Eye Opener: Photo Essay

With the holidays just around the corner some of us might be looking for that last minute gift. This year, as I am a college student without a lot of money, I decided to look for ways to save money on gifts this year. There are many ways to give gifts everyone will love without spending a lot of money. The following are gifts I have come up with in order to save money this holiday season. The items include homemade trail mix, knit hats and scarves, calendar pictures, plants, and water bottles.

My first gift that I made to give to friends and family this holiday season was homemade trail mix. This is a very inexpensive gift, as some items you may even be able to find around the house. The items I included in my homemade trail mix were: raisins, Reese's pieces, milk chocolate M&M's, Cheez-its, sunflower seeds, almonds, and pecans. All seeds and nuts were unsalted which makes these things better for you even though other items in the mix may not be. I would also recommend adding pretzels to your trail mix, however I did not have any when making my trail mix.

Here is a look at the final product. I did not measure anything as I just put in the amount that I thought would work and added more as needed. It is also fun to personalize trail mix according to who you are giving it to and what items they like.

My second gift suggestions is learning how to knit and making a scarf or a hat for someone you know. I recently learned how to knit hats and now everyone I know will be receiving them for a gift this year. For this item purchasing yarn is the main cost. I was able to borrow the tools to knit the hats from a friend. If you do not know anyone with this kind of stuff there is the added cost of purchasing the kit. Here are some of the hats that I have made for this holiday season. 

The third gift item is a picture calendar and one that you can typically find around your house. For this gift a person can simply take their old calendar and use a picture from the previous years calendar and frame it. Some pictures you may have to cut in order to fit it to your frame. These pictures can be used as decorations around your recipients place.

The fourth gift is the simple gift of a plant. Plants are a great environmentally friendly gift that always brighten up a home. Plants that can be inside this season but need to be by a window are usually available at a reasonable rate. I recently purchased a plant that looks like a mini palm tree for $6.99 at Home Depot. If you choose to go with a small plant and need a holder for the plant, you can always use a milk carton that has been cut in half. This not only saves money but it is also fun to decorate these in order to make them look fun.

The fifth gift item is the gift of a water bottle. This a great way to promote healthy living to friends and family. Some water bottle are a little more expensive but there are some places where nice water bottles are about $5.00. Some others run for about $10.00, which usually have some kind of design or special feature. This gift is also environmentally friendly as it friends and family will not be using plastic water bottles, which end up in landfills. Water bottles are great gifts that everyone can use.

These gift item are great ways to save money and promote healthy living. Homemade trail mix, knit hats and scarves, calendar pictures, plants, and water bottles are all great gift items for someone with a budget this holiday season. I hope these items have given everyone an idea for a holiday or birthday present this season.