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17 Last-Minute Gifts that Won’t Break the Bank

December 17, 2015 by Christina Garofalo Leave a Comment

If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you put off holiday gift shopping until the last minute and now you’re scrambling.

Shopping on limited time isn’t just stressful. With just a week or two left until Christmas, you don’t have time to wait around for deals, but you still want to find something meaningful – without breaking the bank.

Here are some last-minute gifts that are as unique as the people in your life.

For your goofball, hipster brother who is always looking for the latest hack

An over-the-sink cutting board ($23.87) for his tiny Manhattan kitchen.

A portable bike speaker ($28.80) so he can blast his music while riding safely.

A cool, wooden Japanese Keyboard Brush ($15) to get the crumbs out of his keyboard. Ugh… it’s sold out. Get this one instead.

For your cool dad who loves entertaining guests and still plays in a band.

sriracha2go

Himalayan sea salt shot glasses (from $28) for him to share his favorite new tequila with his buddies.

A Sriracha key chain holder ($5) because it seems like he can’t taste his food without hot sauce.

These rad personalized guitar picks ($9) because he’s been playing for you since you were a kid.

chocolatePassport

For your sister, who has an incurable wanderlust AND sweet tooth.

A Chocolate Passport ($10) — the only dessert that’s as well-traveled as she is.

Herschel Packable Duffel ($19.99) so she can be ready to jet at any time.

These pretty floral notebooks ($13) to document her journeys.

For your brilliant husband, who always makes you tea when you wake up in the morning

teaForOne

A sleek Pilot fountain pen ($12.88) because you’re always telling him he should write more.

This Quirky Gray Cordies Desktop Cord Catch ($3) to keep his most-used cords organized and in place. [Editor’s Note: I bought this and attempted to use it for 5 minutes before I gave up. I simply can’t tame the cord beast.]

This Tea For One set ($18) so you can finally pay him back one morning.

For your health-nut mom who is always on the go and never wants you to buy her Christmas gifts

A NatureBox Deluxe Box ($20) to surprise her with healthy snacks to bring with her on a long day running errands.

An easy-cinch yoga mat sling ($8.49) to help her carry her mat all day without hassle.

A photo book from My Publisher (price varies) to compile all your memories with her, because that’s what she cares most about anyway.

For your artsy best friend who always wants to learn to cook and always sees the world in a positive light.

skyUmbrellaCollapsible

A Rapid Ramen Cooker ($14), because the only way she’ll stick to her New Year’s resolution to cook at home is to make easy recipes even easier.

This blue skies umbrella ($32), because she always knows how to turn your rainy days into sunny ones.

Filed Under: Spending Tagged With: holiday gift guide

Lazy Man’s 2015 Holiday Gift Guide

December 1, 2015 by Lazy Man Leave a Comment

It’s that time of year again… the annual Lazy Man’s Holiday Gift Guide. I’ve been doing holiday gift guides since 2008… or maybe 2007 when I called it something different.

It’s fun to look back on the early gift guides see my recommendations back then. I replaced the Foreman grill this past week (with a Cuisinart Griddler) and have a cleaning service instead of the Roomba and automatic shower cleaner. I laugh as I reflect on how I felt like I was going to be (metaphorically) burned at the stake for suggesting that someone buy a flat screen television.

While some of those recommendations didn’t exactly stand the test of time, last year’s recommendations are still appropriate.

For example, I still like the following products: USB 6-port charging hub, LED Desk Lamp, SodaStream (it saves me money), and Fitbits (especially “free” ones.

The problem with an annual gift guide is that things don’t change that much year to year. When something new and cool comes out, it is expensive which makes it difficult for me to recommend. The original $500-ish Apple iPad is a great example. I couldn’t recommend it at that price. Amazon was selling a $35 tablet this past weekend. That’s much easier to recommend, but doesn’t everyone have enough tablets by this point? It’s hard to hit the sweet spot when it comes to technology. Unfortunately, the things that tend to change year after year are technology products.

With that disclaimer out of the way, let’s move on to 2015’s guide.

I continue to love this OLED Television. It was $15,000 a couple of years ago, so $1800 seems to be reasonable. On the other hand, it seems against my frugal nature to pay nearly $2000 for a non-4K television that is “only” 55-inches. So instead I’ll wait for the prices to drop further.

I’ve only been back from Aruba for a few weeks, so I have still have some things from the trip on my mind. December might not be the best time for these, but sometimes you just have to break the rules.

  • HTC RE Waterproof Camera – I wanted a waterproof camera for taking pictures of the kids in the Lazy River at our Marriott timeshare. Days before my trip HTC put these on sale on their site. It looks a little quirky, but it’s like a handheld GoPro, which turned out to be perfect. I think that they didn’t sell well at $200, but for under $80, it’s a pretty good deal. Other waterproof cameras I were considering cost a couple of hundred dollars – ouch. It was so easy to use that even my 3-year old took some good pictures with it. Last year, I tried to use my phone in a waterproof case. That was a recipe for blurry, terrible pictures.
  • Thermos Stainless Steel Beverage Can Insulator – If you want to keep a canned beverage cold (or warm) for a few hours this is a great stocking stuffer.
  • Electronic Luggage Scale – Another good stocking stuffer at under $10. It saved me a lot of hassle at the airport as my wife and I were able to have perfectly weighted bags.

Not going on vacation for a bit? Here are some other things that were on my Christmas wishlist this year:

  • TP-LINK Archer C7 AC1750 Router – It doesn’t get more boring than a router, right? Well I’m setting up a new computer in the office (more on that later this week), and my wifi there is really slow. And upstairs I get almost nothing. I bought a wifi extender which brings wifi to most of the nooks and crannies in the house, but some devices refuse to connect with it plugged in. It’s time to say goodbye to 802.11n and embrace 802.11ac and this Archer C7 model got rave reviews competing well with routers at twice the price.

    I’d like to say that I’ve tried it myself, but Santa doesn’t come for a few more weeks. (Hopefully, I’ve been a good boy.) From all the reviews, this will bring more speed/bandwidth and range to our internet in the house. As we watch more and more Netflix and Amazon Prime it is becoming important. So here’s to boring computer networking!

I realize it is popular (and smart) of personal finance bloggers to suggest that you don’t buy stuff and save your money. I lean towards the opposite approach mostly because I save money all year. If I were your financial planner, I’d rather you spend money in a small 10 day window buying stuff at great prices for people you love than try to shut you down from spending all the time.

In the coming days, I’ll be adding more items to this list, so check back frequently. You may also want to follow me on Twitter as I’ll tweet out deals as I see them.

Filed Under: Spending Tagged With: holiday gift guide

Lazy Man’s 2014 Holiday Gift Guide

December 11, 2014 by Lazy Man 5 Comments

For years now I’ve done gift guides around this time of year. I always hope to get them out earlier, but much like my Christmas shopping, it seems to drag on until just about the last minute.

When I first started creating gift guides, I struggled with whether to recommend the $400 GPS or the $2000 42″ “flat-panel” television (remember when called them that?). It’s a lot of money. For a website focused on growing your money for financial freedom, buying technology is difficult to recommend. It’s an immediate step backwards towards the goal. However, I recommended them anyway, because I believed in the value.

I got every penny’s worth out of my GPS. It probably saved me hundreds in productivity as I can get lost on my own street (joking… a bit). I like to think that I got every penny’s worth out of my 42″ plasma as well. I used it for a few years until it failed and capitalized on a generous policy at Costco (which no longer exists) for a replacement, which lasted another few years.

Ahh, memories of the way things were.

Enough of that, let’s get today. My annual gift guide is always going to be skewed towards technology. It’s not like a fork is going change… unless you get the HAPIfork Bluetooth-Enabled Smart Fork. Short of that, the fork you have probably does its job reasonable well and there’s little need for me to recommend the gift of forks this year.

One could make a case that I could recommend fashionable items. Fashion changes every year, which would lead to new recommendations. I’m not big on fashion. There’s a lot of financial freedom to be gained by freeing your mind from the expense of keeping up with the latest fashion. If works for Macklemore it works for me.

I’ve struggled more with this year’s gift guide than previous years. Aside from the TV stick, there seemed to be fewer “innovative” new products my radar this year. Over the last couple of years tablets have gone from the $400 GPS that is exciting, to the low-priced commodity that is everywhere. Even my recommendation for Best Cell Phone/Plan Savings hasn’t changed in a year.

  • Anker 5-Port USB Charger – If you have a lot of USB gadgets like I do, this is a must have. You can charge multiple phones, tablets, bluetooth speakers and more. Last year I recommended a very similar product. In that
  • Urge Basics Soundbrick Ultra Portable Bluetooth Stereo Speaker – Did I mention a Bluetooth speaker above? Yep. I got one of these a couple of years ago and it is perfect for streaming Pandora, or any music around the home. Since it includes its own battery, it is good for outdoors (beach, picnics) too.
  • Online Subscriptions – This is a dangerous one for me to recommend. It’s very easy to have a ton of subscription services that you don’t use and have it drain your wallet. Netflix, HBO, Spotify, Amazon Prime… the list doesn’t end. So giving someone one of these services may lead them to lifestyle inflation. On the other hand, if you know that a friend uses Netflix, perhaps getting him a few months free is a smart way to give something that amounts to cash.

    While on this topic, I want to mention LastPass, a password manager. In the last 24 hours I’ve signed up for it. I started with the free version and it is very good. I noticed some advanced tools that I could use on the subscription version so I upgraded. This is my first experience using a password manager like this, so I don’t want to say that LastPass is better than the others (it might be), but I want to say that even the free version is worth using.

    In my world of dorkdom, I would have appreciated the gift of a subscription to protected passwords. I think I’m probably alone on this one, so unless you are Amy Farrah Fowler don’t get this for your significant other.

  • SanDisk Sansa Clip+ MP3 Player – Stop checking your calendar, yes, I’m recommending an MP3 player in 2014. This is ideal for those who work out as it is very small like an iPod Shuffle. However, it takes memory cards, so you can scale it to hold huge amounts of music for very little money. There are a still a lot of phones that cost hundreds of dollars that can’t say that.
  • TV Sticks – You remember my article from a couple of days ago, right? If not here you go: Things I Like: Amazon Fire TV Stick.
  • Fitbit – I have to include my Product of the Year from 2012 the Fitbit. I still like the original Fitbit Ultra that is very cheap on Ebay. The newer models have a few bells and whistles but at nearly double the price, I’ll go old school. And then there’s the thing about earning a bit of free money with it. I just got my first $50 check earlier this week!
  • SodaStream – I have written about it enough. I love the product. It saves me money and makes me healthier. I even bought the company’s stock.
  • Cheap ASUS X205TA Laptop – I got one of these for $100 at Staples’ Black Friday sale. I had very low expectations, but it’s been a very good, light-weight, long-battery laptop. The reviews on Amazon are very good. I don’t know if I’d pay $200 for it because it’s been around on many sites for $150, but that’s a good price for spare/travel laptop. If my kids were a little older, I’d give it to them, but with the oldest being 26 months he’s not quite composing masterpieces with the keyboard, yet.
  • Shark Tank Products – Everyone loves Shark Tank, right? I have bought the Plate Topper and Scrub Daddy. We use them both almost every day. This year, I’m thinking of adding the Drop Stop. Seems like $20 is too much for it, but everyone else seems to find great value in it. I certainly feel like I have a need for it.
  • LED Desk Lamp – A desk lamp doesn’t seem that amazing, but collectively nearly 300 people have giving this 4.8 stars on Amazon. That’s a decisively amazing product. Originally priced at $120, it is currently $38. I’ll even say that it is gasp fashionable. Also, I need a desk lamp, so this is on my Christmas wishlist.

So what are your favorite gifts/gadgets to give this year? Let me know in the comments.

Filed Under: Spending Tagged With: gift guide, holiday, holiday gift guide

Lazy Man Holiday Gift Guide 2011

December 15, 2011 by Lazy Man 5 Comments

It’s that time of year again. The time where I’m out shopping and running around with my head cut off. (Who came up with that expression by the way? Running around is just one of the many things you CAN’T do when your head is cut off. Should be “running around to avoid getting your caught off.”) However, I’m putting forth my best effort to get a gift guide out there. Please bear with me if there are some typos as I rush to get it out. I realize it’s a little late already as there are just a few more shopping days left. If you want to buy online you have to make your decision right away to avoid paying extra shipping charges.

Before you dig into this list, I encourage you to learn what not to give: the worst gifts we have ever gotten. While it is a personalized article, there are a lot of generic tips in there.

General Gifts Ideas

  • SodaStream – This is one of the best products I’ve used. In my review, I called SodaStream the Product of the Year for 2010 (no definitive 2011 product yet, except for maybe a $99 TouchPad). The reason is that it actually encourages me to drink less soda, saves spaces, helps the environment, and finds homeless puppies new homes (note: SodaStream does not find homeless puppies new homes).
  • Blu-Ray Player – I’ve been suggesting them for the past couple of years. They were a couple hundred dollars, then a hundred, finally this year, you can usually get them for around $60 and get some extra features like Netflix streaming. I’m usually an early adopter, but I just upgraded to Blu-Ray this year.
  • Thin Wallet – I use a very unconventional wallet. I put more hours into researching my thin wallet than I care to admit. It’s not the normal bi-fold or tri-fold that most people are used to. It’s designed to be double the height of a normal wallet so that credit cards and other identification can be spread over a whole back pocket. Need more reasons on why to buy a thin wallet? I wrote a review of thin wallets over at Lazy Man and Health. (Note: I’m not keeping up with that website anymore).
  • Roku – I’m mentioning this largely to give the company credit on their outstanding marketing efforts. I can’t seem to turn my head without having a Roku ad in my face. Essentially, this little device works as a mini-computer to bring you tons of Internet entertainment such as Netflix, Hulu, HBO Go, Amazon Instant Video, Pandora and more. That’s the Lazy way to get a lot of streaming media to a television. I should also mention that that the Roku gets a CNET Editor’s Choice award. Alternatively you could do what I did and pay nearly 10 times as much for a real computer in an attempt at a digital media overhaul: music, movies, and television any time, any place. At least it’s helped me ditch my cable box rental fees.
  • AmazonBasics Rechargeable Batteries – Everyone needs stocking stuffers and perhaps I’m alone on this one, but I actually like rechargeable batteries. Admittedly they are not one of the most exciting gift ever – but they are practical. I used to think that all rechargeable batteries were the same. However, after buying a lot of cheap batteries from Hong Kong, I’ve found that they don’t last very long. I had been getting some Sanyo Eeneloops, which are great, but they are expensive. I haven’t tried the AmazonBasics version, but most of the reviews on Amazon compare them to the Eneloops and they are cheaper. Pair it with a high-end charger like the La Crosse Technology BC-700 or the Maha Powerex MH-C801D. (Nothing says sexy like a MH-C801D.)
  • Gifts that Save, Time, Money and/or Space – Four years ago, I wrote a post about products that save time, money and/or space. Most of the items are still relevant and useful today. Some, like GPS Navigation have come done dramatically in price, making it available to a larger audience.

A Note about Tablets

For many, this is the year of the tablet gift. I personally would wait before buying anyone a tablet – unless you were able to snag a few $99 TouchPad for giving. Apple’s iPad is too expensive for what it is with a few Android competitors giving similar functionality at a lower price point. In addition, Apple looks to be gearing up for a iPad 3 launch in April. Buying an iPad 2 now is like buying an 2011 model car now, but paying full price. The Amazon Fire is interesting, but there have been concerns about the performance. While Amazon says that they will fix it with a software update, the hardware itself is on the lower-end – hence the $199 price tag.

There’s an old adage in the stock market to not catch a falling knife. It means to avoid buying while prices are fall. Why? Because prices will likely drop even more. When I look at how much the market has matured in just a year, I’m salivating at the likely hardware and prices we will see next year.

For the Grandson, Niece, or Nephew

I have a niece and a nephew and each year I give a contribution to a 529 plan a tax-advantaged account to helping with college expenses. I’m not contributing a lot of money… I am hoping it buys books at MIT someday. In addition to this, I spend about $20 to $25 in toys each so that they don’t miss out on that experience. Looking for the right 529? Here’s my guide to choosing a 529 plan.

For the Last-Minute Giver

You don’t have time to have a product shipped to someone? The stores are too crowded? What if you waited until Christmas and everything is closed? No need to worry, an Amazon Gift Card can get you out of the sticky situation. You can email a gift card in just a couple of minutes.

Sure your friend or loved one likely knows that you didn’t spend time and with you “it’s not the thought that counts”, but you risked that anyway by being a last-minute giver. At least you can give something of value. If that person on your list can’t find anything they want on Amazon.com, they are not human. I can’t imagine that they are animal either since even my dog wants tons of things on Amazon.

Alternative almost as good as cash option: Ebay gift cards.

Use the comments to tell me what you are looking to give and receive this year.

Filed Under: Smart Purchases, Spending Tagged With: holiday gift guide

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