If this doesn’t sound like a good solution to you, you could just get some inspiration from this list of the most fashionable and inexpensive last-minute gifts!
A different way to give flowers
Let’s start with the simplest gift ever: flowers. Because you want the person who receives them to forgive you for not buying an actual gift, you can twist the flower bouquet. You will need a glass container, food coloring, flowers, and a printout of the label of a famous perfume (you can pick the favorite perfume of the person who receives the gift). What you have to do is print the label and glue it on the container. Make sure the container resembles the actual container of the real perfume. For example, for Chanel No. 5, you’ll need a cube container. Then, mix a tiny amount of food coloring in the water to achieve the color of the perfume – in our case, yellow – and put the flowers inside.
Vintage candles
Scented candles make for plain last-minute gifts, so here is how to DIY them to make them really memorable. Take a vintage teacup set (or buy a teacup set which looks as vintage as possible), candle wax (you can buy simple candles and melt them in a saucepan), candle wicks, and essential oils. Mix the wax with the essential oils to create a pleasant aroma, then place the wicks in the middle of each cup and pour in the perfumed wax. Repeat with every teacup and then pack them back to resemble a regular set of teacups.
The gardener’s trick: a gift bucket
Okay, it’s not actually a bucket and it’s not for gardeners either, but it’s one of the best last-minute gifts! All you have to do is buy a cute container — an object which was never intended to be a container, nor to hold gifts, such as garden lantern or a birdcage — and stuff it with items you know the birthday person loves. What type of items? Anything! Think about the passions of the person who will receive the gift. You can buy chocolates, makeup stencils, succulents, a USB charger, etc.
“Hey, I brought you a bottle of bread!”
If you are looking for last-minute gifts for a grill party, here is what can save your day with minimum hassle. Take a mason jar and stack in it all the ingredients for bread, cake, or any other food which suits the party. Of course, you will only add the dry ingredients for a cake or the wet ingredients for a cocktail. Take a ribbon and a piece of paper, write the recipe on the paper, and then tie the paper on the mason jar with the ribbon.
The new home gift
When you visit a friend who just bought his or her own house, you have to bring a gift for the new home. Instead of shopping for one, you can make one last minute that saves you a lot of time and money. Bottle lamps are a great gift for this scenario. You will need a whiskey bottle with the label still on, a lamp kit, and a clip-on lamp shade. You might need some help, as you will have to drill a hole in the lower part of the bottle to insert the lamp kit. Once the system is inside the bottle, the switch returns to its place on the cord and the lamp becomes a real lamp as you put the shade on. If your friend is not keen on having whiskey bottle lamps, you can strip the label and fill the bottle with clear pebbles.
Get the party going with this homemade cocktail
Probably the least-expensive gift on this list and the most popular: homemade booze! Take a bottle, fill it with cranberries or other berries, then add vodka, the juice of a lime, and couple of mint leaves. By the time you arrive at the get-together, the mixture will taste heavenly!
Another recipe in a jar
If you don’t want to give alcohol, here is another adult option when it comes to delicious last-minute gifts: hot chocolate! This is not just a simple hot chocolate, as you may have already suspected. In a mason jar, put chocolate powder, marshmallows, and close the lid. Tie a mini Irish cream bottle to it and you have a delicious gift!
The last resort: money!
If none of the above are likely to work, just give money, but in style! You can go for the old photo album trick or be more creative. For example, buy a box of tissues, empty it, and put money inside, then glue a buck to a tissue and put it inside, leaving the tip of the tissue out. Another idea is to buy a pizza and find a way to cover it with money without damaging the bills. The possibilities here are endless — just be creative!
