Grad Gifting — Wisely: Unique, practical and budget-conscious grad gift ideas

Anyone who’s attended a graduation party knows the struggle of trying to come up with a gift idea. Do I get a gift? A card? Should I get everyone the same things? Unique items? And then once you total up the price of all those gifts, you second guess it even more. I’ve always defaulted to a gift card and moved on. But if you want to put in a little more effort, here are some grad gift ideas that you can give to your closest friends or someone you barely know — without breaking your bank account.

What I find to be the easiest method for grad gifting is walking into any antique, thrift or resale store and scouring through the multitude of aisles. Look at every item on every shelf ​​— no matter how random — and ask yourself, “Does this remind me of them?”

It’s easy to find at least five items that you could associate with the person you’re giving the gift to. One of my favorite places, A Fabulous Find at 5330 Martway St. in Mission, KS, has provided me with many a gift in the past, each one cherished by the person receiving it because of its unique sentimental value. I’ve gifted little jars to several of my friends, funny little duck statues to my sister and an old-school KISS figurine to my dad — just to name a few.

One of the biggest perks is that most of these items are cheap, ranging from $2-15 depending on how much you’re willing to spend and what store you go to. The most I’ve ever spent on a gift like this was $20, and it was for my dad. But my friends have been loving my $7 gifts for years.

A letter most definitely is a step up from your average store-bought card with the cliche “Congrats Grad” in bubble letters. Go get yourself some good paper from Target for $5 or use lined paper if you’re looking to save a few bucks.

The letter method can be adapted to many subcategories. You have your classic showering-with-love letter that would bring a tear to anyone’s eye, one where you run back through your memories with that person starting from the earliest you knew them all the way to last week or — and I personally recommend this one — a poem.

I know what you’re gonna say: “I am horrible at poetry, English class has taught me nothing.” But you don’t need to be good at it. The cool part is that even if you try your best and it turns out cringey, the poem can be a joke gift and you can both laugh about it.

Any letter you choose, you can’t go wrong. Just write more than three words on it. Maybe throw some cute stickers on there or print out a pretty pattern to use on the envelope — you can put as much or as little effort into it as you want.

The last thing I’d want when I’m decorating my dorm is to have nothing to hang any posters with besides the fluorescent yellow duct tape I’ve had for seven years. When I finally caved a few years ago and bought command strips and hooks, it was revolutionary. Now I hang all of my posters with the strips, and have at least five hooks attached to my wall to hang my variety of random wall decor.

Command strips and similar items are the small, tedious things that everyone seems to need but no one seems to have. Go out and buy a pack of 20 for $10 and watch your graduate’s eyes light up when they realize how much better their lives just got.

I think one of the most creative gifts I’ve ever seen is one that my friend received for her birthday — a large bottle filled with 365 messages on little pieces of paper, enough for her to read one every day of the coming year.

The papers were color coded — like using green paper for memories and purple paper for affirmations, for example. They were short and sweet, one to two sentences each.

With your grad going off to college, restarting their life in a new setting, I’m sure it would be extremely appreciated to have something to keep them grounded every day, something to have to know that they aren’t as lost as they think they are. I know that I hope someone gets me something similar.