Elegant yet Inexpensive Gift Ideas

It’s that time of year again; There's Valentines day, being love-struck, romantic, daring, finding the perfect day for you and your partner and being broke. Christmas is hearty food, lots of friends and family, warm fires, cold frosts, christmas shopping and big empty bank accounts. Then there's birthdays, congratulations presents, christenings, weddings, the present buying goes on and on, most of it commericalised.

It's a fine line to walk on presents. Between the expense of what you want to get, what you can afford and what looks ostentatious set against the care and time of selecting a present, the though side of things. This is one of the potential pitfalls of present buying, are you compensating for a lack of a thoughtful gift with cash you probably can't afford? It's never quite that easy, most of the time the recipient themselves doesn't know what they want or you find you don't know them quite as well as you would have thought.

This definitely applies to close loved ones especially boyfriends and girlfriends. You want to get them a big present, that is not only thoughtful, sweet, perfect for your partner and surreptitiously expensive, but with enough evidence of its classiness and just how much you really put into this one. Unfortunately brainwaves like this rarely happen or they cost a little more than you can really afford.

Even if you don't place that kind of price on your loved ones, the electricity bill, the groceries and the rent usually squish the matched 1 carat, D grade diamond earrings. So what can you do? I know this is quite sad, but with memory as bad as mine you have to - I keep a small list carefully hidden of items my girlfriend gets excited about. Invariably it doesn’t lead anywhere when it comes to buying presents but you never know! The other thing is good fall backs here’s a list of five to help you out:

Jewellery:

In this case strictly for the girls jewellery seems always to be welcome, assuming its something they can wear of course. But wait a mo…if this is about affordable presents, even presents on a tight budget, what’s jewellery doing here?

Gold is soaring in price, gemstones were never cheap, surely you can’t get anywhere close to good jewellery on a tight budget. Actually you can. Your choices are limited but it is possible. Sales and discounts may make cheaper items suddenly affordable and there’s always silverjewelryclub.com/

For a fuller explanation of this site see my other hub here on free Jewelery, but the gist is that for a fairly low post and package cost, you can get very good (.925 sterling silver and semiprecious stones, such as amethyst and topaz) pendants, rings and earrings. You will have to be careful of a few things here, pendants are without chain (sold along with the item pretty cheaply), rings are in the size stated only (sizes do vary) and post and package may take some time, especially close to Christmas. Other than that, it’s amazing!

Photos:

Assuming you have a digital camera, there are a range of options available here. A collage of family shots can make an ideal present for family or a slightly saucier version with less people and fewer clothes can make a naughtily charming gift for a boyfriend or girlfriend. Obviously you need to have that kind of relationship and also a certain amount of trust they won't end up decorating facebook!

Promise notes:

This is not the IOU £100 variety but the IOU one massage variety. The cost is nothing more than the paper and ink and the time it takes you to come up with them. It’s possibly an idea to write them on fancy paper rather than recycled newsprint but that’s up to you.

Handwriting them is a nice touch but if your handwriting looks like a three-legged spider crawled through the ink pot, you may want to try a basic calligraphy pen and style. It’s quite easy to pick up and improves the visual no end! This kind of thing could be as innocuous as a promise to cook dinner right the way through intimate massages and beyond. It depends somewhat on who it’s for.

Food hamper:

Everybody likes to eat so a food hamper filled with delicacies might be an excellent present. What you put in it will depend on budget and who it’s going to – your mother may not appreciate chocolate body paint but your girlfriend or boyfriend might! For family, think good quality chocolate, wine, antipasti such as artichoke, olives, hams and salami, cheeses, foie gras and smoked oysters, the list is endless.

For boyfriends and girlfriends think more strawberries and chocolate dip, sweeter nibbles and food that’s playful. Be careful of cost and items going off though! Collectively your hamper could hit quite an amount and it’d be a bummer if three quarters of it was off come Christmas day!

Origami

Yes, mad as this sounds origami can make very good presents. Obviously you need some requisite skill at this in order to be able to make something close to your intended piece. I’d also say keep it simple; you might want a dozen dozen roses with accompanying swans but unless you’re very skilled or have a few years, keep it simple.

I’ve done this once; a single red rose took me three days and about 40 sheets of paper to get it right. Admittedly I went for something that had about 500 folds and thought it’d look better in miniature, but you get the idea, its actually about as time consuming as gifts get. On the other hand, you can’t be accused of compensating with money and it will last forever – or at least until it gets bashed around too much. Look up some designs line and practice on scrap paper before you go for the real deal.

Well, it’s not quite a plasma TV but better than socks and it might just save your present buying bacon!