would love some cookbooks. I love just flipping through them, but it is not something I would buy myself, unless they were at a garage sale.
katy

**Neeley** · 05-17-2007, 04:57 PM

My mom always gives me $50 gift cards to a specialty store, Steaks DeVine. They have wonderful homemade casseroles (around $15-$18 each) that all you have to is pop them in the oven.

Another thing I love to get is high thread count bedsheets, with all of my pillowcases monogrammed.

I love to have things monogrammed, so things like a really cute umbrella with my name embroidered, baseball cap with my initials, shower curtain w/my initials and matching towels, etc.. I found a really nice stadium seat I would love to have with my last name embroidered in it, too.

And last but not least, season tickets to the Montgomery Biscuits minor league baseball team.

~None of these are very frugal, but they are things I would still like to get.

**peanut** · 05-17-2007, 05:19 PM

I would go with a crockpot, if she didn't have one. Gift certificates to thrift stores or low cost clothing stores are good too. Gas coupons are practical.

Maybe something that is a luxury/nurturing item, but bought cheaply...like scented candles, a decadent chocolate, her favourite flavour of tea, that sort of thing. Or a nice set of sheets. Offer your cabin/cottage up for an annual retreat for her!

Maybe an evening out to a local music concert held in a church...you know, the chamber groups that do the rounds of various local venues for $5 a person.

A chance to go picking berries, hunting or fishing with you. Be sure to find a good location! Food...period...if you garden, offer to share/exchange produce. Barter.

Check into her hobbies and see if you can provide ways for her to do them cheaply.

Just a few of my thoughts.

**Marie78** · 05-17-2007, 05:35 PM

I would choose gift certificates for myself, I know I always like the ones to my favorite restaurants or to the grocery store.

**FrugalMomof3** · 05-17-2007, 05:57 PM

I too would say a grocery GC or something like that, next I would ask for foodsaver bags or rolls.

**auntie2many** · 05-17-2007, 06:08 PM

Gift certificates to a favorite restaurant.

Food Processor

Books

Clothing Gift Certificate.

Gift Certificate to an upscale grocery store.

**itsahumanzoo** · 05-17-2007, 07:07 PM

Originally Posted by Hollyhandi

for me atop one would be a Food Saver with bags
then a dehydrater
and just for fun
a cotton candy machine.

A foodsaver and a food dehydrator are two things that I really really want! My mom used to have a dehydrator and we made jerky and fruit roll ups in it!

**Darlene** · 05-17-2007, 08:46 PM

I love my sheet pans from bj's they are commercial grade (came in a 3 pack, gave 1 to dd) and I will never ever have to buy a cookie sheet again. No rust after years of use. I use them for oven fries, free form bread baking anything that needs a sheet pan.

I also love my oxo salad spinner to spin dry all those greens I grow in my garden for pennies. That spinner at around $24 was money well spent & that baby will never wear out.
You eat fresh greens, you NEED that spinner.

I use my pyrex baking pans alot too. have the loaf,pie plate, covered casserole, 10x7, 9x13 & 11?x17 oblong pans. These baby's take me through meatloaf, casseroles, roasts, all kinds of things.

If I were good friends with someone I'd give them the gift of time. Time to watch their kids while they went and did something they wanted to or help them or just do a chore they have been dreading.

Fullfill a dream. Never had a surprise party? Throw them one. Always wanted a rose garden, start one. Most things people really want are small things that anyone can help fulfill. Think outside the box and let your imagination find ways to make them a reality.

**DJ1972** · 05-17-2007, 10:05 PM

hmm...trying to think of things I would like to get as a gift
1. good cookware of course
2. cookbooks, simple frugal ones..not the ones with ingredients I don't have
3. books, the tightwad gazette, miserly moms, etc.
4. a nice coupon holder (with coupons in it)
5. a gardening book and seeds...or the ingredients/tools needed to make homemade laundry soap with a recipe attatched

**kabin63** · 05-17-2007, 10:34 PM

My list

A GC to a favorite resturant, one I would never go to myself.
I think I would like good, strong canvas shopping bags that you can put a lot into. I have seen them but would not spring for them.
I can't think of anything else right now.

**ewokgirl** · 05-18-2007, 12:19 AM

If you're talking about gifts for ourselves, well, you can never go wrong with books for me! I have a wish list at Amazon, and I'll probably never buy most of those books on it because I'm too cheap. High on my list is a $75 set of books on WWII by Winston Churchill. Also, I really want The Bread Bible, which isn't all that expensive, but for some reason, I just won't spend the $25 for it.

For other frugal people, I'd choose a luxury gift based on his or her tastes. Whether that's cookware, linens, clothes, books, movies or whatever.

Admittedly, I'm spoiled. I grew up wealthy, and I'm not against buying really good stuff. (And my parents still buy me a lot of really nice things.) For example, most of my kitchen stuff is high quality, purchased from Sur La Table. I still don't have a nice All-Clad set of pots and pans, though. That's one thing I just can't justify the cost since I have a perfectly good set of pots and pans. But I can dream.