A homemade earring holder costs about $3 in materials and takes about 1.5 hours to put together (including going out and buying the supplies). If you make more than one, it takes about 15 minutes per additional earring holder. Directions here!
Grab a $10 frame at Target, Walmart or spend even less at a thrift store and turn your child’s best artwork into a sentimental gift for family and friends. Who doesn’t love to admire the creativity and optimism of young artists?
Fresh cookies! Share your baking talents with friends by making an assortment of treats. If you can find cookie tins at the 99 Cent Store or a thrift store, great. Otherwise, I like to wrap a stack of cookies in tissue paper (that I’ve saved from other presents), wrap again with clear plastic and secure with a ribbon. My favorite combos are lemon bars, peanut butter cookies, and sugar cookies. Making pies or a homemade dinner also works. Hit up the Joy of Cooking for reliable baking recipes.
A memory jar is an easy to make sentimental gift that really allows you to show how much you are about a friend or relative. Write down a few of your favorite memories of the person on a slip of paper and stash them in a jar. Tie with a ribbon and voila! A very touching gift. See how mine turned out!
A friend named Maggie shared another great idea for making about 25homemade gifts for less than $100.
Just a quick note for holiday gift giving. To save money on shopping last year, I decided I was going to make candles. Yep! So I went to Burbank to a store that actually sells everything you could ever need (and more) to make candles…wax, scents, coloring, jars, wicks, etc. There is definitely a chemistry to it, but everyone there was helpful and I got the materials I needed.
I also bought little plastic tops to go over the jars (like when you buy them in a store), and I had some cute labels that I wrote the scent and “made lovingly by maggie.” Then I tied a nice ribbon around them and handed them out! Everyone loved them and it was something different! I think I spent about $100 and I have at least 1/2 of everything leftover after making probably 20-30 candles last year (in 3-4 different scents!)
Anyway, just wanted to share that with you. If you can bake or are crafty there are definitely ways to save money on gifts!!
Welcome to Bargain Babe! I’m Mara, and I’m so glad you’re here. I am an obsessive bargain hunter and penny pincher, and I am determined to live a full life without EVER paying full price. 
Love the earring holder idea- I made something similar for my friends and they LOVED it! I decoupaged a picture frame, then stapled screening behind the frame, and bought a wrought iron frame holder– the decoupage adds a nice personal touch : )
Our newly formed book club went back and forth as to whether exchange Christmas gifts…a grab bag…buy gifts for everyone…there’s five of us…I voted no because my husband is unemployed and have a son in college…I was voted down! Well, since we enjoy our cocktails at our monthly meetings, I decided to personalize 5 wine glasses. I purchased very lovely heavy duty wine glasses at the $1.00 Store, glass paints from Michaels $19.95 and felt tote bags from Target’s dollar bins. Total cost for 5 gifts which includes me…$32.00.
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Wow there all great ideas, especially for around xmas time.
Cheers