5 Gifts For Broke Students to Give and 5 Gifts For Broke Students to Ask For the Holidays I Published December 27

By: Layah Lopes

With the Holidays coming as a student, you might be dealing with two significant decisions: what to give and what to get. With school taking up portions of the day, raising the money to buy gifts for all your loved ones might be challenging. We compiled a list of cheap and easy gifts to give and some advanced gifts for the next semester to request.

1-HOMEMADE CLAY SCULPTURE:

This is a cute and simple gift idea. For only $3.29 at Micheals, you can purchase Sculpey, an oven-drying clay that you can mold into cute charms for bracelets, keychains, or whatever your heart desires. The pack comes with 1.7 oz of clay, allowing you to create 10-20 small charms or one big piece, like a soap holder.

2- FAVOR COUPONS

A quick and easy gift where you can decorate a few post-it note cards and label them as a favor coupon. Nothing is more valuable than time and labor. Offer your friends or family 30 minutes to an hour of your time. This may be a risky gift as you might be asked to do something wild or labor-intensive. On the back of the card, you can add your terms of service, which provides a guideline for what’s considered off-limits.

3- OFFER SHARED ACCESS TO A SUBSCRIPTION ACCOUNT:

Got a Netflix or Hulu account? A great idea could be to offer someone shared access to your streaming service account. This can be great for movie lovers or friends who have been dying to watch all the new raging TV shows.

4- A BOOK THAT YOU’VE FINISHED READING:

Books can pile up after some time, taking up shelf space. To free up some of that space, give one of your past reads to a friend interested in being its next victim. 

5-ORIGAMI

Although a simple gift this can be a great present to show that you are thinking about someone. YouTube offers a plethora of instructional videos on the art, ranging from novice to advanced techniques. You can go as simple as an origami crane or as tricky as a rose.

Gifts to request:

1- OIL DEFUSER

This is a great gift to start the semester with peace and serenity. Oil diffusers can benefit hardworking students on many ways, including Improved mood, sleep, and air quality. This is an excellent gift for all my STEM and Comm Sci students; we know it’s been tough. 

2-Payment of a loan

This seems more like a blessing than a gift. Any student could benefit from a present of this nature. This might be a significant gift to ask for, but you could make the point that it would get you ahead of the game.

3- SPA DAY

Another shout-out to my STEM and Comm sci students: A spa day could help decompress any built-up stress. A personal day could leave you refreshed for the upcoming semester.

4- REMARKABLE PAPER PRO NOTEPAD

Looking for the perfect note-taking tool? The ReMarkable Paper Pro is an essential one. It is a reusable notebook tablet that feels like writing on paper, allows you to document notes, and instantly saves them. It is an environmentally efficient gift that will keep you organized. 

5- GLOCUSENT BOOK LIGHT

Spend a lot of time late at night reading or pulling all-nighters for a big final? The Glocusent book light would be a great gift to request. A light that rests around your neck with three light settings that allow for eye-saving, easy night reading.

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