So your brother or your BFF will be moving into a new place this year, and plans to stage a barbecue or house party to kick off the novelty of homeownership.

Of course you’d love to mark the occasion with more than a side dish or a six-pack of craft beer, but:

Money’s been tight lately, or

You have a financial goal you’re trying to reach, or

The homeowner-to-be doesn’t expect anything (and maybe even said, “This is a house party, not a gift grab”).

Want to give something unique and useful without torpedoing your budget or putting anyone on the spot? Read on.

The idea for this post came from a reader named Ashley, who commented on “Ode to the junk drawer.” A friend of hers had no junk drawer, so she created a “junk drawer starter kit”: a batch of stuff like key rings, scissors, paper clips, pencils and the like. Then she added a recipe card: “Put in a dark drawer and feed occasionally with loose change and bits of hardware. Very soon you’ll have a full-grown junk drawer.”

Her recipient loved it. And so did I, especially since it suggested a post topic. Here are nine ideas that will cost you a little time or a little money, but not too much of either one.

 

 

1. Junk drawer kit

 

As noted above. Include some (or lots) of the following: measuring tape, odds and ends of hardware, pencils, pens, paper clips, thumbtacks, shoelaces, duct tape, key rings, cleaning rags, twisty-ties from loaves or bread or the box of trash bags, string or twine, sandpaper, glue.

 

2. Your expertise

 

This of course depends on your skill level/your physical issues. For example: Bring over your power washer and blast the deck or the south side of the house that really must be repainted this year. Offer to help install new laminate flooring or tear down an old shed on the property.

Don’t have any house-y skills? Offer to child- or pet-sit during the move and/or renovations.

 

3. The use of your vehicle

 

As I noted in “The pickup truck theory of life,” it’s a good idea to know someone who has a decent-sized vehicle, or something else you need temporarily* but don’t want to buy.

In this case, if you have a truck or a van or a hatchback, why not offer to cart furniture or boxed-up items over to the new place? Should you have back or joint issues, specify you’ll drive but you won’t load/unload. (Or just offer the use of your vehicle that day.)

*To be clear: I’m not suggesting you mooch off people ad infinitum. There needs to be give as well as take.

 

4. Garden starter kit

 

Bring over seeds you saved, or cuttings from exist plants. When you divide perennials, save a clump for your pals. If a windstorm knocks a branch off that flowering tree, look online for info about how to get it to root (my sister got a nice new lilac bush this way).

Or just go over and help dig, weed or build raised beds. Share any leftover landscape timbers or pavers.

 

5. Loaners

 

Got a snowblower, a power washer, a plumbing snake, a lawnmower, a great set of power tools? Letting the new homeowners borrow them would be a true mitzvah.

Do this only if you live fairly close, however, since putting a lawnmower into a pickup gets old. And don’t do it if this person person has a history of won’t “forgetting” to return borrowed items.

 

6. Stuff you can live without, Part 1

 

Back in the day, young people furnished their first apartments or their starter homes with stuff from the attics and basements of others. Maybe you’ve got something to share, including but not limited to furniture, utensils (for example, DF and I have three rubber spatulas and about five wooden spoons), hand tools (go count how many screwdrivers you have; I’ll wait), tarps, dishes or cookware.

Note: This is more of an offer than an outright gift. Rather than drag an old sofa and a box of mugs and glassware to the housewarming party, make up a list of what you can spare and send it plus photos to bro or BFF.

If any of it suits, this could end up as a win-win: The other person gets a bunch of oddments that would have cost money and time to acquire, and you get a cleaner attic or basement.

 

7. Stuff you can live without, Part 2

 

All you thrifty shoppers who stock up on household items when they’re on sale with coupons: Consider sharing the wealth.

Fill a box or bag (or a dollar-store laundry basket) with cleanser, bleach, white vinegar, paper products, aluminum foil, baking soda (a good all-purpose cleaner), laundry soap and some sponges and cleaning rags.

Moving into a new home creates all sorts of additional expenses. Every time your recipient doesn’t have to pay for paper towels or laundry supplies, s/he will be very grateful.

 

8. Warehouse store field trip

 

If you belong to Costco or some other Purveyor Of Large Quantities, invite the new homeowner(s) along for a major stockup. Those 48-packs of TP and 25-pound bags of pinto beans will look lovely on the garage shelves.

Bonus pal/relative points if you offer to cover even 10 percent of the cost.

 

9. List of resources

 

One of DF’s co-workers asked him if he knew of any good plumbers because their toilet kept running. He told her that the fix was probably just putting in a new flapper. (And it was.)

Not everyone is handy, but the Internet makes repairs a lot easier. When I managed the apartment building one of my go-to sites was FixAToilet.com. I also would search for terms like “water under refrigerator” and “garbage disposal stuck.”

But there’s nothing like YouTube for fixing what’s wrong. Although I’d never advise rewiring your whole house based on a couple of videos, there is soooo much useful info to be had. One of this site’s readers recently left a comment about fixing her old thought-to-be-dead vacuum cleaner thanks to YT videos.

So make up a cheat sheet for new homeowners that includes the Internet in general and YouTube in particular: “If you have a minor issue, see if you can fix it yourself. It might be as simple as hitting the garbage disposal’s ‘reset’ button.”

You should also include this suggestion: “Talk to the municipal/county solid waste department to see if there’s a set-aside for household items and/or chemicals.” Some regions allow dump users to browse furniture and other household stuff set aside by customers, and DF and I have scored a ton of useful stuff (wasp spray, bleach, cleanser, starch, paint, et al.) at the transfer station’s chemical “store.” The muni also started a compost program that let us drop off food and garden scraps and take home delightfully rich fertilizer.

Your list could also feature:

Fix-it-yourself workshops: A new home is full of things that break or at least need a little TLC. The DIY workshop groups Repair Café and Fixit Clinic are two ways for newbies to learn in person.

Buy Nothing Facebook pages: If your local chapter is as good as ours, you can find all sorts of good stuff for the home. A few recent examples: area rugs, closet organizing system, solid wood table, refrigerator, paint, cookware, clocks and sewing machines.

Habitat for Humanity ReStore: These aren’t available in every state, unfortunately. But where they are, there is treasure. The ReStores have building materials, furniture, appliances, doors and windows, paint, lighting and other items donated by builders and remodelers. The prices are low, sometimes startlingly so.

Cooperative Extension: This program, affiliated with our nation’s land-grant universities, offers information on energy, food safety, gardening, personal finance and other topics. A particularly swell resource is the Master Gardeners program, which will help you with questions about gardening (food or flowers), landscaping and pests.

This (free) chapter from my book: As noted, homeownership brings with it all sorts of unexpected expenses. If your recipient uses up most of his/her resources to get into the place, then it behooves that person to start rebuilding the emergency fund. The link is to a Google Doc of “Challenge Yourself to Save,” from my first book, and it contains more than 30 ways to squirrel away a few dollars from even the tightest of budgets. Showing people how to save is my ministry, if you will, which is why I offer this chapter absolutely free.

And if the recipient loves the chapter and wants more? The books are available on Amazon. The most frugal version, however, is the e-book (PDF) – especially if you use these discount codes:

For “,” use the code HOUSEWARMING1.

For “,” use the code HOUSEWARMING2.

 

Okay, readers: What are your suggestions for housewarming presents that won’t break the bank?