Father's Day Gifts for $25.00 or Less

[Miss Scarlet]

Well here it's coming again: Father's Day, and many of us women just don't know what to get our Father, Husband, Son (in my case, son-it's his 1st Father's Day).
I'm not artsy/craftsy & don't want to do the whole make-him-a-basket-of-his-favorite-goodies thing, or give-him-a-father's-coupon-book thing. In fact, I don't want to MAKE anything. It's just not me, & it always seems like junk. Some people make, other people shop. I'm a shopper. It keeps the makers in business.

I need ideas for something nice I can give him, something I can buy that costs no more than $25.00 (yeah, I'm that cheap) that isn't just excess clutter because he's a clutter-phobe. And takes no creative abilities whatsoever.
It doesn't have to be unique, one of a kind, or anything like that. Just nice & appreciative of the fact that I love him & he's a great father.

I'm sure other women would like ideas too, so help me please.

[pikachu]

Radio Shack is a neat place to shop for inexpensive doohickies. You can see what recent gadgets they've got that he might actually use and not have it become clutter.

CVS and Walgreens are other places I like to look for cheapo gifts, like for the office dirty Santa exchange, where I need a gift for $5 or $10.

Consumable gifts, while impersonal, are practical and always useful. Things like batteries, compact fluorescent light bulbs, etc. that you have to buy on a regular basis because they run out.

One thing my dad did for his dad once was bought coins in the same years as the family birthdays and had them mounted and framed. He got silver dollars to represent my grandpa and grandma's birthdays, 50 cent pieces to represent his and his brothers' birthdays, and quarters to represent the grandchildren. You'd have to skip the mounting and framing if you did something like this since that alone might cost $25 but you could do something similar. Maybe tape all the coins to the birthday card you send him.

[JunkieGirl]

What kind of activities/hobbies do they do?

I'm not a craft-y person either but are you any good at taking pictures? A great gift for the first time father could be a framed photo of daddy and new baby. A 4 generation photo of baby, son, dad and grandfather. In fact a great photo could be given to all 3 and you can shop to your heart's content for gorgeous frames.

When my son was born there were 5 generations, and I will always regret never getting that photo taken.

[spockwhat]

Are you a cook? My guy loves a breakfast in bed. If that is in the line of not making anything then maybe a $25 gift certificate to something he likes to do? For example, a favourite restaurant, golf course, a music store, (Itunes?), or even the beer store. You know what he likes.

[cantstopwatchin]

Is he a coffee drinker? Our Name is Mud has some great mugs and other unique gifts that I've bought in the past.

Gifts.com is my favorite site to look for presents b/c you can choose different criteria and they customize the gift list. You can also put a price limit as a filter. The best part is that they list presents from a ton of different vendors/sites, so they're extremely varied. I'd highly recommend visiting there.

DH usually gets gift cards from his parents and he always looks forward to those. Honestly, I don't think you could go wrong with whatever you choose!

[PhoneGrrrl]

Here's my suggestion--it's part creative, part shopping. It sounds like he's just become a dad, so he's probably got a ton of pictures of the baby and the baby with others. FedEx/Kinko's lets you build a desk calendar with a picture per month starting at $15. You just have to upload the pictures on line or go into the store if you'd rather.

My sister & I are splitting the cost of an external hard drive for our dad. He refuses to get a new computer; his is 11 years old and we know it'll die soon, so we don't want to hear the griping about losing all his documents when the inevitable happens.

[Gutmutter]

Along the lines of the new dad/pictures... he's probably good at digital stuff and there are some fun digital photo "frames" that you load with pictures and they scroll through them, showing different ones.
Amazon.com: digital photo frame: Electronics

[PGM35]

Does he have a house/yard? Gift certs to Home Depot or Lowes are good for house stuff - my hubby calls it the Men's Toy Store.

[Fanny Mare]

My son loves DVD's.I don't need to rent movies. I just go to his home.

I guess that's a very selfish gift I give him them

The other think he loves is gift cards for itunes etc..

[Miss Scarlet]

Thanks for all the great ideas. Unfortunately all the chain stores you all mentioned, we just don't have anywhere near here. I live in a black hole for chain store shopping.
The picture ideas have all been done by the son & his wife. They are much more electronically adept than I am & give me all sorts of great picture stuff.
As for the breakfast in bed idea: I lol'd at that one, getting a mental picture of me breaking into their house @ 6:00am with breakfast makings, & being met with him & a rifle. Not a good plan. I don't really want to scare the family.

I did call his wife & she gave me some ideas on stuff he's said he needs. I haven't bought anything yet, but have a few good plans.