… they come from the heart.

In most of our lives, there seems to be a never-ending string of gift giving occasions - birthdays, graduations, baby showers, wedding showers, and so on. That often means a never-ending string of gifts to give, and because we’re all so busy and harried, it’s often easier just to pop onto Amazon.com or into a local shop and quickly pick out some material item that we guess they’d like. A few minutes, a few dollars, and it’s done: a social check-box filled with a material item that both of you will forget in a month.

The amazing part of all of this is it’s often less expensive, much more meaningful, and often less time-intensive to give a gift that’s meaningful and personal. Gifts like that don’t involve a trip to Wal-Mart (possibly for components, but not for the gift itself) - they involve just a bit of thought and care.

Doubt it? Here are some ideas.

A blank card where you write the note in your own handwriting. Don’t spend $5 on the Hallmark special for a card for an occasion. Instead, just buy a bunch of blank ones and write notes on the inside in your own handwriting. Don’t know what to write? Save poem snippets and such that you like in a box somewhere and use those for the right occasion - if you read a poem that makes you think of someone, save it and use it in there. The minute it takes you to write a nice handwritten note is far less time than it takes to sift through the overpriced cards at the store - and more meaningful and cheaper, too.

Baby shower? Give a certificate or two for nights of free babysitting. Again, this just takes a minute or two now - write it out on a slip of paper and put it in the card. Later on, when they redeem it, it’ll be a gift that they’ll cherish - an evening of free time with their spouse to have a nice dinner and rekindle their marital relationship without the child around. That’s an amazing gift - and it comes from being a caring friend, not from being a department store shopper.

Graduation? Send homemade care packages to a college student. Give them a card telling them that you’ll give them their graduation gift when they go away to college, then send them a few hand-made care packages - homemade cookies, snapshots of their home and families and places they hung out at in high school or local events, or even better, a letter bundle - collect short notes from several of their friends still at home, wishing them well. Make a video tape or a DVD of stuff from home and include it. Send some basic toiletries, too (whatever you can get very cheaply with a coupon) - I was always glad to receive these in college. Two or three of these throughout that first college semester will mean far more than $20 in a Hallmark card at the graduation party.

Wedding shower? Make them an address book. Ask the organizer for the names and addresses of everyone attending the shower, then fill out an address book for the person getting married. You can even contact the organizer of other showers to help with this. A basic address book can be had for pennies, but you can make something incredibly special out of it by doing this.

Or make them a “friends and family” cookbook. Ask all of the guests for recipes (esp. of foods the married couple liked as they were growing up), then assemble them together in the cookbook. Aunt Martha’s lasagna recipe, written out in careful detail, will alone mean more than the blue light special.

Anything you can make is a great gift. Here are a few cool ideas I’ve experienced.
- I like making food items for people as gifts - homemade bread and pasta, especially.
- My wife likes making homemade cookies and also makes homemade soap.
- One of our closest friends is a great photographer who likes finding personally meaningful things for people, taking the photographs, framing them, and giving them as gifts.
- Another person I know does the exact same thing with her sketches and watercolors.
- One friend crochets and knits all year long when relaxing, making scarves and socks and sweaters and afghans for people as Christmas gifts.
- My sister-in-law once gave us a journal made out of homemade paper and a piece of wire. The paper and covers had been washed, pulped, gently colored, and re-pressed into handmade sheets. My wife and I loved it.
- I’ve received many compelling and thoughtful mixtapes over the years that introduced me to lots of interesting music (india.arie, for one).

It works even for kids… One of my son’s favorite toys is a sturdy handmade picture book depicting all of his family and people he knows with their names spelled out under them. It’s just photos glued firmly onto stiff scrapbook pages with writing underneath. He went through a phase not long ago where this was his favorite item on Earth.

What do all of these gifts have in common? They all say “I care” far more than the Wal-Mart special - and they’re all quite thrifty, too.

After an offhand mention of souvenirs recently, several people commented on the topic, indluding Cyde Weys, who left this one:

And as for souvenirs while traveling, my solution is simple: I don’t buy them, period. Souvenirs are synonymous with schlock in my mind. I can return from a trip with the memory card in my digital camera full of pictures and have more than enough to remember the trip by. I don’t need a physical item to remind me of somewhere I’ve been; my memory is good enough.

I guess the question really is what value are souvenirs - or what are souvenirs - for the frugal traveler. For example, my idea of souvenir isn’t a snow globe or a t-shirt at all (although I do sometimes buy shot glasses for my father, who has an enormous collection). Typically, I don’t buy souvenirs for myself (I’m content with memories and pictures), but for others. Because of that, and because of my own lack of interest in the items, I don’t buy the usual souvenir junk.

I try to look for the following:

Distinctive postcards If I have time when traveling, I try to send a distinctive postcard to people I care about. It takes a few minutes and only a dollar or two, and it always raises a smile, as it’s a reminder that the human connection between the two of you is valuable. You were willing to stop on your trip and take the time to send them a quick note and a visual reminder.

Items that aren’t native to where I’m from The further I travel from home, the more unusual the fare becomes. Thus, I usually try to look for items that aren’t native to where I’m from, but aren’t tourist schlock, either. On one trip, I picked up some salmon that had been smoked overnight, flew home with it, and gave it to my father in the evening - he utterly loved it. That, to me, is a great souvenir, not some schlocky t-shirt.

An item the recipient will genuinely enjoy When I travel, I try as hard as I can to find a local chocolatier to get local chocolates for my wife. Sometimes I am successful - I found some incredible spicy chocolates on one trip - but other times, I end up with regional brands that aren’t particularly special but aren’t found in our local area either.

In short, I attempt to find things that have value outside of the context of the trip itself. I try to find things that would bring genuine enjoyment to the people that would receive it, like the simple and personal touch of a postcard or some distinctive chocolate for my wife. If it becomes an unwanted item, gathering dust or being only worn on weekends while cleaning the house, there’s no reason to bother.

In the end, souvenirs are in the same boat as any gift-giving situation: is it something that the recipient actually would enjoy and value? If you’re not sure of that answer, the souvenir should probably stay on the shelf.

Both of my children have received a pair of savings bonds as Christmas gifts this year. While the gift is wonderful and very much appreciated, I am considering cashing them in and putting that money straight into their college 529 account. Let’s look at the pros and cons of the choices.

Why I Should Cash Them In

The cash value will almost assuredly be greater in the long run in a 529. As I discussed before with my own savings bonds, the amount of money one could make in another investment far exceeds the returns one could expect from a savings bond. By cashing the bond in now and moving the cash straight into my child’s 529, the return is likely to be much better than just sitting on the bond.

Since these bonds were given as a gift for the child’s future, it makes sense to maximize the return. Savings bonds are given to children with the intention of providing them with money later that, in theory, they’ll use responsibly. That’s the exact reason why I’m putting money into their 529 - to provide them with money that they’ll use responsibly in the future. Why not consolidate the money where it will get the best return?

Why I Shouldn’t Cash Them In

The gift was not a contribution to their 529. The gift that was given was a savings bond, not a contribution to a 529. A savings bond quite often is bought for different reasons - the money is being invested in the government, not into corporations, for example, and the bond money, when cashed, can be used for any purpose, not just education.

The bond offers a guaranteed rate of return - the 529 does not. Although the odds are good that the 529 would put more money in the child’s pockets in eighteen years than the savings bond would, the bond is the one that guarantees a rate of return. The other investment does not.

Cashing in the bond might be socially questionable. It’s the equivalent of taking a gift that’s just fine and exchanging it because it doesn’t match your tastes. For some, that’s completely appropriate - for others, it’s a questionable social move.

My Plan

In the past, I would have just shrugged my shoulders, stuck the savings bond in our safe, and not worried about it. This “solution” was mostly borne out of a fear of money management and also a fear of how to talk about money with others. Now, my solution would be somewhat different.

First, I would have a conversation with the gift giver about the reasons they gave the bond to the child. Did they want the child to use it for college? For something fun when they were older? Did they really not care that much - they just wanted to give a financially responsible gift? Maybe it was just a way to buy a government bond.

Based on that discussion, I might tell them about the 529 and (possibly) ask about whether they would want the bond to contribute to that. This is usually the best option if the gift was given without a purpose, or with just the purpose of paying for school - if there are other issues at play, I’ll usually just put the bond away. I usually explain how the 529 works, how I’m contributing to it, and answering any questions they might have.

Regardless, I won’t convert the bond and add it to the 529 without approval. Most of the time, honestly, the bond will likely remain as a savings bond. However, in the case of at least one of the bonds, I’m pretty sure I will be redeeming it and depositing it into their 529 account.

What it really comes down to is this: was the gift given to help a child with college? If that answer is yes and you’re able to have a healthy and mature conversation with the gift-giver, it might be worthwhile to see how they feel about it. Otherwise, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth - leave the bond as it is.

Each year, my grandmother gets me and my wife an exorbitantly expensive gift, usually something way out of her budget. One year, she managed to procure a small library of Kurt Vonnegut novels all signed and with individual notes inside in his handwriting. Another year, she managed to find me several pounds of fresh imported truffles. Another year, she bought us apartment decorations from Turkey and Belarus done in an Eastern Orthodox Christianity theme.

I am continually blown away by the creativity and generosity of this woman. She lives on Social Security and saves up throughout the year to do this for us. She’s a quiet old lady who lives with her disabled son. She doesn’t have internet access and mostly spends her time reading and such. We talk on the phone each week and I make a strong effort to make sure she sees her great grandchildren each month.

Because of her relative poverty, I feel a strong sense of guilt when I receive her Christmas gift. She’s really the only person whose gifts I feel guilty receiving, because everyone else is spending at least somewhat within their means.

She puts a tremendous amount of thought into the gifts, and it’s one of the high points of her year when she sees me sit there in almost stunned silence, appreciating the gift. And I do appreciate it - more than perhaps any gift I receive in a given year, her gifts come with a lot of love packaged with them.

At the same time, I am aware of the challenges she faces in her life. I know she has difficulty paying her bills sometimes, and I know that the financial burden placed on her by her son’s situation makes things very tight at times for her.

I’ve found, from talking to many people, that there are a lot of us out there who are in a similar situation with someone in their life. A friend, an older relative, someone who showers us with overabundant generosity to their own detriment. We often receive their care with great appreciation, but also with a sense of guilt and confusion about what the appropriate response is.

After some discussion and thought about it, this is how my wife and I have decided to handle it.

We will accept the gift gracefully and happily. The gift is very important to my grandmother to give - it’s something that makes her quite happy. If she chooses to spend her money in this way, so be it.

We won’t compete with her in terms of gifts. Some people might decide to try to make a “gift race” out of it. All that does is encourage consumerism. We’ll continue to get her appropriate gifts, but we won’t turn it into a gifting arms race.

We will offer her help in other ways. I keep in contact with her throughout the year and, if she runs into trouble with her bills or something else, I’ll help her out. Similarly, I continue to make an effort to keep her as a part of my life - she’s my grandmother, and she’s been wonderful to me since the day I was born.

We don’t feel confrontation or a request to cut it down would really help. First of all, it creates a sense of hard feeling that doesn’t need to be there. Second, she’s far too stubborn and would likely ignore us anyway. This is something we’ve actually gone back and forth on, but we finally decided that the downsides of discussing it and encouraging her to stop isn’t worth the joy she gets out of the gift giving.

How do you handle this situation in your own life? Please speak up in the comments.

Usually, I don’t write about specific luxury goods, but over the last two weeks, I’ve received about twenty emails about buying a Wii as a Christmas gift, so it’s probably reasonable to expect that there are a lot of other readers out there with similar questions. If you’re completely not interested in a Wii this Christmas, you can skip this post completely.

I will say this much: as a 29 year old, I’ve had far more fun with the Wii than I’ve had with any video game console since perhaps my Super Nintendo back in my early teenage years. Even better, it’s given me hours and hours of fun and bonding time with both my wife and with my nephews. It really is an impressive gaming device for busy people like me and for the family.

Anyway, as many of you may have already found, the biggest challenge is actually getting ahold of the system. If you’ve already got your Wii, you’re far ahead of the pack, as all of the games and accessories are pretty easy to find.

If you don’t already have a Wii in hand, Wired Magazine has a great guide to scoring a Wii. It mostly repeats the best ideas for finding any gift, with a few specific Wii tips. I’ve helped three people in the area find a Wii this year, and the best success I’ve had is with stopping at Target at the moment they open on Sundays, bolting straight to their electronics section, and asking for a Wii.

Please note that I’m going to link accessory and game titles to Amazon.com so you can read more reviews if you wish. Wii games, for the most part, have identical prices on Amazon and at your local retailers, so if you have coupons at your local retailer (like our handy 10% off your whole order coupons we get for Target), buy the accessories and games there. You can also sometimes find 5 to 10% discounts on accessories and games at warehouse stores like Sam’s Club, BJ’s, or Costco.

Most Useful Accessories
The basic Wii controller is the remote - it looks like a television remote control. Every game uses this as a controller in some capacity, and there are other devices that plug into the remote for some games. The most common plug-in device is the nunchuk, which is used in the majority of games (but not all of them).

The Wii system comes with one remote (needed for all games), one nunchuk (used in many games), and a copy of Wii Sports (a tremendously fun game). The first thing you need to ask is how many people might be playing the Wii simultaneously on a regular basis? For us, that number was two, so that means we bought another Wii remote and nunchuk. If you have three regular users, get two remotes and two nunchuks. Before you buy a remote, though, read this whole post.

You may want to also get a battery charging system, because the remotes use two AA batteries. I have had a lot of success with converting all of the AA and AAA battery devices in my home to the Energizer e2 rechargeable batteries - these batteries work really well even after a ton of recharges, though the individual batteries are a bit pricy.

If you have wireless internet access at home, the Wii will be able to hook up to it and you can use the Wii to download inexpensive classic video games originally made for the Nintendo, Super Nintendo, N64, and Sega Genesis. All of the old Super Mario Brothers games are available for download, for example. These are paid for with Wii points, which you can also buy at the store in the form of small cards which have a code on the back - entering that code . A Wii point basically costs a cent, and you can permanently download games for 500 to 1000 points. If you plan on doing this, though, you may want to get a Wii Classic Controller, as some of these games require a controller for more buttons (games originally released for the Super Nintendo, N64, and Genesis require the classic controller; NES originals - like the four original Super Mario Bros. games - do not). I’ve had a lot of fun playing these old games, but they may or may not be of interest to you. This old game download stuff is not necessary at all to use the Wii, just an interesting side excursion.

Bargain Games
The best game bargain for the Wii is Wii Sports, which comes free in the box. It is an amazingly fun game and extremely simple for anyone to pick up. It uses motion control to simulate playing five simple sports games - bowling, baseball, golf, boxing, and tennis. For example, when playing tennis, you just swing the remote to hit the ball. With bowling, you swing the remote with a bowling motion and release a button to release the ball. With baseball, you just swing the remote like a bat. It’s quite fun for everyone - my wife and I play bowling and tennis quite a bit, and my oldest nephew loves baseball and is far better than I am at it.

Wii Play has the normal $50 game price, but it has a very nice freebie in the box - a Wii remote. Since the remotes list for $40, that means if you’re going to buy a Wii remote anyway, Wii Play costs $10, a pretty good deal. Wii Play is a collection of simple mini games - they’re fun, but not exceptionally good. Some of them are far better than others and the game should provide a few hours of entertainment.

Link’s Crossbow Training is a new release costing only $25, and it comes with a “light gun” that, when attached to the Wii Remote, transforms it into something similar to the old Light Zapper for the original Nintendo. The game itself is pretty fun and easy to pick up - it’s basically a series of target practice games set in the Legend of Zelda universe. You basically use a “crossbow” to hit targets of various kinds from various distances, with growing levels of difficulty.

By default, the Wii can play any games made for Nintendo’s previous system, the GameCube, provided you have a GameCube controller (which can be found for just a few dollars). Since the GameCube wasn’t a big-selling system like the PlayStation 2 or the XBox, GameCube games can be found on the cheap, and there are some real gems for the system. For under $10, you can find games like Super Mario Sunshine, Wind Waker, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Sands of Time, Pikmin, or the amazingly compelling (and sometimes extremely emotional) Animal Crossing.

Best Games
If there is a single “must have” game for the Wii, it’s Super Mario Galaxy. It has the basic structure of most Mario games - run around, jump on mushrooms and turtles, save the princess - but the 3D graphics are gorgeous and the game is very long and in-depth. There’s a huge amount of variety within the game as well. Beating everything in the game will take countless hours and it will be a lot of fun doing it.

Aside from that, there are a lot of very good Wii games. I recommend any of these:

Guitar Hero III or Dance Dance Revolution: Hottest Party These games have a lot in common, so I’ll lump them together here. They’re both “rhythm” games, meaning that the game basically consists of hitting buttons in a rhythmic pattern in time with the music. Guitar Hero III comes with a controller that looks like a guitar and the songs are rock and roll oriented - the vast majority of the songs will be familiar to people who have ever listened to a classic rock station. Dance Dance Revolution uses dance club music and the control is handled by a floor mat that comes with the game - these songs are distinctly less familiar to my ears, but are quite catchy and very appropriate for the game. DDR will get you up off the couch, though, as it requires you to “dance” on the mat, hitting the buttons with your feet. I like both of these games, with a slight preference for Guitar Hero - my wife vastly prefers Guitar Hero because she doesn’t like dance music at all.

Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess This is a very long heroic quest game, excellently done from beginning to end. It has a multilayered adventure story that deals with self-identity, morality, and other such issues in a genuinely fun and still thought-provoking context. I’ve become engrossed in the depth of the world - one of the side quests allows you to go fishing extensively, and I’ve spent most of the time lately playing the game just fishing.

Madden NFL ‘08 This is the sports game for the system - if the person you’re giving the Wii to enjoys football at all, they’ll like this game. If you’re interested in playing along, it includes a “family play” mode (you’ve probably seen the ad for it, featuring an old lady in the middle of an NFL game shouting “This is my house!”) that greatly simplifies the controls so that anyone in the family can just pick it up and play. The regular version of the game is much more complex and nuanced, offering a lot of game to play through and master.

What Would I Do?
What would I buy if I were giving this system as a gift (besides, obviously, the system)? I’d give rechargeable AA batteries (along with a recharger), a single nunchuk controller, a copy of Wii Play, and one or two more games (depending on how much I was willing to spend). As default choices, the games would likely be Super Mario Galaxy and Guitar Hero III. As a parent, this would be my child’s Christmas gift, period.

If that’s too expensive (the total bill for the above would be close to $400), particularly if the system was for a child who would likely play by themselves, I would get the system, a GameCube controller ($10 or so) and a couple of the best GameCube games listed above ($5 to $10 a pop). That will provide a ton of gaming fun for now and keep the total bill under $300.

When I started working on this post, I was trying to make a list of Christmas (or other winter holiday) gift ideas under $10 that would be great to give for family gift exchanges, as stocking stuffers, and so on. I easily made a list, but then I realized when I read through it that I actually would not like it if I received most of this stuff. If I wouldn’t like these frugal gifts, why would I ever recommend these things to you?

So I threw out the list and started over.

This time, not only did it have to be a good gift under $10 to make the list, it had to be one I would like to receive. Perhaps my tastes don’t match yours or the person you’re giving the gift to, but at least these gifts are known to appeal to someone.

That being said, here are twelve great frugal gifts I’d love to see under my tree.

High-quality basic tools My toolbox is filled with one dollar screwdrivers, most of which are stripped to some degree. A good, top quality screwdriver designed to last for years and years and years is a wonderful gift for a handyman - and can easily be found under $10.

Homemade powdered mixes I mentioned my hot chocolate powdered mix a few days ago, but I like any homemade mixes: spice mixes, popcorn flavoring mixes, and so on. Just mix it up and put it in a homemade jar and I’ll like it.

A memory stick full of memories If you have a USB memory stick sitting around, load it up with pictures, videos, and song files that express fond memories of the relationship you have with that person. Include a bunch of pictures of you both, your families, and so on. These can really be awesome.

A paperback novel that the giver really loves Think of the one book you’ve read in your life that had the most impact on you (or perhaps a small handful). See if it’s available in paperback. Bingo - great inexpensive gift. Even better, put a note inside the front cover that explains why you loved the book so much and why you want to share it.

A “coupon” for a big favor When my wife and I recently had a baby shower, one person gave us a coupon for a night of babysitting of both of our kids. It was the best gift we received, and it only cost the recipient a piece of paper. This is a great gift for parents, especially ones with multiple younger children - it’s hard for them to find time together.

A single pair of very warm, high quality socks Seriously, I get a pair or two every year and they’re among my favorite gifts. Nothing’s nicer than warm feet, especially if you live in a climate with a very cold winter.

A container of homemade cookies The container doesn’t have to be anything special - a large Gladware container will do. But the inside should be filled with the best homemade cookies you can possibly turn out.

A day of volunteering Similar to the coupon for babysitting but with more appeal to the environmentally and socially minded folks, a day of volunteering can be a great gift for someone. Agree to spend a Saturday volunteering for the local charity of their choice, doing stuff like hammering nails or picking up trash. Better yet, agree to go with the person on a volunteering outing, or offer to watch their children so they can participate.

An old-fashioned safety razor This sounds completely crazy, I know, but you can usually find a beautiful one if you ask around at resale shops for far less than $10, and then package it up with some razor blades. I am a big fan of shaving the “old fashioned” way, with a safety razor, though I don’t always do it (I sometimes use a cheap disposable in the shower when I’m in a big hurry). If you know of a young man who is shaving with disposables, give this as a gift and just see what happens.

Quality pens I have a burning, undying hatred for cheap pens, but the cost difference between a cheap Bic and a decent pen makes me often stick with the cheap ones. Because of that, I love a great pen as a gift, one of the low-end types you buy at a real pen store, not in the office supply section at Target. You can usually get a very nice pen for general use for right around that $10 sweet spot.

A picture frame Go find a nice, simple, elegant picture frame and gift it. Often, people feel obligated to put some picture inside the frame. Don’t. If you want to give some pictures, give several in an included envelope and say that they can choose one of those or anything else they might want.

A heartfelt, handwritten letter or note This one seems absolutely bonkers to some, but it is often the best gift someone can possibly give, especially to someone estranged. Sit down and take some time to just write a handwritten letter to someone important in your life. Tell them honestly how you feel about them, and if the relationship is strained, and put to rest any bad feeling you might have about the situation. It will leave you feeling much better and will often move the other person to tears.

For me, Father’s Day has always been much easier to understand than Mother’s Day, perhaps because I saw my father as a role model growing up and now I have become a father myself. I also find that most fathers I know like “open-ended” gifts - ones that they can continually get enjoyment out of over time or that free up time to do other stuff. In other words, there’s an abundance of frugal gifts that work well for Father’s Day. In fact, I myself would enjoy most of these gifts for Father’s Day.

The Dangerous Book for Boys This is perhaps my top choice for a Father’s Day gift (I’ve waxed ecstatic about it in the past), simply because it is loaded to the brim with wonderful, nostalgic, and inexpensive activities that fathers and their children can do together. I almost think the titular “boys” refers to fathers more than children, actually.

Yard work Mow the yard, trim the weeds and bushes, clean up the flower bed, and so on. Do this while you’ve told your father to go out and do something fun, like playing a couple rounds of golf with his friends.

Car wash and detailing Take a few hours and focus on really making your father’s primary automobile clean, inside and out. Scrub the whole exterior, wax it, and clean out the entire interior, including spraying down all of the surface and vacuuming everywhere, including the seats and the cracks between them. It’s an awesome gift that he’ll really appreciate.

Garage clean up This is something that my brothers and I did for our father once and it was a smash hit. We basically scrubbed down the garage, turning it from a dank pit into a very nice, clean place. The key part was that we noted where every item of importance was before we started cleaning and we put many of them back in the exact place we found them, save some tools and things that had designated places, so he had no trouble finding anything.

Make Magazine This is another item I’ve been quite excited about for a while and is perfect for a father who loves to tinker with things. Much like the Dangerous book above, a lot of these projects can easily revolve around fathers and their children - the cover of issue #10 even pictures the editor and his daughter working on a project together.

Home maintenance work Similar to the yard work concept, you could do some home maintenance tasks to give your father the gift of some free time to enjoy a baseball game or something else he would enjoy. Don’t know what to do? Here’s a useful checklist of tons of ideas for regular home maintenance. Just write down all of the things that you did and present that to him - he’ll be thrilled.

Garden weeding My brothers and I did this for Father’s Day one year. We pulled a ton of weeds out of the garden, saved them in a bag, and gave him the bag of weeds as a gift. With the three of us working on it like madmen for several hours while my parents were off doing something else, we saved him many hours of work in the garden, freeing him up to do other things that he would enjoy instead of the relative tedium of weeding.

Communication Sometimes it is hard, but spending some time to really communicate how important your father is to you can be the best Father’s Day gift you can give. Don’t run to Hallmark and buy a card - spend a half an hour and try to write down on a blank card in your own words how important and wonderful your father is.

When we got married, we received a ton of gifts from family members of all kinds, ranging from towels to a weird statue of a hobbit to a knife set to towels to a handmade quilt to towels. Needless to say, we still have plenty of towels.

Today, though, there are only a few that really stand out from the pack, gifts that really stuck with us and proved to be really useful in our life. In every case, these gifts were ones that helped us to be more frugal and do more things for ourselves. They’ve saved us money, saved us time, and helped us to build a richer relationship.

With that in mind, a reader sent me the following email this weekend:

What sort of possessions would give newlyweds a helping hand along their road to financial independence? An good example is a crock pot - affordable, useful and will save us many $$$ in the long run.

So, without further ado, here is The Simple Dollar’s Frugal Wedding Registry. All of these gifts should help a couple get on or stay on a solid financial path leading toward a very bright future together, both financial and otherwise.

For any couple: Smart Couples Finish Rich
Virtually all couples, when they are married, are not yet on the same financial page. That’s what this book is about - helping couples sit down and define their financial relationship, figure out if their financial goals match and ways to encourage the goals to match, and also plan for a lifetime of financial success together. They might forget about this gift at first in all of the hubbub around their wedding, but give it a year or two, and they’ll likely turn to this book when they discover that their financial life is leaving the honeymoon stage. At that point, this book is an incredibly valuable gift.

For the outdoorsy couple: A national or state park pass
If they enjoy backpacking, hiking, or camping, free access to state and national parks will provide them with many, many hours of wonderful experiences for free. Some of our nations’ most beautiful areas are in state and national parks, and I can’t tell you how many fond memories I have from hiking and walking in national parks with my wife in the early years of our marriage. We used a park pass at multiple parks across the northern tier of states and some of our best memories of our marriage come from those state and national parks.

For the time-constrained couple: A high quality crock pot, like the KitchenAid KSC700SS
Couples made up of two professionals often barely have time to see each other in the evening, let alone prepare a meal. So they burn money on takeout instead. With a crock pot, though, they can easily prepare their own meals in a few minutes before work, and have a delicious homecooked meal waiting for them when they arrive home. You can also print out my earlier posts on slow cookers, The Art of the Slow Cooker and By Request: Five Essential Crock Pot Recipes for inclusion with the gift, to give them some free materials to start off with.

For the couple without anything saved: A mutual fund
Buy them an appropriate amount of a mutual fund somewhere and tell them to hold onto it until they need it for a major purchase, like a home. This is a great gift to get a large group of relatives involved in. Just a few months ago, I saw a couple receive only one “major” gift: a $5,000 mutual fund that was to help them make a down payment when they went to buy a house in a few years.

For the do-it-yourself couple: A sewing machine
Some of you might immediately write this off as archaic, but an individual who thrives on making stuff for him/herself can get a ton of value out of a quality sewing machine. My wife has one and has made everything from curtains to pajamas to quilts with it - it’s one of the best gifts we’ve ever received.

For the kitchen-averse couple: How To Cook Everything
Forget Betty Crocker or even Joy of Cooking (even given my attachment to the latter), this is the single best book I’ve ever seen for beginning cooks. This book is loaded with details on preparation, explaining the finer points of almost every common culinary practice. The recipes (and there are a bunch of them) focus on a merger of simplicity and flavor in an effort to show beginning cooks that it is indeed easy to create something delicious in the kitchen. If you know someone who doesn’t cook for themselves much but has any potential at all, this is the book to give them.

For the food-loving couple: A high quality knife set
During our first few years together, we made do with a cheap knife set that made most tasks very difficult. When we upgraded to a high quailty knife set, it made all the difference in terms of our food preparation. Suddenly, it didn’t take an hour to chop vegetables, and with some practice on how to actually use a real knife, I was chopping carrots in fifteen seconds where before it would take eight minutes or so. This increase in speed got us to cook at home much more, and the knife set has paid for itself.

For the movie-addicted couple: A prepaid subscription to Netflix
If the couple loves watching movies together and has built up a large DVD library, that DVD library is probably sucking away a lot of their money each month. Get them a gift subscription to Netflix so that they’re not burning so much cash buying movies - and can instead find better uses for the money. My wife and I received a year-long subscription to the service and it massively cut down on our DVD buying habits.

For the thoughtful couple: Your Money or Your Life
This book, more than any other, presents a thought-provoking view of money’s role in a person’s life. It makes some very powerful connections between reducing spending and quality of life and provides a ton of interesting activities that can authentically change a person’s perspective about money in their life. If the couple is thoughtful and loves discussing things, get them a copy (or a pair of copies) of this book - they’ll find plenty to discuss in it, and may find themselves making better and more frugal financial choices as a result.

If all else fails…: Cash
For many, this seems unimaginative, but actually think about the bride and groom for a minute. They’ve just gone through a wedding that had great expense and may have put them in debt, and they’re about to embark on a married life that will probably involve even more debt. Help them out now with some cash, and maybe they won’t fall as deep into debt. I know that many of our friends and family gave us cash for our wedding several years ago with explicit instructions to use it to “get started,” so we used it to pay off some wedding, honeymoon, and credit card debt. Because of that, we had our wonderful wedding memories without the bad feelings of all of the debt we had to pay off.