The cheapest gift I've ever seen was from a subtantial gift box from a poor older brother-in-law who barely scrapes by.

Not long ago, my partner had a birthday. On this day, my b-i-l came up from NYC to visit. Family always brings gifts. Now normally I'd say this b-i-l is the sort of person who is the last to give you a nice gift. He's been homeless at some points, addicted to heroin, has been behind on his rent for months and lives paycheck to paycheck. We were all quite surprised when he was able to give my partner a really nicely wrapped gift box. Under normal circumstances, you couldn't expect him to be able to afford to give gifts. Now we know he was very careful with his money and saved up just to do this.<br><br>So, he delivered the box and we opened it. Inside were:<br><br>1. A full set of Gabriel Garcia Marquez paperback books.<br>2. A few homemade salsa jars. (r/frugal_living, did you ever learn that even if you have all the ingredients, a $1.5 jar of salsa is a bit offputting to buy?)<br>3. Plant leaves from his backyard. (For the bio-domes we just built).<br>4. An assortment of plastic cutlery. (Right at home in our plastic cutlery drawer).<br><br>Spent nothing on any of it. It was a huge hit. Very touching and made us feel like we were a home, despite the recent move. Also, the salsas are a hit so far and we have already consumed all of that , which is funny because the other day I was literally contemplating paying for a jar.<br><br>B-I-L is now part of one of the frugal legends in our household.