Holidays and birthdays come around whether you are living a frugally or not. You don’t have to break your budget in order to give a gift that will not only be loved by its recipient, but also used often.
Gift boxes or baskets make wonderful, thoughtful gifts for everyone and are only limited by your imagination. Once you start making these up, you’ll wonder why you didn’t think of it sooner. They are fun to make and give, can be worked into nearly every budget and can be tailored for the pickiest on your list. Below are a few ideas to get you started.

Frugal Food Basket: Mix up some master baking mix, pancake mix, cookie mix, or muffin mix. Pick and choose or give them all in tightly sealed containers or jars and attach recipes for using and the mix recipe. Specialty rice and rice mixes, bean mixes, bean and rice mixes, oatmeal, and couscous. All these can be put in mason jars and decorated appealing. Don’t forget instructions on how to use the mixes. A pack of herb seeds or starter plants for indoor herb gardening.

Treat Gift Basket: Now this one is great to give the frugal person food items that his or her budget, or frugal mind, just won’t allow. Everyone has favorite gourmet items that they love but rarely treat themselves to. If you don’t know exactly what the person likes most, it won’t take much investigating to find out.

Coffee or Tea Gift Basket: Pack this basket with several different brands of gourmet or specialty coffee or a lot of the one brand you know she loves. Include a permanent coffee filter to fit the brand of coffeemaker she uses to show you haven’t forgotten her practical side! You can easily adapt the contents to fit the tea lover instead. Top it off with a nice coffee cup.