Top Ten Gift Ideas for the Frugal Woman in Your Life

As a frugal woman, wife and mother, I feel like I have a unique perspective on what gifts will "go over well" with the frugal woman on your list. We frugalistas are a different breed of woman from your stereotypical woman featured in woman's magazines and in advertising. Frugalistas don't care so much about the bling but rather care more about getting a good bang for our (or your) buck. We are much more likely to enjoy receiving a nice practical gift than something extravagant that we cannot use in our day to day quest to enjoy the frugal and simple way of living.

For the frugal women, wives, and moms in your life I would highly suggest the following would make great gifts:

1. The KitchenAid Mixer. A good, solid mixer helps the frugal woman in your life be able to do things like make bread from scratch. This is both frugal, tastes good, and with a good mixer can be so much less work. I have started doing a lot more cooking and baking from scratch since I received my KitchenAid.

2. Good Cookware or Utensils. Most frugal women cook from scratch and getting the best results for your time means that you really want to have some good cookware and utensils to get the job done right. Nothing is more frustrating than burning something in a cheap pan! If your frugalista is going to take the time to cook, help her do it right with good equipment.

3. Interesting or Unique Food Items. All frugal women who cook like to use the best vanilla, spices, etc… in their creations. Why not stock a gift basket with some unique and high quality items that she can use in her cooking. Stores like Cost Plus have wonderful aisles full of all kinds of food treasures that go really well in a basket.

4. Budget Software. I love being able to do my budget and/or pay bills using my computer. Long gone are the days where you need a big ledger and lots of papers to pay your bills and save your money. Budget software can really be a time saver and is always appreciated.

5. Organizational Baskets or Bins. Frugal women keep things that can be reused. Storing our items often turns to clutter without good ways to store things. Why not purchase some bins or baskets for the frugalista on your list to store her treasures in. With the unique baskets available these days you can have a nice stash of items and they can be out of the way and in decorative containers which do double-duty as decorations.

6. Planner or Calendar with Big Squares to Write In. I love to receive calendars that have big squares where I can write my appointments in. They are big enough where I can also write some budget and shopping information in them as well. One of the biggest keys to frugal living is managing time and with a nice planner or calendar it's much easier to do.

7. Wallet or Coupon Organizer. All frugal women use some coupons. Whether they use the ones from their Sunday paper or purchase them in bulk online, everyone needs a place to store the coupons so we don't forget to use them. A nice wallet or coupon organizer is a perfect gift.

8. Frugal/Simple Living Books. A few great books exist out there on the topics of frugal and simple living. I suggest "The Complete Tightwad Gazette" by Amy Dacyczyn for all things frugal. For simple living I would suggest "Don't Sweat The Small Stuff About Money" by Richard Carlson and "The Simple Living Guide" by Janet Luhrs.

9. Craft Supplies. If the frugalista on your list likes to do any kind of crafting, sewing, knitting, etc… gifts of supplies are always a hit. We all love to spend our time doing things fun but generally it's the last place in our budgets that we spend money.

10. Spend Your Time Not Your Money. The best gift you will ever find for a frugal woman is showing that you respect her frugality by emulating it. Why purchase something expensive or impractical for her when you can spend some time either making her a gift or helping her do something that she needs your help with. Spend your time not your money and show her that you think she is living well!