Gift Ideas for a Small Budget

With the economy in a ditch, many families are facing the possibility of having a "small" Christmas, mine included. What many families don't realize is that there are some great gift ideas out there for a small or tight budget. Check out these gift ideas good all year round!

Season Passes - This might sound like an expensive gift idea but I dare you to google a few of your favorite theme parks, water parks, lake resorts, dinner theaters etc. I found season passes to a local water park for a mere $35 and season passes to another theme park that included free parking and admission to three theme parks. With season passes you'll be gifting more than just one special day, you'll be gifting many special days.

Mini Perfume of The Month Club - It sounds a little kooky but the price is fantastic. For as little as $9 a month you can give someone in your family the gift of perfume all year long. On particular company, Perfume Emporium lets you choose between women's perfume or men's cologne.

Decorative Single Sheets of Paper - Someone that loves scrapbooking or paper crafts can never have enough paper. Single sheets of decorative paper can cost as little as 19¢ or as much as 99¢ at craft stores like Michael's. Now consider how many sheets of paper you can get for $10.

Personalized Photo Calendar - Not so many years ago, my family only had enough money to buy Christmas gifts for the kids. So we decided everyone else would get a personalized calendar full of pictures of us.

For a whole day we took pictures. We took pictures of the kids in their dress clothes and outside playing. We had them play tag, wrapped them in streamers, made them get on their knees and build a pyramid all while we took tons of pictures. We planned a theme for each picture and set up a "scene" so that the picture for each month matched the season. We made a special birthday photo for the grandparent's birth months.

Once we had all our photos taken and uploaded to the computer we used Photoshop to add fancy borders and text. We printed a monthly calendar for the whole year. All the pages were laminated using Avery's clear adhesive laminating sheets, then we took everything to Staples and for a very small fee had them spiral bound.

The grandparents still have these calendars. What they loved about them was that not only were they full of photos of the family but because they were laminated they could be preserved for a very long time.

Gift giving doesn't always have to be about the most expensive item you can find. It can be about the most thoughtful thing you can give. Don't stretch your budget, stretch your mind and give something worth receiving.