No Cash for Holidays? Try These Free Gift Ideas

If money is tight in your household as the holidays approach, don't despair. Following are six ideas for gift-giving that won't cost you a penny ... that's right, 100-percent free:

1) "Free-gifting." Giving someone a gift that was given to you is tacky, but "Freegifting" avoids the pitfalls of regifting. Simply put a request on your local Freecycle list for new gift-appropriate items that others are looking to give away ... and offer to give to others any new gifts you might have never opened or used. Another site that might help in your freegift search is Craigslist.

2) A set of paper toys. You can find dozens of neat, printable patterns for handmade paper cars, dinosaurs, famous buildings and more at several Websites. Paper Toys features patterns for everything from Wrigley Field and the Sydney Opera House to a Tyrannosaurus Rex and Jimmy Hendrix' guitar. At The Toymaker, you'll find patterns for a bus, a rocking horse, boxes, pinwheels and miniature furniture, among other things. For more ideas, check out Artists Helping Children or FreePaperToys.com, both of which provide links to lots of sites with paper model animals, bridges, cartoon characters, monsters, airplanes, puzzles and more. Whichever site you choose, just print out a set of patterns tailored to your recipient's interests and assemble them together in an attractive box, folder or binder. (If you don't have a home printer, go to your local public library.)

3) A personalized recipe book. If you're an avid cook or baker, pull together all your favorite recipes, add personalized notes wherever you feel they're useful, choose an attractive typeface for printing, then bind the pages into a book using a hole-punch and silk or velvet ribbons. Or, if you've got some blank CD-ROMs in your home office, create a digital cookbook with not only recipes, but photos, Web links and any other information you've found helpful.

4) Homegrown herbs or houseplants. If you have some leftover herb seeds from this year's gardening on hand, now's the time to plant some in pretty pots, glass jars or even aluminum food cans. Nurture them into lush fullness, wrap the jars or cans in shiny paper or attractive scraps of fabric, tie with silk, velvet or metallic ribbons, and you've got a living gift that will please any avid cook. If you're the green-thumb type, you can also start plant gifts from cuttings off your own houseplants.

5) Homemade goodies. No, not cookies, fruitcakes or brownies, which everyone gets too much of already during the holiday season, but something different. Think gourmet crackers, edible ornaments, scented gels or bath products. Depending upon what you've got stocked in your pantry and kitchen shelves, you can make anything from an aromatic kitchen scrub, a lime-ginger skin exfoliant and holiday potpourri to aloe vera lip gloss, scented bath powder or baker's clay Christmas ornaments.

6) Free stuff. Where can you find free stuff online? Plenty of places, including Totally Free Stuff, YourProductSamples, TheFreeSite, Free-Stuff and Shop4Freebies. Depending on the site and the offer, you can find everything from sample pens and pencils to body sprays, lip gloss, ball caps and more. You might have to complete a short (or not-so-short) online survey or registration to qualify for some giveaways, but you won't have to pay a thing (though always be sure to read the fine print to make sure you're not subscribing to something you'll have to pay for later).