What to Buy for a Bachelor

It's not easy to buy gifts for a bachelor. There are entire stores for babies and loads of options for newlyweds, but what do you get for the single man?

PRACTICAL GIFTS
When you think about the everyday life of a bachelor, you have to think about mealtime. As a family of one, it doesn't make sense for him to make a big pot of anything. After a while, a guy gets tired of burritos and frozen meals.

So maybe you can enroll him in a cooking class. If nothing else, it will sharpen his skills and give him ideas for different things to eat. Other follow-up gifts would be spices, sauces and Tupperware, so if he makes a big dish he can store it for later.

You have to tread lightly with this one. Talk to him and make sure he will use this gift. Maybe he's content to eat microwave popcorn for dinner. Remember, not every gift has to be a surprise. Also, don't just give him a cookbook. That just tells him, "You can't cook."

A great gift for a bachelor is a tool set. You can get 180-piece Allied Tool Kit for $40. If he already has a tool kit, you can get him a four-piece Grill-It Barbecue Tool Kit for $18.

Another practical home gift is the Kangaroo Lamp. It's a huge lantern with an emergency flasher. It costs $50, but you can use it inside, outside or in the car.

FUN GIFTS
Every bachelor should have a game system. If he doesn't already have one, by all means get the poor guy a PlayStation 2. At Walmart.com, you can customize a "Greatest Hits Bundle." You can select a memory card, a controller and two games to go with the system.

If your bachelor is already a big game player, you can get him the new Madden NFL 2007, NBA Live 07 or Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07.

I like to look in the bargain bids and find older versions of these games for low prices. I know the games get better every year, but it's not like Madden 2005 is an unplayable relic.

For another idea, find out if your bachelor needs an MP3 player. These days an Apple iPod Nano runs about $150. On the other end of the price scale, you can pick up a SanDisk Sansa mp3 player for about $40.

Gift cards are always a good idea, and Best Buy is pretty much a guy's paradise (except for the washing machines). So you can't go wrong there.

Finally, if your bachelor happens to have his own home, you can get him a basketball hoop. Even if he's in an apartment, you can get him a Huffy Sports kids' hoop for $40. Trust me - he'll like it. In fact, he'll probably turn his entire living room into a basketball court.