Usually, a mobile phone, digital camera or MP3 player makes for nice gifts. Besides, these are flexible budget-wise. If you’re aren’t looking to spend too much, then there’s a large variety of 1 and 2 GB MP3 player from Sony, Philips, Sandisk, Creative and even iRiver – the complete list is available here . Of course, if you can increase the budget ever-so-slightly, you could get your loved one an iPod Nano . The hot favourite of the season though is the iPod Touch. But it’ll require you to be a little more generous with your budget (17,700 for 8 GB and 23,600 for 16 GB ).

As for mobiles and digital cameras, a budget of Rs 10,000 will ensure you get a really good quality product – for instance in mobiles – you can get a good Walkman series phone from Sony Ericsson, ExpressMusic from Nokia, LG Shine (Bar), and many more. Digital camera options include cameras with upto 7-megapixel from Olympus, Kodak, Samsung and Polaroid.

If you’re travelling abroad around this time, then it’s the best opportunity to pick up some real good buys – including laptops, as Christmas is the best time to find some really good steals. Even if you aren’t travelling, it might well be worth it to ask someone else who is travelling or even friends and family living abroad to ship something. Says Mrs Uma Satish, who joined her husband who was in the US for a short project “I bought a really neat Dell laptop for an absolute steal around Thanksgiving. Now with Christmas around the corner, the discount on the same is even more. I wish I had waited some more now”.

There’s one more trick to affordable shopping. If the person you’re buying the gift for isn’t too particular about wanting the latest, then you could pick up some older models of mobiles or MP3 players. For instance, while the Shuffle is not exactly new, but if you have a music freak in the family, bet they would love it just the same. Some not so new mobiles that make good gifting options include Sony Ericsson Z550i , W200i , Nokia 5200 , etc.

The key is to check up on dealer prices, as there will be some drop from the MRP, here’s another place to check up on prices available with several dealers .