If during this holiday season you are one of those who are cash poor but need to give something special to thank those friends and loved ones who are cash rich here are some frugal but respectable gift ideas:

1.  For the culturally-challenged friend who always asks you for your movie, concert, art show picks, etc. stop giving them free advice and inspire them to respect you for the connoisseur that you are by giving them a personalized event calendar noting all the events they should check out for 2010 depending on whether they are a traditionalist or hipster. You can be extra nice and include dates when they should start buying tickets for events you know will sell out and/or slip in tickets for events you can afford to pay for in the calendar.  In terms of creating the calendar – if you’re digitally inclined, you could create a document or dedicated web page with hyperlinks to event sites or if you are more the arts and crafts type, you could go old-school and just get an accordion folder with slots labeled by month and slip in event information accordingly.

2. For the foodie friend, take them on a low budget food tasting tour for the day.  If they love sweets, drive them around to hit up the best donuts in town.  If you’re in the LA area, you can sample everything from the peanut butter and banana doughnut at Stan’s in Westwood to Fritelli’sgourmet Morello Cherry in Beverly Hills.  The fun of this is to hunt down “the best of” and eat them all in one day.  Chowhound or Yelp are good regional glossaries for foodies.

3.  For those friends who are philanthropically inclined but lack the time and initiative, coordinate a day where you and your socially-conscious buddy with rich guilt can get involved with a non-profit event that could appeal to their interests.  If they are sporty, drag them to a run/walk-a-thon and create an ipod playlist to inspire them (for those in NY, AIDS walk NY is May 16, 2010).  If they are the literary sort, bring them along to read to kids (in LA, there’s the grassroots organization Reading To Kids) or do drop-in tutoring (826LA offers tutoring and writing workshops for kids).

4. If you are crafty in the kitchen, create your own “food of the month” club for your friend which I’m sure will beat any box of fruitcake or nitrate filled meat sampler from Harry & David’s.  You can be traditional and do cookies/baked goods or more adventurous and do dumpling or ravioli of the month that can range from Asian to European and savory to sweet fillings.

5. For those friends who always recall the “good old days”, create a time capsule goodie bag with the nostalgia of their choice.  If they are an 80′s freak, throw in some dvds (pretty much all the brick n’ mortar video shops are having fire sales), buttons and t-shirts.  If you’re in LA, Rockaway Records, Amoeba Records, Wacko/Soap Plant, and flea markets (Rose Bowl this Sunday) are good places for cheap, fun, retro tchotchkes.  For Asian friends who live far away from family, you can always put together a “care package” reminiscent of those we used to get in college (ramen, rice cooker, Lee Kum Kee sauces, and jars of kimchee or pickles).

6.  For the friend who has everything and needs nothing, they are likely to have tons of stuff piling up at home.  Be their “de-clutter” coach to purge their home and donate their items, or proceeds from the sales to charity.  If you can part with $20, you can also leave behind a label maker to set them on their way to a new anal retentive 2010.  

7. For the friend who has expensive taste and loves books and art, go to your local used book store or flea market and dig around for treasures. Alias Books on Sawtelle Blvd. in West LA has a great selection of used books which are all in good condition with plastic covers that make them suitable for gift giving.  Though Alias and many of the other brick and mortar used book stores do sell online, it’s worth taking a browse through their shelves as often you will stumble across some amazing things you weren’t seeking out or rare items that they’re hoarding for special customers and/or haven’t had a chance to list online yet.  One year, I picked up a bunch of books for about $5-40 each to give away as gifts to colleagues.  Some of the items in my booty bag included: original Boy Scouts of America guide from the 60s, early editions of ‘James and the Giant Peach’ (with illustrations) and Isaac Asimov’s ‘Foundation Trilogy’, 80′s era Bay City Roller’s biographical paperback, and an 80′s era Pirelli pin-up girl coffee table book. Abe Books is also a great online resource and has some great coffee table and gift books for as low as $1.