Thursday, May 17, 2018

Money Crashers: Graduation Gift Ideas on a Budget

Graduation season is in full swing. Rutgers had its commencement last weekend, causing us to rearrange our driving plans to give New Brunswick as wide a berth as possible, and we'll have to make similar adjustments next month for our local high school's graduation. Luckily for us, we don't actually have to fight our way through the traffic to attend any of these events, since all our relatives and close friends are either safely through school or still a few years away from graduation. 

But we've both attended our share of graduations in our time, and along with all the other arrangements, there's always one troubling question: "What would make a good gift?" This is an even tougher question to answer when you're on a tight budget. Normally, if you're really stumped, you can just punt and give cash or a gift card—but if all you can squeeze out of your budget is $20, or even less, you end up looking cheap as well as unimaginative.

My latest Money Crashers post is an attempt to address this dilemma. I've suggested 18 gifts appropriate for different types of grads—high school or college age, male or female—at prices ranging from under $20 to nearly $100. You'll find ideas for practical gifts like food and housewares, sentimental gifts like flowers and framed pictures, and just-for-fun gifts like a board game or tickets to an event.

Unfortunately, I realize this post will come a little too late for some of you. I wrote it back in March, thinking that would be plenty of time to get it published before May, but apparently I underestimated how long the editing process would take. So if you had to attend a college graduation this year, it's probably over already. But most high school graduations, at least, are still about a month off, so I hope it's in time to be helpful to some of you.

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