This is the happiest time of the year, the most stressful time, or both depending on who you are.
Trying to figure out what to get for people for the holidays is usually not easy or cheap. Specifically, for college students who have a tight budget. It’s difficult because of course we wish we could buy an expensive gift, like the apple watch, for someone to show how much we care for them, but obviously that’s not realistic. For this reason, I researched a couple low cost items I would recommend getting for those important people in your life.
1.) Makeup from Marshalls
Typically, you would not go to Marshalls for high end beauty products, but I was digging through the makeup section here and to my surprise found packages of three Mac lipsticks for only $17. I also found brand names like Bare Minerals, Tarte, and Stilla. All these products were at least 50% off the original price I would pay at places like Sephora. My guess is they get the extra inventory, or the packaging has minimal errors which they won’t sell at the places they have contracts with. Either way this is a great gift. Brand names. Same quality. Just cheaper!
2.) Wireless Printer
This is a gift I would not think of but who doesn’t need one of these? It is convenient and cheap. Whether it’s for your friend who is in college or a parent, both can benefit from this. I know I need to print things out for school and it’s easy to just be able to print it in your room rather than walk to the library. Best Buy sells these starting as low as $20.
3.) Personalized anything
Online and some stores like ‘Things Remembered’ offer personalized gifts. What I mean by this is you could get anyone’s name, face, picture, or a quote printed on anything you want. On amazon there were examples of people getting their family pet printed out onto a blanket or a pillow. You could get a friend’s name carved into a picture frame, a bracelet, or a snow globe. Or get an engraved pen or wallet for your father. Anything like this feels more meaningful to people because its personalized for them. This gift is typically anywhere from $10-60. It really depends on what you get it printed on and how big.
4.) Baking
Who doesn’t like free food? Baking cookies, brownies, or cakes is an inexpensive gift. To make it a little more meaningful you could place the treats inside a coffee mug and wrap it with a ribbon. Another idea is to put the baked goods inside an oven mitt and wrap that with a ribbon. The idea is you make something but also after they have finished eating what you have baked them, they have something that they could use in the future. Both ideas should only cost you about $15.