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.

I regularly forget birthdays of friends and family, only remembering them at the very last possible second. I used to think that running to a specialty store and picking something at random was a great idea, but quite often I would wind up giving gifts that would go unused and forgotten - even worse, these gifts were often expensive.

Eventually, this tactic bit me very hard a few times: I found myself with literally no money on the day of a gift-giving occasion and no gift in sight - or even in mind. It was time to get desperate - and get creative.

Here are ten really inexpensive gift ideas that you can whip up quickly that will impress your friends and family - or, even better, be a gift they’ll really appreciate.

A recipe-in-a-jar
(i.e., everything you need to make a certain recipe) For Who? Anyone

Take a favorite recipe, make a copy of it, then put all of the non-perishable ingredients together in a jar or bottle. Most of the ingredients can already be found in most kitchens. You can tie a ribbon around the top or any other simple personalization you’d like. My favorite example of this was when I made cajun seasoning in a jar, but put it in a Corona bottle with a replaceable cap instead … it was a huge hit. Some great ones include gingerbread cookie mix in a jar, soup mixes in a jar, and hot chocolate mix in a jar. If you’re lazy, go to a coffee shop and fill a jar with about half a pound of beans or ground coffee, though this will be a bit more expensive.

A framed picture
For Who? Family members, friends

For grandparents, this is easy: pictures of grandchildren always do the trick. For others, it can be harder, but photos of moments that you shared together can usually work. Look through your digital photo archives, go get a one hour print of it (remember, last minute!), and while it’s printing, go find a nice picture frame to put it in.

A music memory stick
For Who? Techies, music fans

I have a bunch of memory sticks laying around that were given to me during various giveaways. I would feel pretty cheap giving them as gifts, but with a little spruce-up, they make great gifts. I load up the memory stick with a bunch of mp3s of my favorite songs (that I own, of course), then give the memory stick as a gift. It’s a legal way to share music with friends (the legal issues come with anonymous sharing) and it enables you to make a gift with utility and excitement out of stuff you might have laying around.

Babysitting
For Who? Parents

Get an envelope and a piece of paper. On the paper, write “One evening of babysitting.” Put it in the envelope. Seal it. Give it to parents of toddlers. Watch the tears of joy.

A computer spruce-up
For Who? Anyone who has a computer but isn’t highly technical

If you’re reading this, there’s a decent chance you’re technically proficient, and there’s also a very good chance you know someone with a computer who isn’t. Offer to give their computer a tune-up, which basically involves running a defragmenter, running Ad Aware, cleaning up their Startup folder, and so forth. You can even go the extra mile and pop open the case and give the insides a good cleaning, too. Many of my relatives really appreciate this gift, and it only takes me an hour or two to make their computer run noticeably faster.

Goodie assortment
For Who? Anyone

You probably have a fair idea of what foods really hit the buttons of your friends (hint: if all else fails, try chocolate for girls and meats for boys). Just go to the grocery store and select an assortment of appropriate finger foods. Put them in a box. Wrap it. Give it. For me, this would be cheeses, but that can run to the expensive; chocolate assortments can be pretty cheap. For teenagers, get them five random candy bars and they’ll flip (if you don’t believe me, try it … it almost always works!); the best part is that the gift can be assembled at the local 7-Eleven with pocket change.

A charitable contribution
For Who? Adults or charitable children

If the person is giving and doesn’t seem to really need anything, give a charitable donation in their name. Go print off some basic information about the charity as well as something showing your gift amount. Need a good charity? How about Heifer International or my favorite charity, the Child Abuse Prevention Center. Charitable donations are tax-deductible, so if you donate $50, it could save you up to $14 on your income tax as well. If you’ve got no money, pledge time to give to a charity like Habitat for Humanity.

Seduction
For Who? Your significant other

Forgot your anniversary or her birthday? Rather than buying something, be romantic. Make her some food, give him a long massage, cuddle up with her in front of a movie she likes, massage his feet, pour a hot bubble bath … do something exceptional and romantic. No preparation time required.

A home-cooked meal
For Who? New parents, the elderly

An offer to go to someone’s home, prepare a meal for them, and clean up everything afterwards is an unbelievably great gift for new parents (who are pretty much burning a candle at both ends for the first few months) and for the elderly (who may have difficulty preparing meals for themselves). Much like the babysitting offer, all you need is an envelope and a piece of paper. You might even want to specify the meal to be sure you know how to prepare it.

Auto detailing
For Who? Anyone with a car

Offer to detail someone’s car on a future Saturday morning so it can be nice for a big date that night, or on a Sunday afternoon for a fresh ride in the week ahead. If you’re unfamiliar, here’s what the process of auto detailing involves - it’s mostly just some hard work and a few cleaning supplies that you can get later.

At least one of these ten ideas should rescue you in any gift-giving occasion.

To celebrate the week before Christmas (and give you a few great last minute gift ideas), The Simple Dollar is reviewing five board games that not only are a blast to play, but teach valuable financial lessons as well. All of these games should be easily found at a department store or a gaming specialty shop (check your local yellow pages). Other games in this series include The Game of Life, Monopoly, and Modern Art.

Acquire
Avalon Hill

While yesterday’s choice was a fine example of a market at work, it didn’t capture the elegance of true competition, mergers, and acquisitions, the kind of moves one expects to see from a large scale market. Thankfully, the number two choice turns the magnificent beauty of an open market into a really compelling game.

How the game works The board is a grid of 120 squares. Upon these squares, players take turns laying tiles out of their “hands”; this is all much like Scrabble. Each tile has a letter and a number in it that refers to a specific square on the board, so you choose the tile from your hand that best improves your situation on the board. Tiles that are next to each other represent corporations, and players can buy stock in these corporations. Over time, as more tiles are placed, corporations grow (a group of adjacent tiles has another tile added) or merge (a tile connects two corporations). When corporations merge, the larger one swallows the smaller one, and so the smaller one can cash out their stocks or receive stocks in the larger one. The game ends when the market is full (i.e., no more tiles can be placed). The player with the strongest portfolio of stocks and cash wins.

In other words, the game represents a market, with corporations merging, investors capitalizing, people holding insider information (like in Scrabble, you know what your tiles are, but the other players don’t), and people diversifying their portfolios. It’s an incredibly enjoyable simulation of the wild ride that is Wall Street.

What sorts of lessons about finance does this game teach?

Buy low, sell high You win the game by doing this well. If you know a corporation is going to grow in the future, you can do very well by buying stocks in it.

The only kind of information is insider information The tiles you hold for yourself are your insider information; you know some elements of where the market is headed that other players do not, and you can choose to guide corporations in these directions. For instance, a handful of tiles that can help one corporation means you have a ton of information about that company, and thus buying stock in them early means you’ll turn a nice profit.

The market is complicated Once you get into the game, many layers of strategy begin to reveal themselves. How long do you hold onto certain tiles? Should you force a merger now? Do you cash out or take valuable stock in a huge corporation?

Startups are insanely lucrative but very risky It is this aspect of the game that so effectively parallels the stock market. When companies start up in the middle of the game, there’s a chance that the holders of the stock will get very rich. There’s also a chance that they’ll barely be worth the paper they’re printed on. Does the investor have inside information?

Mergers often pay off better for the acquired than the company that acquires. Quite often, it is the investors in the smaller company that gain the most in the long run with a buyout. This is true not only in this game, but in real life.

Acquire is deliriously fun and a great abstraction of how the real market works. If you want the challenges and the joys of stock investing in a board game form, Acquire is a wonderful choice. Plus, it may be my favorite game of all time.

So what could possibly top my favorite game of all time on this list? Tune in tomorrow to find out.

To celebrate the week before Christmas (and give you a few great last minute gift ideas), The Simple Dollar is reviewing five board games that not only are a blast to play, but teach valuable financial lessons as well. All of these games should be easily found at a department store or a gaming specialty shop (check your local yellow pages). Other games in this series include The Game of Life and Monopoly.

Modern Art
Mayfair Games

I first discovered Modern Art during a “game night” held in my college dormitory. There were all the usual games there: Monopoly, Risk, and so forth, along with a few others I hadn’t seen before. One of these involved people staring at each other intently, then participating in an auction. As I moved closer to that table, I began to be sucked into one of the best games I’ve ever played.

How the game works Each player has a handful of cards that represent paintings by one of five different artists - you can think of the “artist” as being much like a suit in a normal deck of cards. The players go around the table and auction off the paintings, with the highest bidder collecting that painting. At the end of the round, the paintings are sold: the most popular artist has the most valuable paintings, followed by the next most popular artist, and so on. This gives the players money with which to bid the next round. It’s worthwhile to note that artists maintain their popularity into future rounds, so artists popular early on will always have some value to their paintings. The winner is the player with the most money at the end of four rounds.

In essence, the paintings are like any free market, and that’s what makes Modern Art so interesting: it’s the best game I’ve ever played for teaching the concepts of a free market. What can be learned from it?

Relative values change over time As the game goes on, some artists stagnate in value, while others suddenly skyrocket. If you keep betting on the same horse over and over, you’re going to lose out to people who diversify their investments.

You win by finding bargains and riding their escalation The real key to success at Modern Art, just like in the stock market, is looking at the game situation in front of you and determining which artist is going to make the biggest value jump in this round, then buying that artist’s paintings. The best investor will be the one that picks right.

Bubbles will always burst Whenever people start bidding like crazy for one artist, a good player (and investor) will hold off on investing and will look for something else to invest his or her money on. After a round or two, the bubble will burst and those paintings will be too expensive at auction to turn a strong profit on.

The art of negotiation A big part of this game is knowing how to negotiate with other players, mostly in terms of convincing them to not participate in auctions that you are hoping to corner. This usually ends up with various types of negotiations, including manipulating auctions on some paintings. It’s up to you to determine how much of this to allow, of course, but it can get very interesting.

Aesthetics versus the bottom line Another interesting aspect of this game is how many players seem to bid in relation to their personal feelings about the paintings themselves, even though it really doesn’t matter in the game. This can cause some players to train-wreck their own game, much like investors who bought into sexy stocks like Enron.

Different forms of auctions mean different strategies The game allows several different kinds of auctions, from a “once around” auction to a double-painting auction and several other variants. Each one requires a careful evaluation of what’s actually for sale and what other players are doing.

Aside from some very complicated (and often boring) board games, this is the best version of an open market I’ve ever seen in a game - plus it’s incredibly fun to play. If you want to teach (and learn about) the open market to someone, this is easily the most enjoyable way to do it. You might even find yourself playing it again and again - it takes only about an hour to play, and it gets very interesting as the players gain more skill at the game (i.e., they understand the market better).

I admit it: I’m a gadget addict. I like little devices that do neat things. At the same time, I also like to save money. What is a poor modern man to do with these two conflicting interests?

Simple. I buy gadgets that can pay for themselves (and even see a bit of return) over the long haul. This usually means I look for energy-efficient gadgets, but it also means that I try to evaluate things in terms of whether or not they can potentially return money to me. What’s nice is that many of these gadgets that save me money in the long run make a great deal of environmental sense as well.

Here’s a list of twenty five neat items I’ve found that can save a lot of money, along with their cost and the amount of time that it will take before their extra cost is paid for by their utility. Since they’re gizmos, they make for great gift ideas, plus you can use the argument that “this will save money” when suggesting the purchase of one of these items to your significant other. In fact, I actually started this list as justification to my wife for a few items I wanted to buy for myself.

1. Filtered Water Bottle
Sample Model: Katadyn Exstream Personal Water Bottle Purifier
Price: $39.95 + $32.95 cartridge refills
Time Until Break Even: 180 days of daily use

If you drink a bottle of water each day (as you should), but you buy bottled water instead of drinking tap water, you can pay for this nifty device in half a year. You can fill it from any tap and the internal filtering device will clean the water for you, eliminating viruses and bacteria. Thus, each day you use this bottle, you pay off a little more.

2. Battery Charger
Sample Model: Rayovac Universal Battery Charger
Price: $17.95
Time Until Break Even: How many kids do you have?

My son has a bevy of toys that just gobble batteries. It seems like every day I’m dropping more and more batteries into these devices. Thankfully, a battery recharger can trim the costs down really quick. Just take your Rayovac AAs, toss them in this, plug it in, and they’re good to go again. It’s absolutely perfect for parents that have children with lots of battery-powered toys.

3. “Smart” Power Strips
Sample Model: SmartStrip LCG4
Price: $34.95
Time Until Break Even: 60 days

If you use a desktop computer at home, it won’t take long until this device is a money saver for you. Simply plug in your main unit into the control outlet and all of your other peripherals (monitor, printer, speakers, etc.) into the other outlets. Whenever you power on your computer, the other devices power on; whenever you power off your computer, the others power off. Even better, it actually functions as a switch, so when your main unit powers off, there is no phantom “standby” electricity being drawn to the other peripherals. Not only will you save money on the powered-down peripherals, but you’ll save money from the lack of phantom charge.

4. Blender
Sample Model: Oster Classic Beehive Blender
Price: $47.99
Time Until Break Even: 6-12 months

A quality blender (like the one above) can save tons of money if you use it regularly. You can switch to grinding your own herbs, spices, coffee beans, and so on. A regular kitchen user can make back the price on herbs alone if they buy fresh herbs and grind them in the blender for long-term storage. Plus it’s invaluable for making drinks at home when you have guests, which ends up being much cheaper than a night out on the town. Get a good one, though, so it will chop and cut what you want.

5. Electricity Usage Monitor
Sample Model: Kill-a-Watt Electricity Usage Monitor
Price: $24.99
Time Until Break Even: 3 years

With this device, you can see how much of a phantom load your powered-down electrical devices are still pulling through the wall outlet. If you discover devices that are pulling a significant load, unplugging them (or using an appropriate device to stop the drain) will save you money over time. This device is also useful for figuring out how much power various home devices are draining and, with some quick calculations, exactly how much it’s costing you.

6. Flash Drive
Sample Model: Kingston Data Traveler 1 GB
Price: $17.95
Time Until Break Even: 1 month

I find countless uses for my flash drive, the best of which is for an emergency backup of key files. A flash drive has saved my cookie during hardware crashes and it has also saved a lot of money in terms of burning CDs for software installation packages off the network. In short, it’s invaluable.

7. High End Solar Calculator
Sample Model: Texas Instruments TI36X
Price: $10.99
Time Until Break Even: 2 years

I like to keep one of these in my pocket for doing calculations at the grocery store. Which package is the better deal per unit? It’s always a good idea to figure this out before blindly making a purchase at the store. Plus, with a solar calculator, you don’t ever have to worry about batteries or anything else - just keep using it.

8. Efficient Power Supply
Sample Model: Antek EA 380
Price: $81.00
Time Until Break Even: 1 year

A high-efficiency power supply not only protects you from electrical faults, it also ensures that your devices drain electricity at the minimum rate, which means your power bills go down. If your home has any sort of questionable power distribution, this device is essential for protecting your electronic equipment, but even if you have normal power, you can save money with this gadget because of the power drain that it reduces.

9. Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs
Sample Model: GE Soft White Spiral T4
Price: $1.79
Time Until Break Even: 4 months

CFLs can easily save $100 a year, plus they look a lot cooler than ordinary bulbs. The simple fact of the matter is that by merely replacing a regular bulb with a CFL, you’ll save about a dollar per bulb every two months or so.

10. Efficient Shower Heads
Sample Model: Niagra Conservation Earth Massage Showerhead
Price: $15.99
Time Until Break Even: 10 months

High efficiency showerheads save money by reducing the amount of water that needs to flow through your hot water heater. An average American household can save as much as 15,000 gallons of water per year by installing high-efficiency shower heads. Even better: that’s 15,000 gallons of hot water that your heater doesn’t have to heat, cutting down on your energy costs as well.

11. Fuel-Efficient Scooter
Sample Model: 2006 Vespa PX 150
Price: $4,200
Time Until Break Even: 4 years

A high-efficiency scooter is perfect for people who have a relatively short work commute that’s just a bit too far to walk every day. Leave that car in the garage and travel on a scooter. Plus, you can scoot around town and quickly run errands on this thing. Of course, a bicycle is even less expensive, but scooters are much faster and won’t leave you sweaty when you arrive.

12. Solar Outdoor Lighting
Sample Model: Silicon Solar Innovision LED
Price: $12.95
Time Until Break Even: 180 evenings

This is a great choice if you want to light your yard and patio in the evening but don’t want to spend on electricity all the time. Solar powered outdoor lighting will provide adequate lighting for much of the night after recharging themselves during the day. Their design incorporates solar panels, a nice geek factor, and they can provide wonderful low light in the evening, perfect for a nice ambience.

13. Dance Dance Revolution
Sample Model: DDR Extreme 2 (plus peripherals)
Price: $200
Time Until Break Even: 8 months ($25/month gym fees)

If you use the gym for a cardio workout, cancel your gym membership and get a home video game system, DDR, and a good quality dance pad. The game itself provides all the motivation you need, plus you have to be in pretty good shape in order to play the game for extended periods. I lost about 20 pounds playing DDR instead of going to the gym once upon a time.

14. Self-Cleaning Electric Shaver
Sample Model: Braun 8995 360 Complete
Price: $169.13
Time Until Break Even: 8 months of daily shaving

A top-quality self-cleaning rechargeable electric shaver saves significant money for each shaving over disposable razors and shaving cream. Although there are still upkeep costs (recharging, a rare replacement of the blades, and facial wash), the costs are much less than what you’ll incur with shaving cream and blades. Plus, you get the unbridled joy of owning a new gadget.

15. Espresso / Cappuccino Machine
Sample Model: Gaggia Carezza
Price: $200
Time Until Break Even: 80 visits to a coffee shop

Do you stop by Starbucks each day to pick up a fresh cup on your way to work? If you invest in a decent cappuccino / espresso maker, those visits can go right out the door; you can make it at home and it tastes at least as good as the stuff at the shops, especially chain ones like Starbucks where they have the “process” down to an art form. Plus, once you get used to using it, you can experiment a lot with different beans and grindings and make some truly sublime homemade coffees.

16. Programmable Thermostat
Sample Model: Honeywell 5/2 Programmable Thermostat
Price: $39.99
Time Until Break Even: 6 months

If you have central air conditioning, you need programmable thermostats. They provide very precise temperature control and can be programmed to automatically lower your air conditioning and/or heat use while you’re not home. Just program it and forget about it; it will automatically adjust things for you so that you aren’t wasting electricity and money.

17. Coin Sorter
Sample Model: FastSort Electric Coin Sorter
Price: $95.99
Time Until Break Even: 2 years

Most banks will no longer count change for you, but they will accept pre-rolled coins as deposits. CoinStar, on the other hand, will cash out change for you, but they have a 10% surcharge. Why not just sort and roll them yourself? Keep this device on the dresser, dump in your pocket change each night, change the rolls in and out (the device comes with a bunch of coin rolls), and when you go to the bank, take in a bunch of coin rolls and deposit them. Over time, the device pays for itself over the amount you would lose using CoinStar.

18. Efficient Space Heater
Sample Model: Honeywell HZ-315
Price: $19.95
Time Until Break Even: One cold winter

Small, efficient space heaters can save a lot of money because they allow you to not have to spend lots of extra energy keeping some rooms heated (such as the bathroom). Instead, just put in a space heater and turn it on when you take a shower. It’s substantially cheaper than keeping that spare room heated. Plus, you can use them when working in the basement or other rooms that you don’t bother to heat, or in the bedroom at night if you lower the house heat during the nighttime hours.

19. Solar Christmas Lights
Sample Model: Silicon Solar LED Christmas Lights
Price: $59.95
Time Until Break Even: 2 Christmas seasons

Instead of buying strands of electric lights for outdoor Christmas decoration, get a set of solar LED Christmas lights. They eat no electricity as they charge up during the day, come on automatically in the evening, and stay on most of the night. You can just set them up and let them be with no maintenance cost or effort at all. The start-up cost is a bit high, but the cool factor of LED solar Christmas lights, plus the energy savings, quickly makes up for it.

20. Remote Control Power Strips
Sample Model: Lacrosse RS-204
Price: $29.95
Time Until Break Even: 2 years (depending on use)

Quite often, we find ourselves plugging lots of lights and decorations in during the Christmas holidays, and it becomes a hassle to power them all off and on, so we often leave things on more often than we’d like, sometimes even overnight. To solve this problem, install a remote control power strip. This device can be turned on and off by remote control, meaning that you can have all of the cords out of the way and flip the Christmas tree lights on and off with just a button click.

21. High Efficiency Washing Machine
Sample Model: Whirlpool Duet Front-Loading High-Efficiency Washer GHW9150P
Price: $859
Time Until Break Even: 3 years

If you buy a large-load high efficiency front loading washing machine, you’ll do many fewer laundry loads per month and each load will take less water than before. A machine like this can easily save $10 over a regular machine in water usage in a family home per month; even better, a large load machine will save a lot of time. Given the cost of a normal low-end washer, it should only take three years or so for this machine to pay for itself.

22. A Laptop
Sample Model: Dell Inspiron E1505
Price: $819
Time Until Break Even: 1 year

Now that laptops have reached a usability and reliability standard that approximates desktops, it becomes a serious choice whether or not to replace a desktop with a laptop. If you make the leap, you’ll find that the energy savings are tremendous. I often run it from battery at home and charge it using available outlets in other places, such as the local bookstore, meaning I have very little home energy use from the laptop. It won’t take long for this savings to make up for the differences in cost, plus you’ll have all of the laptop portability advantages.

23. TiVo
Sample Model: TiVo Series 2 80 Hour Dual Tuner
Price: $49.99 + $9.95 a month
Time Until Break Even: 6 months

If you have cable and a TiVo, your needs for DVD purchases and rentals will almost disappear simply because of the plethora of programming you’ll be able to watch commercial-free. This will begin to save you money before long, plus it will give you a much greater control over what you watch on television - I skip a lot of programs simply because of the commercials and the inability to pause them to chase my child.

24. A Hybrid Car
Sample Model: Toyota Prius
Price: $22,175
Time Until Break Even: 5 years

If you compare a hybrid side-by-side with a non-hybrid, the hybrid costs more up front. The savings, though, kicks in over the life of the car with much lower fuel costs. Plus, it has a great “geek factor” and it’s a solid environmental decision.

25. A Residential Windmill
Sample Model: Skystream 3.7
Price: $8,500 (including installation)
Time Until Break Even: 8 years

If you want to be “king geek” in your area, few things will top this. $8,500 will get you a windmill on top of your house, which can, by itself, take care of almost all of your home electrical needs. It looks like a high-tech antenna up there, quietly whirring away, using the wind to provide your juice. For an average household, the device will pay for itself in eight years; after that, it’s all gravy. Plus, you’re helping the environment by almost eliminating your load on the power grid.

Sometimes, you can buy gadgets to save money.

My family regularly receive small cash gifts from relatives in lieu of actual gift items. These gifts are especially nice when the pinch of the holiday season is being felt, but it leaves us wondering what an appropriate use of these gifts actually is.

On one hand, the relatives expect you to spend it on something you’ll purely enjoy. They won’t be impressed if you use their $50 to buy toiletries. On the other hand, putting that $50 towards retirement will allow your retirement to be just a little bit nicer, particularly if you invest aggressively when you’re young.

A similar dichotomy exists for children. On the one hand, the kids want to use the money to buy a new video game or some such trinket. On the other hand, you’d like to see them save it for college.

Here’s how we handle these difficult issues.

For gifts to adults, we save it with the caveat that it’s going towards a greater cause. Right now, we are using any money we are gifted for Christmas as part of our savings for furniture, as we are moving next year and, well, pretty much any home will have more space than we have now.

This can be handled with a clear and thoughtful thank you note that not only cements the family bond, but lets the giver know that your gift is important to you and you do plan on spending it on something nice.

For gifts to children, it depends on the child’s age. For children too young to understand money (such as ours), we invest all of their money. For older children who understand that money can be exchanged for goods but who don’t yet understand the value of saving, we’ll merely require that they save at least half of it. For teenagers who can comprehend why one should save, we’ll let them make the choice, but if they choose to spend it, we’ll want to know what they bought.

In short, it’s okay to save it if the goal is specific and tangible. Just be sure to write a thank you note!

To celebrate the week before Christmas (and give you a few great last minute gift ideas), The Simple Dollar is reviewing five board games that not only are a blast to play, but teach valuable financial lessons as well. All of these games should be easily found at a department store or a gaming specialty shop (check your local yellow pages). The first game in this series was The Game of Life.

Monopoly
Milton Bradley

For many of us, Monopoly is the game that pops in our heads when the phrase “board game” is mentioned. Rainy afternoons and marathon games of Monopoly were rites of passage when I was growing up - my cousins and I played a five player game that ended up running for 34 hours because we wound up in a deadlock and no one would trade lest the other one win.

How the game works You move around the board in a loop, buying unowned properties and charging rent to other players who land on your properties. Each completed lap around the board earns you a small income. Event cards (Chance and Community Chest) alter the game a bit, but the real charm is in the player interactions: can you convince Uncle Walt to trade you Illinois Avenue for Reading Railroad, completing both of your sets?

So what does this game teach players about personal finance?

Investments pay off If you spend your money on a property, over time that property will generate income for you, enabling you to buy more property. In other words, investments earn income.

Investments have different kinds of value Many players are initially drawn to Boardwalk and Park Place because of the fantastically high rents that they bring in, but as you play more, you discover that other properties (such as Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky) are landed on much more often. Which is more valuable: a space rarely landed on with a huge rent, or a space with a lower rent that’s landed on regularly? Players learn to compare values and how to invest for themselves.

Random events Not only do the dice determine your route, but the Chance and Community Chest cards interject a good deal of randomness into the game. These cards often represent completely random events that can devastate you or save you, teaching players that if they get themselves into desperately overdrawn situations, they can lose everything at the drop of a hat. The game almost requires an emergency fund, and it shows clearly why it’s important.

Negotiation A big part of Monopoly is the art of negotiation. Can you talk your sister into trading Pennsylvania Avenue to you in exchange for the electric company and water works? A big part of the deal is how you sell it.

Infinite variety There are countless “house rules” for Monopoly that changes the flavor - and the skills needed. As the rules of the game change, so must your gameplay. For example, the free parking variant makes die rolling more important, whereas the bank lending rule enables players to go into debt without mortgaging. Different rules mean different strategies.