Your most frugal gift/present ever?

I think the best thing I could suggest is that if you are crafty you can go that route. You can always make them something even if it is just a basket full of freebies. You could get a basket or even crate at the dollar store and fill it full of freebies you've gotten off the internet (that are decent sized). For those on a budget you could print off some coupons (that don't expire for months) and you could even clip some. If you know anyone who likes amazon you can earn some amazon gc's and send the code their way through email and then just get them a card. My husband and I don't do much shopping, we've got a lot of family but we usually just stick with a few people.

With gift shopping, I'm doing that all year 'round! I look at sales and clearance items . . . but you need to time to find gift worthy purchases simply because there's not always good stuff there. Do you have dollar stores, or 99 cent stores, or Big Lots out there? You can find some inexpensive stuff that doesn't look like a dollar store item at times, if you do some digging. Many of the craft stores have one dollar sections now - there's some decent stuff there too . . . for less than 5 bucks you can make a nice stationery set. Sometimes I will buy used childrens books for certain people - sort of like an extended greeting card - as part of the gift (a filler!). If the story reminds me of them or something that pertains to them, then they'll "understand" the meaning behind the gift. I will write a note saying that I this is a used book (because in most cases it looks like it), but I thought it reminded me of them (so as not to make the gift look tacky). Last year I found for my Hawaiian friend a children's book of Christmas song lyrics in pigeon talk (Hawaii's funny language). I think I got it for 50 cents. For new books, many of the chain stores like Borders or Barnes and Noble have the bargain area. I've noticed lately they have excellent things in their clearance sections. I could go on with ideas!

The most frugal X-Mas present I ever bought was last year when I traded my own self-published poetry books for about 90% of my X-Mas present buying budget. I got a lot of neat jewelry from other artists in exchange. The only person it didn't work for were the men in my family. The men in my family are all very hetero sports nuts. Artists don't usually make stuff that appeals to them.

For me, I find that the most frugal way to give gifts is to do something that you make yourself. I've done crochet afghans for both baby gifts and also for wedding gifts and those are always a big hit (but cost me relatively nothing except for my time). I've also done homemade potpourri lamps that everyone loved (I think I invested about 5 dollars total in the supplies and they were easy to make). Homemade ornaments or even a homemade cookie basket are also great ways to make gifts yourself.

Well, I do not know how frugal it is but I try to make all the money I need for gifts online and then buy stuff off Ebay. It works for me, and people are usually happy to get stuff you can't usually buy where I live, so it works out pretty well! I've also re-gifted stuff though...

There have been times when I have been absolutely tight with my budget, so I have ended up making someone's birthday cake or cooking them a meal. Usually, this is very much appreciated, and really, it's down to what you do rather than how much you spend on someone's birthday that really counts...

You can buy discounted gift cards on eBay and a few other sites deal in them. You may have to look for awhile to find the kind you want, but it's worth a try! If you can do crafts of any kind, you can usually find a way to make things more frugally than buying them. Also, if you bake or make jellies or anything like that, maybe you could put together a combination gift. I did that one year for my brother who was working on a ranch away from the family. He was single and lived in a mobile home so I baked him a loaf of bread and gave him a homemade jar of apple jelly along with a pound of butter. He thanked me several times. :) Garage sales are good for finding collectibles or antiques or semi-antiques if you know anyone who likes things like that. Keep an eye on the mark down bins when you shop. Sometimes you can find things that would make good gifts there. Check places like retailmenot.com for good deals. I'm always looking for ways to give Christmas gifts without spending so much and this year will be tighter than ever, so I'm shopping as I can right now.

a couple of years ago, i bought a tin at a garage sale and collaged it for our youth paster (putting stuff that pertained to him and his interests on the can) and he loved it!

I'm a member of several GPT sites that pay with Amazon certificates.It's a great way to get good gifts and you don't have to spend a dime,just a little time. Also,check for clearances at your local stores.A lot of times they have things that you wouldn't normally buy at good prices.

I give different kinds of gifts accoring to the people I want to give a present to. I buy toys to the little ones and wrap them nicelly. They expect that. But I have also taught them what to expect from me. It can be a book (varies according to age) or paintings. I also buy sometimes nice and loud unexpensive music toys (like mouth organs). Grown ups recieve homemade apricot jam from my apricot tree. The glasses are recycled, of course. Sometimes I also make some plum jam as plums are very unexpensive here. Another nice and unexpensive gift I like to make is a plant. Sometimes I give some of my own "daughter" plants (plants I make from seeds). Impatients are unexpensive and beautiful. The most difficult ones are my teenager grandkids. I give them some money (very much apreciated no matter how little)or just nothing at all. The boys have more things that I do and they don´t need anything. I usually buy a pair of $1 earrings to my grandaughter (I spent a king´s ransom in a pair of emerald earrings when she was 15 and my daughter didn´t let her use them even for her graduation). I think it´s still time to be thinking on what crafts can you make for your loved ones.If you have a toddler, you can even make a beautiful scrapbuk with family pictures and pages to pain on. Take care!

I once gave one of my friends a Pokemon game and the next year, guess what I got? The very same game. But he did this on purpose because he completed the game with a full Pokedex having every Pokemon available at the time so he gave it to me for it's playable value, though it didn't cost him anything. But a full Pokedex is harder than it seems. There are several Pokemon games for different game systems and you have to beat every single one, use a connection cable to combine them, and do several trades to evolve the Pokemon along with receiving tons of promotional items necessary to attain all the Pokemon. He's a real Pokemon fanatic and it was really cool, but pretty cheap.

Every year I usually give one kind of gift for my friends... meaning once you get a gift from me all of our friends received the same, this will avoid the feeling of someone received expensive gifts while the others didn't. Last Christmas I gave a coffee mugs for my friends. I may sounds cheap but I add up a personal touched on it depending on the personality of the person who will received the mug. I bought a standard plain white coffee mugs and personally punt designs on it. Like for an example a friend of mine love Hello Kitty and I put on Hello Kitty stickers on the mug and cover sticker along with the sides with a color less nail polish so it will look glossy and the design will not fade easily. It may take a lot of time to do but it is cheap and very useful. For this Christmas I'm planning to give a personalize note pads from used papers.

I try to start Christmas shopping for my daughter as soon as possible. This year I am saving up as many amazon gift cards as I can. I am up t $20 right now with about $30 more I should be able to get by September. I have a few different sites that I use for this. I sometimes get her things off craigslist and just clean them up. The great part is you don't have to spend hours getting things out of boxes. For my dad he is so very hard to shop for there really is not a lot that he wants or needs so for the past few years I make him a double batch of chili and invite him over for dinner and then send him home with all the left overs. I get container for the leftovers so that they are in single servings. He loves that. I have made many crafts over the years as I usually have what I need to make things already I just have to find the time to finish them. Last year for Grandma and Grandpa I got them an ornament for the tree with all the grandkids names on it. It was under $20 and they loved it. I will also bake special treats, which I only do at Christmas time as I don't have a lot of time to do it other times. I also will shop at the dollar stuff for little things or acents to make a gift look nicer. I will always look in the clearence racks and buy somthing for someone even if it is months away from the date. Just don't forget where you put it or forget that you have it! Now that we have a daughter I have been doing a lot of photo gifts. There are tons of things that you can do and a lot of the time find coupons for free items to try or discounted prices. I have used vistaprint a few time you have to pay shipping but the family love the different picture mouse pads that I have made for them and I usually end up paying about $5 or so. They also have t shirt and note pad and tons of other stuff. I have made candy and baskets to fill with goodies before. I am not sure what I will do this year but it is time to starting thinking about it. I have alreay gotten a few dolls for my daughter as there were some coupons for 40% off the price too good of a deal to pass up.

ok this is what you should do you should save your moey right check online for best ways to get peole for there birthday you know andd see what it tells you on you can to look on the bing its a new site that tells where to get great discounts on things you know try it out and tell me how it goes ok well you take care of your slef and i hope you get great gifts

I stitch on inexpensive shirts to make them personalized. I got a $5 shirt at Walmart and have stitched a hummingbird on it for my mom. Another shirt with a duck for my uncle, and a zebra for my sister. I did cats for my brother's girl friend and a rose for my niece...

Starting early is definitely frugal, because you can look for sale and clearance items. Personally I don't shop for anyone other than my kids really, and a lot of times I will give them used gifts that are still in good shape. Sometimes I'll even gift them used clothes.. but they are kids and they don't care. However you may still be able to find some nice items from a second hand shop for some of the people on your list. Also if you're at all crafty you could probably make some nice gifts that don't cost much. I once knitted a carpet for my mom, and sewed together a stuffed animal for a friend. It didn't cost much to buy the things I needed to make these gifts, and I put time and effort into it which made it even more special.

I actually made angels out of the tops of coffee cans one year. The metal ones, the ones that actually have to be taken off with a can opener. I used small glass balls that I found at the dollar store for the heads, used tin snips to cut the wings and used pliers to bend and form the dress of the angels. They turned out very cute. I was quite proud of them. I also crochet a lot, so when I find a good deal on yarn, I will buy up what I can and come up with a number of items from slippers to cute little purses for my nieces. It can be quite relaxing.