The holiday season is a time for generosity, but if you’re living on a student budget, then it can feel really stressful trying to buy gifts for everyone.
The good news? Meaningful gifts don’t have to cost a fortune. In fact, some of the most appreciated gifts are thoughtful, creative or personalised, rather than expensive. Here’s how you can approach gift giving this holiday season without emptying your bank account.
Spend smarter, not more
When money is tight, one of the best things you can do for yourself is work out exactly what you can afford to spend before you go and start buying for people. Write out a list of everyone in your life that you’re planning to buy for, and then write down the amount of money you’re comfortable/able to put towards gift giving as a whole. Then you can go through your list and allocate an amount to each person – just make sure that the total doesn’t add up to more than your overall spending amount. You might have to play around with numbers a little to make sure everyone fits in your budget, but even $10-20 can go a long way towards a nice gift if you choose carefully.
A few smart options for budget-friendly purchases include:
- Secondhand items - pop out to your local op shop and have a good browse. You can often find beautiful home decor, artworks, books and even unused Christmas wrapping items for a fraction of their original price.
- Snack hampers - even with the cost of groceries at the moment, you can still get a pretty decent haul of tasty treats for your foodie friends at the local supermarket. Shop the sales and pick up some of their favourite chocolates, biscuits, preserves, or even fresh summer fruits – bonus points if you arrange it nicely in an op-shopped basket!
- A shared experience - this one may or may not get a little pricey depending on what experience you choose (as you’ll likely be paying for your loved one and yourself), but it can be a really nice way to spend your money on something that you know will actually be valued, rather than just sit on a shelf.
The power of a homemade gift
With the rising cost of living, it feels like we’re seeing a bit of a return to homemade gifts and even just more ‘homemaking’ in general (spend any amount of time on social media and you’ll see plenty of young people delving into sourdough bread baking, windowsill veggie gardens and evening craft sessions). Utilise those newfound skills and make something really special for your friends and family. And bonus, if it’s a hobby/skill you already have, then you may not have to spend very much money at all!
Some student-friendly homemade gift ideas include:
- Home-baked sweet treats or breads
- Fresh or dried herbs
- Jars of jam or pickles
- Photo/scrapbooking albums
- Paintings or collages
Bring your culture into your gift giving
Sharing your culture with another person is such a lovely way to connect with them, and it’s something that can often be done without spending a lot of money.
Some ideas include:
- Sharing traditional recipes from back home - you could cook/bake and package them, or even just write down some of your favourite recipes.
- Cultural crafts - crafts like origami, embroidery or weaving, while time-consuming, can be reasonably inexpensive and create such beautiful end products.
- Music - music is a wonderful way to connect over culture. Plus, creating a Spotify playlist for a friend is the equivalent of giving someone a mix tape back in the early 2000s and who didn’t love a good mix tape!
Secret Santa
A popular and fun way to approach gift giving these days is by hosting a ‘Secret Santa’ in your family or friendship group. Instead of buying for everyone, you only have to buy for one person (usually anonymously, hence the ‘secret’ bit), and there’s usually an agreed-upon spending limit. It’s a fun way to give gifts and can be a lot less stressful than having to think about presents for a large number of people. Plus, if you are living in student accommodation or a small sharehouse, you might not have a lot of spare room yourself, so only receiving one gift back is actually a bit of a blessing too.
