Holiday Handbook: Gifts Under $10

Dec. 8, 2009— -- Finding the right holiday gift when you are on a budget is challenging. So we tasked ourselves with finding the very best gifts for under $10. Many of our ideas include limited time offers, so jump now if you want a great gift at a great price.

The holidays are all about kids, so here are some kid-specific gifts:

Temporary tattoo hand puppets from iloveuma.com

These zany animal faces apply onto a child's hand to turn their paw into a puppet. Soap and water washes the tattoo off. A set of eight costs just $7.95. These are fun presents to rip open on Christmas morning, and play with right away. We can imagine a 5-year-old keeping the puppet applied all day and eating Christmas dinner with a bird on their hand.

Book sets from booksamillion.com

Multiple books in a series are great gifts because they provide characters and stories that kids can get into over a long period of time. At booksamillion.com they have a bunch of bundled books in their bargain section. I found a gorgeous Eric Carle board-book set for $10.77 and paperbacks for little kids in the $5 and $10 range, and Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew sets for older kids in the $7 range. The titles will vary with inventory, but you can find book sets and anthologies in bargain bins both online and in your local neighborhood bookstores.

Coupon stacked spa basket

Coupon stacking and drugstore rebates are hugely popular right now. Using Sunday circular coupons and online printable coupons, you combine offers with rebate programs to get products for free or next to nothing.

Rebate programs at drug stores like CVS and Walgreens work like this: you purchase an item but get back a store credit. For example, you buy a tube of toothpaste for $4. The store gives you $3.50 in "Extrabucks" or "Register Rewards." You can then use that credit on almost any purchase the next time you shop at the chain. Buy 1 Body Mist (full size) at $4.99 (.99 after $4 back in extrabucks)

Buy 1 Loofah Bath Sponge at $1.99 (no coupon or rebate)

Buy 1 Body Lotion (travel size) at $1.99 (no coupon or rebate)

Neosporin Lip Health $5.49 (free) (use printable coupon form the Neosporin website + automatic $2.50 discount at the register)

Buy 2 Merry Brite Mini Ornaments (12 ct): $1.99 (free after Extrabucks rebate)

Merry Brite Plush Santa Hat: $3.99 (free after Extrabucks rebate)

At Target:

2 Hershey's Bliss Chocolates $1 each (Use Sunday circular coupon from Hershey and printable coupon from target.com)
Total value: $32.81 for $7.96
CD for $2.74 & Digital keychain for $2.22

You can also use ebates or online rebates and discount codes to accomplish similar miraculous deals, although you have to factor in shipping, so it may be worthwhile to aggregate purchases from Web sites to try and qualify for free shipping.

And be sure to search freeshipping.org for free shipping codes to combine with your purchases.

An example of this type of deal would be to buy the new Michael Buble CD, "Crazy Love." The retail price is $9.89, but if you start at Ebates.com, a shopping portal that accesses merchant sites and gives you a portion of the price back, and use the following series of codes you can get the price down to $2.74.

Sign up for a new account at ebates.com and that qualifies you for $5 cash back when you make your first purchase. Search for the Michael Buble CD using ebates.com. You'll find it at Barnes and Noble for $9.89. At check-out use online coupon code to save 15 percent ($1.48).