gift ideas for under $10?

**Sara Noel** · 07-06-2009, 04:28 PM

or even $5 and under? Excluding gifts in a jar and movie gift baskets.

1. Small houseplant.
2. paperback and a bookmark
3. dish towels (maybe make the dish towel angel)
4. retro board games (secondhand from eBay)

**sunshine** · 07-06-2009, 04:50 PM

Spoon suncatchers. . . . I buy old spoons at yard sales and thrift stores. . . drill a hole in the handle and add a hanger. . . then I drill several smaller holes around the tip of the spoons' bowl. From the small holes, I add various lengths of iridescent beads on clear strings.

**sunshine** · 07-06-2009, 04:52 PM

Handmade crocheted or knitted dish cloths and potholders. I make the "magic pocket" potholders and they are always well received.

**Contrary Housewife** · 07-06-2009, 05:05 PM

Movie passes always get used.

A lot of my friends have hobbies, and I look for things they always need more of like good paintbrushes (some can cost more than $10) or x-acto blades, garden gloves, scrapbook tags, etc.

I don't know if food counts as a 'gift in a jar', but I've brought back things like honey, coffee beans and hot sauce from the caribbean, and I like to take one of our local award winning BBQ sauces as a hostess gift when we travel. I've never met anyone who doesn't use bbq sauce, and it's a taste of our region. I get friends from the northeast to bring me maple butter, candy, and maple sugar when they visit and ask what they can bring.

**amandajhh** · 07-06-2009, 06:01 PM

dainty little notepads are cute little gifts that women can carry in their purses. I got one once as a present and I love it. It had a little magnetic closing clip, like a tiny pocket journal. Also, stationary sets can be nice. Target has some really cute blank cards and envelope sets. Everyone can use those.

**Maine Girl** · 07-06-2009, 06:40 PM

Craft supplies for crafters
Journal with a nice pen
i made scarfs with one skein of yarn ($5)
Frame favorite pictures that your recipient likes
make notepads
make homemade Kaluha (depending how you split the batch you can get many gifts)
Favorite chocolates

Kids gifts
Rubber band balls (a marble and colored rubberbands)
colored pencils with a doodle pad or coloring book

Last year i did all my gifts $10.00 or less. I also bought books for gifts at goodwill. I guess i need to get going to work on this years $10.00 gifts.

**elphie** · 07-06-2009, 09:27 PM

We had a $10 limit last Christmas we gave...

-reusable water bottle with box of flavor packs (for my niece the runner)
-bag full of various chocolate- Kisses, hot cocoa, giant candy bar (for the littlest one with a sweet tooth)
-apron, oven mitt, rubber spatula and spoon (for my nephew that loves to cook)
-yarn, crochet needle, small "how to" book (for my niece the crafter)
-gardening gloves, seed packets, trowel (bought on clearance at end of season for my niece who love flowers)

**frugalfranny** · 07-07-2009, 12:10 AM

Some great ideas.......keep them coming as I sometimes get stumped. A couple of my friends are NOT big hobbiests and it makes it harder to think of something.

I have used the coupon for Bath and Body Works and bought them matching soap and lotion......when it is on sale...which makes it
under $10. But you have to know which scents they like ...

**sunshine** · 07-07-2009, 06:03 AM

To expand on the idea of the towel gift, you can give one with this saying:

The Ordinary Towel
At first glance, one looks at a kitchen towel and thinks, "Wow, a towel... I needed a new one. The old ones are getting stained and worn." But have we ever stopped to think that for years, even thousands of years, the towel has not just been used in the kitchen, but for a variety of reasons? Take example the mother who wipes the tears of a child to soothe the physical and emotional hurt, the physician who binds the wound of a bleeding patient, the woman in her home, wiping her hands as she moves from task to task, the weary traveler who wipes his sweated brow. Some other examples would be the manager of a boxer who "throws in the towel" to save the life of his protégé or the young man wiping the grease off his hands as he fixes his old jalopy. Notwithstanding all of the above examples, perhaps the most significant use of the towel was about two thousand years ago when our loving Brother took an ordinary towel in his hands and dried the feet of the disciples only hours before his crucifixion. Sure, the towel is a handy item with a myriad of uses, but it also has deep symbolic meaning when seen in the hands of the Savior doing a work of kindness for His fellow men. So take this towel, knowing it is given with love, and do works of goodness with it, as the Savior worked goodness with His so many years ago. With love,

**joyofsix** · 07-07-2009, 06:17 AM

I've got favorite childhood books from ebay.
I've made a basket of retro candies ie. zotz, wax lips, etc.
I've bought plain bargain pillow cases and embroidered them.

**miss_thrifty** · 07-07-2009, 10:19 AM

good ideas folks
*embroider hm on $1 dishtowels or face cloths for someone eg his/her/ name of person
*kids fav books picked up at thrift shop or yard sales with micorwave popcorn , bars, and hm bookmark.

**mamamia** · 07-07-2009, 10:20 AM

Create a "Bargain Shopper" gift basket. Include a coupon holder filled with, not only food, hba, etc., but clip current restaurant and other local special offers as well. I'd put in a cute pen, safety scissors, and a couple of cute 'shopping list' pads. One purse size, and a magnetic one for the fridge. These could easily be printed from your computer, and would be kinda fun searching for some clip art to design/personalize them.

I use paper clips to keep me organized, so grab a pkge of color or striped ones.

The couponmom site has that tutorial on using coupons you can print out, and you could easily fashion it into some kinda little booklet. And along with that, I'd make a list of coupon/frugal sites to be part of it. Another addition could be a couple of clear plastic zippered pencil cases. They work great for me to hold receipts, EBs, and rain checks. I got a bunch of these last year at Office Depot's back to school sale for $.20 ea. After I started using them, I wondered how I lived w/o them

Hoping they'll be that price again this year.

This would be especially great for a newbie or bride-to-be, and should easily come in well under $10.

Theresa

**englishcottage1** · 07-07-2009, 12:42 PM

I start my christmas gift planning all through the year and sometimes from the freebies I get. This year I have a really nice golf basket going for my FIL, I paid 46 cents for a nice basket from goodwill and colored cellophane on clearance (xmas) last year for 50 cents a roll. Inside I have (all from freebies) Tiger woods book, tees, balls, a club grip, and still have about five months to put more in. When I request my freebies, it's not always for me. So the whole basket will be about $1

I have also started making scented trivets. I don't make them with just christmas fabric because I want them to be able to use year round. The instructions I have was not from the internet but the below link gives you some idea. I'm not that talented in sewing, but these are pretty easy to make. You can use scented oils also.

http://www.fabulousliving.com/index....318&Itemid=177

**sunshine** · 07-07-2009, 07:13 PM

Along the lines of the scented trivets. . . .

I make rice heating/cooling bags in various sizes and fabrics - even with the cost of rice going up, it still is less than $10 for large, fancy ones.

**mauimagic** · 07-07-2009, 07:33 PM

Originally Posted by englishcottage1

I start my christmas gift planning all through the year and sometimes from the freebies I get. This year I have a really nice golf basket going for my FIL, I paid 46 cents for a nice basket from goodwill and colored cellophane on clearance (xmas) last year for 50 cents a roll. Inside I have (all from freebies) Tiger woods book, tees, balls, a club grip, and still have about five months to put more in. When I request my freebies, it's not always for me. So the whole basket will be about $1

I have also started making scented trivets. I don't make them with just christmas fabric because I want them to be able to use year round. The instructions I have was not from the internet but the below link gives you some idea. I'm not that talented in sewing, but these are pretty easy to make. You can use scented oils also.

http://www.fabulousliving.com/index....318&Itemid=177

Mahalo for the directions - forgot that this was another thing I wanted to make!! I'm going to use the rosemary from the plants that I grow - such a great fragrance!!