10 Money-Saving Gift Ideas

Are you looking to find the perfect gift for someone but struggling to come up with ideas?

What better gift to give than the gift of savings!

These money-saving gift ideas will help you give your loved ones a gift that keeps on giving.

Here are my top 10 gifts that will save money in the future.

1 – Instant Pot

I know I’ve said it before, but I seriously love my Instant Pot.

Part of my strategy to save money on groceries is to plan easy meals. Knowing dinner isn’t going to be a complicated affair helps me avoid the temptation of eating out or ordering in. I also like to make meals large enough that we have leftovers.

The Instant Pot helps me do both.

I tend to use the slow-cook functionality more than the pressure-cook one. But it’s nice to know if I forget to set something to cook in the morning, I can still make it in the evening.

Another huge plus is the ease of clean-up and efficiency of space.

With 7 different functions, the Instant Pot can replace a lot of your other kitchen gadgets, as well as cook pretty much everything in just the one pot.

For example, my old spaghetti recipe required a pan, 2 pots, and a big bowl. With the Instant Pot I can make it all in one pot!

It saves me time, money, space and effort.

I seriously love this thing.

2 – Programmable Thermostat

Having a programmable thermostat that can automatically adjust the temperature to save money on the electricity bill is a must-have for any house.

Mr. GFB likes to keep it cold, which is fine for our winter bills, but summers in the desert can get expensive.

I don’t need it super chilly, but I rarely think to adjust it when he leaves.

Thankfully we have programmable thermostats.

We set our ideal temperatures to match up with who is home and where in the house we tend to be at a given time.

We don’t need to keep the upstairs cooled when we spend our mornings downstairs. But we also don’t want to go to bed in 90 degree temperatures.

With our programmable thermostat we can program the air to kick on just before bed time.

3 – A Multi-Cup Coffe Maker

Full disclosure…I don’t drink coffee.

But Mr. GFB does and our parents devour the stuff when they’re visiting, so some form of coffee maker is required.

We tried a Keurig which was great for just the two of us. But the k-cups became cost-prohibitive when we had family visiting and drinking multiple cups at a time.

Not to mention, no one was patient enough to brew multiple k-cups.

So we ended up getting a Simple little 12-cup coffee maker that has more than paid for itself.

If your coffee habit is more of an indulgence than an addiction, a Keurig might work for you. Otherwise, do the math and see if a multi-cup coffee maker would make more sense.

4 – SodaStream

We’re not huge soda drinkers at home, but certain members of my family have a multiple-cans-a-day habit.

I gifted them a SodaStream several years back to help them avoid spending a small fortune buying multiple 12-packs of Coke every week.

In addition to the cash savings, there was also the initial novelty effect of creating your own flavors.

I’m not sure that lasted more than a couple weeks, but it was an added perk all the same.

If you’re a big soda drinker or know someone who is, this might make an excellent money-saving gift.

5 – Rechargeable Batteries

About the time Little GFB started getting electronic toys we discovered the value of rechargeable batteries.

It’s amazing how quickly batteries run down when there’s no off button.

Fortunately, we’re not subjected to those types of toys much anymore, but we’re still using our rechargeable batteries almost 11 years later.

I suggest buying just enough to always have a pair charged up and ready. Then just rotate them as needed.

6 – Meal Planning Tool

Nothing has helped me slash our grocery budget quite like meal planning.

I started with Plan To Eat and love how easy it is to plan things with the calendar view.

While I still use the app, I found a non-digital approach works better for the rest of the family.

We use a magnetic menu that sticks to the fridge and lets the whole family see what’s planned.

It also helps to consolidate the grocery list in one place.

We had shopping list pads on the counter and on the fridge, and I had a digital list on my phone. Having it all together in one place makes things much easier.

7 – Coupon Books/School Spirit Cards

My step-dad swears by coupon books.

Not only do they save him money on places he already frequents, but he’s able to discover all sorts of new places to explore. And at a discount!

We also tend to buy whatever discount coupon books or school spirit cards our neighbors are selling.

We’ve tried to cut back on eating out in general, but we’ve saved a ton of money over the years by using these.

For example, the Chick-fil-A deal on a previous year’s spirit card was for a free sandwich with the purchase of a combo meal.

So for an up-front $20, we’d save close to $4 every time we ate at Check-fil-A (which was almost weekly).

Doing the math, we probably saved over $100 just at Chick-fil-A by using a school spirit card. 

8 – Gift Cards

Gift cards have been given a bad reputation as impersonal gifts, but I love getting them, so I’m not shy about gifting them.

We have a special dine-in movie theater we can go to that is safe for Little GFB (food allergies), but it’s super expensive. (We’re talking around $60 per movie between tickets and food.)

So last Christmas we asked for gift cards, knowing this was going to be a movie intense year. And boy did the family deliver. We got several gift cards that saved us a ton.

I’d much rather give (and get) something I know will be used, and knowing it will save some money only makes it better.

Plus, don’t forget you can get discounted gift cards. So even if you’re giving them for someone else to save money, you can save a bit too.

9 – Finance Books

I’m personally a little hesitant to gift a book on personal finance since not everyone is as obsessed with the subject as I am.

Ok, almost no one is.

But there are a few that are easier reads and can really help anyone who needs to re-evaluate their relationship with money.

My tops picks would be You Need a Budget, Total Money Makeover, The Richest Man in Babylon, and The Millionaire Next Door. 

10 – An Amazon Prime Membership

I know a lot of people preach to get rid of Amazon Prime as an unnecessary expense or as a way to limit temptation. But free-shipping aside, Prime has a ton of other benefits that can make it a money-saving gift.

The one I appreciate the most has been Prime video.

While Mr. GFB primarily watches Netflix, I find myself flipping over to Prime shows whenever I’m in charge of the remote.

We’ve also been able to cancel our music streaming service and just use Prime’s free service.

It doesn’t have the largest library, but it’s been enough for us.

Prime members also get access to free and discounted e-books each month.

If you’re going to use the extra services, Prime can be a real money saver in the long run.

Can You Think of Any Others?

These are just a few money saving gift ideas based on gifts I know my family has or would benefit from.

Leave a comment and let me know if you’ve got some money saving gift ideas of your own.