What do YOU Buy for the Guy(s) In Your Life?!
Why is it that guys are so difficult to shop for?! Coming up with creative and masculine gifts that aren’t too expensive is always a difficult task for me (and based on the emails that I have received, for many of you as well)… especially when the new electronic gadget that every guy wants is just a little too pricey!
Alright, so how can all of you help? Well, do you have any brilliant ideas for last minute men’s gift ideas? I know most of us would be very appreciative of hearing any idea at all! I think it’s also fair to say that quite a few of us struggle in this area of gift-giving!
…And even better, if you’re reading this right now and you’re a guy, then please tell us what you’d like for Christmas… seriously! We want to know! 🙂
This year we were just going to skip christmas completely (it’s just us for now), but since we had to get stuff the our family we set a limit of thirty dollars for each other that we had set aside as fun money for Nov. and Dec. So he’s getting a model rocket that is on special at our local hobby shop, including the engines (also on sale) and the batteries (through I think the rite aid deal) and a bottle of SoCo that I picked up in Oct. when they had a buy two get $10 mail in rebate. He got the other bottle for his bday in Oct. It’s not much but I know he’ll enjoy it and it didn’t break our already crunched budget.
My husband LOVES to cook (I know, LUCKY ME), so I found a local restaurant that also offers cooking classes. 1 class is $20 for 2 hours. OH, also, last year, I got him a gc to Massage Envy. He LOVED it!!
We plan a little trip for the two of us around the holidays as our present to each other. My parents watch our daughter. Then we just get each other little surprises to open at Christmas. So I got him the ESPN magazine subscription and Sporting News magazine subscription. Both were only $3.99 on Tanga recently when I ordered them. He loves Sports so he will love the mags when they start arriving.
My husband is pretty easy to buy for. Man tools always go over very well with him. He also likes receiving long johns and coveralls. He works outside, and even though we live in the south it can get cold some days.
I got my fiance a personalized receipe box (he actually cooks and it’s GOOD too!) from personalizationmall.com. Very cool items on that site. I got him a cookbook. A Denver Broncos wallet & boxer shorts – uggghhhhhhh of all teams the Broncos – seriously?? I got him a new cell phone screen protector. just a wide variety of little things
I’m struggling a little with DH’s gifts this year. He likes to have something ‘fun’ to play with on Christmas. I’ll probably get him a Wii game to play with the kids. Beyond that he’s getting a couple of videos, an adapter to play your MP3 player through the car speakers (great for trips), socks, underwear, pajama pants, a new sleep mask (he sleeps days since he works midnights and our room has crazy windows that don’t work well with blackout curtains) and a few odds and ends.
I found a great Groupon deal for a local zipline company. It’s normally really pricey, but we’ll get to go together now for the price of one ticket. My hubby’s a Marine and loves being outside and doing adventurous stuff. Ziplining here we come!
Now that is a great gift!!! =) Good job!
Ziplining is so much fun! My husband and I went ziplining in Alaska when we were on our honeymoon. He loved it! That is a great gift!
I bought my hubby a nice remote control helicopter – on sale on Amazon for $27, retail $129, and HE LOVES IT!!!!!! Although I am second guessing this purchase as he likes to torture me with it by flying it around my head to see how close he can get 🙂
I was thinking of buying the same for my hubby for his birthday. 🙂 He loves stuff like that. Every time, we go to Frys, he picks a helicopter and puts it down saying its too expensive. I can’t wait to see his face.
LOL! 🙂
I got this for my hubby too…I can’t wait to see how much he likes it! 🙂
I bought the same helicopter and I’m sure my DH will chase me around the house with it as well! 🙂 I also got him a leather jacket from Amazon’s 75% off deal yesterday. He’s been wanting a new one for 2 yrs now. Thanks Collin! If it weren’t for your post he would have just gotten the helicopter and pajama’s! 🙂
I got the helecopter for my hubby as well. Although, on black Friday he tried to buy a cheaper one at the mall, and I had to give away the suprise. He LOVES it, and my brother-in-law is jealous!
me too, me too! I think he’ll love using it with the kids!
Mine got that too, last year! He chases the 5 year old with it and of course nicks him with it on accident, we have a few minutes of freaking out then it’s back to “chase me daddy, chase me!” good grief.
i know the feeling Leah! i bought my husband some remote controlled helicopters too and he does the same thing!!
Future Son-in-law – screwdrivers -will probably buy him new tools each year for awhile to build up his supply – my hubby had received a lot of his tool s over the years from my parents
Dads- books that are meaningful
hubby – he sends me links of weird random stuff throughout the year so I keep those ideas in mind – this year he is getting a coffee vaccuum sealer, a french press, some ice cube trays (yup, weird I know) jeans, and a new corded drill
My husband is getting a race car driving experience this year. I saw it on Groupon in September and bought it for half price for Christmas!
Ok, so I just had to weigh in on this because my husband and Dad are impossible but this year Groupon had a deal for free flight lessons and a chance to fly. I am so excited because my husband has always dreamed of getting his pilots license and this will actually go towards his flight time he needs!!!
Tervis Tumblers! My husband loves these. You can put hot and cold in them and they have all sorts of styles to choose from plus you can get lids so you can take them on the go.
My husband loves these – especially the ones with the NFL team logos!
Thanks to you for discovering Tanga I got my man 4 magazine subsriptions for less than the copies I bought to wrap for under the tree. And we will be moving soon & I didn’t want a bunch of stuff around to pack back up & we bought small appliances we already needed on black Friday and chose to wrap them for under the tree so the kids would feel like we are having a BIG Christmas. Although, we spoil the kids at Christmas and it’ll look like we went overboard – but with the deals I scored, thanks to H2S, we won’t feel it in the bank account.
This is just fantastic!
I always try to make my gifts very special/sentimental with a “theme!” This year will be my husband and my FIRST Christmas with a little one in the house! We just remodeled my grandparents old house so we could save money to build our own house, so needless to say we haven’t had a lot of time for ourselves since our daughter was born and have been extremely tired. This year I decided to do something very special to REKINDLE OUR RELATIONSHIP I decided to number out each gift, going from smaller gifts to larger and in order to lead up to the best. FIRST-he will look at stocking like always. That has soap and other toiletries, boot socks, candy, snacks in it (ALL FREE). SECOND- He’ll open a gift with 2 tshirts, and another pack of socks (ALL FREE), THIRD- He’ll open a gift with a sweater, a button down, and undershirts (Total paid was 10 DOLLARS), FOURTH- a 30 DOLLAR GROUPON for a local pizza parlor we used to always eat at while I was pregnant (FREE). FIFTH- a calendar with a sticky note marking a specific date (Calendar and sticky notes both FREE), SIXTH- a pair of undies from VS that I got with my secret reward that say UNWRAP ME (cost me 2.50) along with a print out of our itinerary for our hotel in NASHVILLE, TN! I searched and searched and found a GREAT deal on a 3 night stay. PAID 174 DOLLARS! This hotel has GREATTTT reviews, and it includes a FREE FULL BREAKFAST each morning and FREE coctails each evening with the manager!!!! You see….they allllll go together. He’s gonna be best dressed for the weekend, and have plenty of new toiletries to make the trip….along with a few extra perks 😉
TOTAL SPENT: 176.50
Maybe that will give some of you ladies some inspiration….and men if you’re reading this…don’t be jealous…hint to ur wives to get on and read this post! 😀
Would you mind sharing the name of the hotel you found?!?
Club inn and suites. I asked a friend about the location and they said it is a great spot. I read tons of reviews on Expedia, Travelocity, and many more…all had great reviews of the actual hotel. I’m hoping it will be as great as everyone makes out! 🙂 I found it on Travelocity…it was cheapest. It looks like the actual hotel site always has promo’s running also! Right now they have buy 2 nights, get one free but Travelocity was still just a lil cheaper for 3 nights because other sites charge higher “fees!” I think it was about avg 51 dollars/night! Hope that helps! 🙂
Try a “Dulce Vita” gift. I have done this for many men in our family. Get the smallest bottle of expensive, Scotch (Dewars or better), Courvoisier, Hennesy, Beefeater, etc. One really good cigar, add a steak, or expensive cheese. They love it!
Husband – Tools, Electronic gadgets, remote controlled toys or electronic toys like hexbugs, Books
Dad – Cologne, Books, Phone.
My husband keeps telling me that what he wants the most for Christmas is a big smile on my face–and that he doesn’t want me to get stressed out about finding the perfect gift. He’ll be pretty much content with anything. He likes a happy family.
That said, I usually try to get my husband fun things for Christmas. He’s a law student and has had a particularly rough semester, so I want him to get gifts that will help him wind down. So this year it’s a Wii game he wanted and a computer game. Since we don’t have much in the way of money I got him the cheapest of both that I could find and knew he’d want to play. In previous years I’ve also tried to give him things that he likes but I don’t particularly enjoy–dvds of his favorite team’s football games, for instance. I like to think this helps me avoid making the pitfall of giving him “naggy” gifts.
Okay, Erica-I swear when I read your comment it was like reading my life 2 or 3 years ago. And I think I got my husband that exact present for all 3 years of law school-and he loved them. He loved being able to watch a football highlight DVD at night after studying or just playing a game to wind down during finals. You did great!
I am no stranger to this topic. My husband is the hardest to buy for. This year he got the Duracell My Grid (thanks to Rite Aid) and coffee cup from Seehere that was a very good deal. Book he has been hinting about and a few other odds and ends. My husband is big into guns so we normally buy him bullets and range time. 🙂 I always say if all else fails buy him something related to him favorite thing. Range time is like $10 and bullets are about $10-$15 per 50 pk. So works out pretty nicely.
My hubsband is on a bowling league. I got him a new bowling bag and some accessories.
My husband does a lot for us. We’re always going to one of our kids sporting events. When I ask him what he wants he always answers, “Just YOU.” So for Christmas I am giving him a coupon good for a “Romantic Evening with your Wife.” I have already arranged with family members to help with the kids. The rest is up to your imagination.
Books are a great gift around here! Hastings bookstore in our town has all their used books ($29.99 and under) on sale for 5 for $20. There are some fabulous books that I have been wanting to buy that are almost $30 and I got them for a steal!
I got my husband some funny t-shirts from a website he likes. Shaving stuff would also be welcome. His mom got him a gift card to Wal Mart with instructions he was supposed to spend it on electronics, so he bought Wii Sports Resort and a new portable hard drive with it. The portal hard drives are priced pretty nice right now.
I always buy a Farmers Almanac for a stocking stuffer. I got one this year for 5 bucks on Amazon.
I headed to abercrombie and fitch at the mall this past weekend, ready to splurge on cologne for my guy. when to my lucky surprise, it was unadvertised as 65% off! so instead of $30, i only paid $10.50. I was super excited! we don’t normally do gifts, but i just can’t help get a little something!
How long ago was that? I wonder if it is still on sale?
I purchased the MP3 player deal that Colin posted last week ($21.00 shipped from amazon that included $15.00 of MP3 downloads)
I have spent a little time each day ripping some of his older CD collection (old Van Halen, Metallica, etc) to the laptop to put on the MP3 player – plus added some new music.
We usually don’t get gifts for each other because we basically do it on Black Friday. He loves tools and works with his tools so he buys them when he needs them. Its difficult to shop for someone who gets what they want and need for work, when they need it. BUT.. I have 3 things for him to unwrap that he doesn’t know what they are. One being the $5 grill set from Home Depot, two being the Simpsons game from mattel for $10 and a nice little “outfit” for me which I know I wear but come on, who really enjoys it more? It was originally $40 but I snagged it for $8.53 on monique. Im quite proud of myself, hes hard to buy for and very very particular.
I think guys are the hardest to buy for! I usually get my boyfriend board games, funky boxers, and some ‘coupons’ for like dessert of his choice (he loves nestle drumsticks).
This year I just asked him though his present a bit pricey I ended up getting sort of discount from the coinstar deal. Old Navy has 2.50 boxers sale. They are really cute.
My husband isn’t an elite athlete but he walks ALOT! We spend a lot of time guessing how far he’s walked, etc. This year, I’m getting him a Garmin ForeRunner GPS sportswatch so he’ll know exactly how far he went and where!
You (he) are going to LOVE that watch. My husband has one and he got me the FR60 in purple. It follows your heart rate, cals, cadance everything and you can even use it on a treadmill or on a bike. Garmin really did great with that one. You can even program your workouts ahead of time like 15 min run then a beep to let you know to walk for 2 min, LOVE IT! A really fun funtion is after you go for a walk/run you can download everything to the Garmin site and watch your run, or for that matter other people’s runs in that area. Our only complaint with the ForeRunner is that when you get sweaty you have to dry your finger to scroll through the functions. Other then that it ROCKS! Great choice!
last year, my mom gave my husband A HAM! we still talk about it…it was perfect. he’s not one to get super excited about a gift so the fact that it was such an unusual gift together with the fact that he truly loves ham caused him to have a great reaction that she appreciated too.
oh and she had it in a heavy duty roaster pan she didn’t use any more and wanted to pass on to our family for when we host the holidays.
Tools, tools and more tools…..did I mention tools? LOL My husband wants every tool out there just because one day he will use it. However, this year it’s different because we just got back from a 12 day vacation to Hawaii and umm yeah now the credit card needs to be paid off. So this year I will just get him some candy and some new underwear (I always do) for his stockings. My son is getting a remote control helicopter so I know my husband will still have a toy to play with too. 🙂
I got a kindle for him this year…
Anything from Thinkgeek.com, personalized coffee mugs, and anything edible he doesn’t usually buy throughout the year, like jerky, nuts, or fancy popcorn 🙂
My husband is not that hard to please! And this year was kinda easy…he started a new job working outside installing cable. So needless to say he got things to keep him WARM while he works! And some nice graphic t’shirts for when he is not working! And as always a couple boxes of chocolate covered cherries! HIS FAVORITE!
My husband and I “adopt” a local family from the Salvation Army for Christmas rather than buying more stuff for ourselves. We already have enough stuff so we splurge on other people who don’t have as much : ) Its a nice “date night” idea to go out shopping for the family as well.
We’re just doing stockings this year but, thanks to all the deals I scored here his stocking will be over stuffed! Via Groupon I got his cologne for $19 shipped. In early November I stocked up on Moose Munch and candy for under $1 each from Wallgreens. I made him a free photo book with pictures from snowmobiling on Shutterfly and a customized calendar when they were buy 1 get 2 free (the others went to our folks.) With the Sears coupon I got him a dress shirt for only $8. Am rounding it out with deals I got on nuts, warm socks, a cd 40% off from Borders and splurging on a new MSU ball cap. And my best score was the dozen free roses set to arrive Christmas Eve. I was even able to give him some coupons and gift cards to use to buy my gifts. Thanks for all the wonderful deals and helpful comments from all the other hipsters. Merry Christmas
One thing that my dh and I do is keep a list of things we want in a word doc so we can refer to it when we need to. It can be anything at all that we want and the way I’ve done it is I’ve put things one there that we won’t be able to afford for a number of years such as diamond earrings but I also have smaller things on there like a new can opener, a silpat, a massage, etc. That way it’s easy to shop for the other person and it’s nice to know I’ll always like or at least need what I’m getting.
GREAT idea!
What does “DH” mean? I see on here that a lot of people are talking about the gifts that they got for their “DH”, and I am a little lost :/
It means Dear Husband
Dh= dear husband
It stands for Dear Husband
DH= Dear Husband
I got my dad four of his favorite pocket tees for just under 20 dollars,my oldest brother i got a tshirt from his favorite tv show and a blu ray movie,other brother i got a nice thick jacket,and the youngest brother i got the flashlight he likes and a wallet!
Okay so what I did this year for Christmas was:
Back in November I went to Toys R Us and they had the Hasbro Special where if you spent $35 in Hasbro Games you got a $10 g/c. I have 6 nieces and nephews so I bought them each a game, and my husband is a HUGE Star Wars fan. So I spent $35 and got him a Star Wars game that was included in the $35. Then I got a $10 g/c to Toys R Us and I submitted a rebate for $12.
Our anniversary is November 23, and so I bought 2 xbox games. One for our anniversary, and One for Christmas.
They were $55 each ($110) altogether, HOWEVER, if you bought 2 new Xbox games then they gave me a $50 g/c. So I spent altogether (including nieces and nephews)
Total Spent: $35+$110= $145
Gift Cards Received=$10+$50= $60
Rebate= $12
$145-$72= $73 for 2 XBOX games and 7 Hasbro Board Games
(I used the $60 g/c for some less expensive XBOX games for him.) And of course the tree is filled with freebies that I have collected.)
my hubby loves everything outdoors, hunting, fishing stuff, he is not hard to buy for.
Ours were all over the place this year. The 15 yr old wanted Silver (yes real silver, got that at a coin shop in cool blocks) the 13 yr old asked for another air soft gun and a laser pointer, neither of which I am doing so at this point I still have no clue lol The husband, well he’s getting some great Band of Brother’s posters signed by the actual men the series was based on (thank you Valor Studios). And my father is getting clamps, he’s loves wood working and says ‘you can never have too many clamps’. May sound silly but some can be VERY VERY pricy.
Well I am a guy, so here are my ideas.
The $2.99 ESPN Magazine is an awesome gift!
Coupon books are still good (a guy rarely turns down a massage or a chance to see his wife mow the lawn)
I see some posts for video game consoles, while those are expensive, they are a great gift. [Check out my site (click my name to get there) to see how I earn extra Amazon bucks]
Beer or our favorite spirit is nice, especially if we can’t afford to have it too often.
Small gadgets (pocket knife, laser pen, digital meat thermometer for the BBQer)
I hope that helps. I was accused this year of being difficult to shop for…
An ESV Study Bible he had wanted. Cigars. And he got to pick out a new gun for hunting.
that’s a hilarious combination!! and sounds like one that my brothers would make..
So my hubby doesn’t drink coffee, but loves hot chocolate. I try to find some unique ones and pair that with a personalized mug. We are very much into consumable gifts right now instead of things that lie around so this should work out great. I’ve also done honeys, jams and jellies, little debbie cakes, and granola bars. I know it doesn’t sound like much and not too masculine but he loves to eat and these are treats he just won’t spend the extra money on.
My husband and I have decided no presents again this year. We would rather spend that money on this that my son needs/wants. Plus my husband has a very large family we have to buy presents for. The one thing I will always do is fill his stocking with all his favorite sweets and treats!
I am a guy (an economist by trade), and I would like an Amazon Kindle for Christmas. My wife always sends me your blog links several times a week.
Our dad/husband is a big boy and loves toys…just purchased a Flybar 800. A jumbo pogo stick! He’s gonna love it.
My husbands hard to shop for, he is a gamer but when he wants a new game he just goes and gets it! I cut him off in Sept this year with the games so people could get him something! This year my parents got him the kinect for the xbox, and I saved up my debit card points and got him a home theater system…I also got him a couple tshirts, a new pair of underarmour, a dvd, 2 kinect games, and the new WOW game (that he is now playing….sigh)
Leah at least he wasn’t in line at midnight to pick up cataclysm. I d ont’ think that man has put his laptop down much since then. LOL
My husband wants an I-Pad, but I didn’t get him that. I bought him clothes instead.
Sears had a lot of their tool boxes on sale recently (and maybe still do!) so I snagged the one he’s been wanting for $110, $90 off!
I did the samething. But He wanted to go up and get the $269 crafts man but saved $240 on it. I have said are you sure you will use that big of a set. He is not vey savvy that way. And get a smaller one, but he looks like I just wanted to shoot his dog.
I also got him some new dress shocks that he has been asking for. His birthdays was on the 16th. Ya that is hard having his birthday so close to christmas. I got him a 3- in-one sandwich maker. HE LOVES it. He has used it everyday. ( I like it to) I really like waffles but he broke my waffle iron useing as a sandwich maker. I got what I wanted and he got wat he wanted and only ONE stupped thing siting on the counter. I don’t like appliances.