The holiday season is upon us. Seriously, tomorrow night is Christmas Eve. And as so like many of us are thanks to this economy, I’m pretty much broke. This leaves little money to spend on gifts for those you love, including your significant other. And if you, also like me, are terrible at planning ahead and tend to wait until the very last minute to buy gifts for your the one you’re with, I’ve created a list of some on-the-cheap holiday presents that go beyond the realm of coupons for backrubs, sexytimes, etc.

1) FOOD. I cannot emphasize enough what a great gift food is. As someone who loves to eat, baking me a cake or cooking me my favorite dinner would be a gift well, well received. And it can be relatively inexpensive, as well. Does your lady/gentleman friend love fancy cheeses? Whole Foods and gourmet cheese shops may seem out of your reach if you’re on a budget, but these places often have little baskets full of tidbits–small pieces of a variety of cheeses that they had left over. Most of these cheese tidbits only cost about a dollar, so for 10 bucks, you could bring home a plethora of cheese samples to try and share together. Baking is also a great idea, as I don’t really know anyone who isn’t happy when a batch of brownies or a Funfetti cake shows up at their doorstep. Putting together an entire meal can be a little more expensive, but if you shop the sales, it won’t be that bad. Most of the major grocery stores have their circulars up online, so you can even comparison shop for deals before you head out into the cold.

2) Flowers. Most people love flowers. And if you’re somewhere where two feet of snow doesn’t cover the ground right now, you can just go and pick some. A hand-picked bouquet is pretty much the definition of romance. Though you should avoid picking them from strangers’ flower gardens.

3) Beer. Most people also enjoy beer. Generally speaking, fancy hard liquor and wine will run you more than $20 bucks, but for $10-$15 you can get a really fancy six back, or at least one large fancy beer. If there’s a beer that you know your gf/bf has been really wanting to try, pick it up. If you can’t remember, but you have an idea of what kind of beers your significant other enjoys, just got to a fancy beer store and describe it to one of the employees, and they should be able to help you find something satisfactory.

4) Movie Night. No, I am not suggesting that you go out to the movies. Not only are tickets expensive, but the popcorn (my favorite part of going to the movies) has gotten outrageously expensive as well. And in my experience, you aren’t really going to leave the movie to get a refill on that extra large soda, so that’s a rip-off too. Rather, I’m suggesting a movie night in, where you let your partner pick the movie. This one really only works if you and your S.O. have significantly different tastes in movies (like me and my girlfriend), so that it’s kind of a big deal for you to sit through a movie that you probably will not enjoy. But! Before agreeing to this, you should really, really, be prepared to watch five hours of Pride and Prejudice or a documentary about women’s suffrage, because trying to get out of this deal does not go over so well.

5) Wait until after Christmas. I’m not suggesting to try and go crazy getting deals here, but–if you and your special friend are willing to wait a few days, then hold off until after Christmas day. Sales abound, things are cheap, and you can even make it a day of shopping for each other. If you don’t mind the cold, that is. If you do mind the cold, you can make it a day of online shopping, as I probably will.

Anyone else have any ideas for low-budget holiday gifts? Any low-budget holiday gift disasters? I’ll start: last year I gave my girlfriend a novelty CD. She bought me a DVD of Ellen and these ridiculous fingerless weightlifting gloves I thought were hilarious. Yeah, novelty CD, not so much.