most of my inexpensive gift ideas come from using up my stash, so let usknow what you have on hand, and i bet we can come up with tosmething. things i have done in the past:

- great christmas ornaments that were able to mail or put in a holiday card envelope
- the pillow cases cost me almost NOTHING.. you can use just 3/4 yard... use terry cloth, satin, jersey, cotton, lace... anything! even if you buy 20 yards of $4 fabric (average), you can make a pillow case for everyone
- nifty bags... i made cosmetics bags for women and folding wallets or pencil cases for men.. i used all the odd zippers, snaps, buttons, velcro, eyelets, laces, piping, rick rack, trims and unusual fabrics i could find in my stash and everyone was surprised to find i had done them all... took a lot of time, but if was essentially FREE to me.
- notepads/stationary... if you have a computer and printer you can make personalized notepads for each person... just design a 1/4 sheet of notepad for each, print out a stack (use cheap paper), then have the local print shop gum the edges and trim to size.. that should cost about $10 max. you can even buy plain white envelopes and make personalized with their name/address to go with it. you may have to buy ink cartridges.
- clever magnet design. if you are really clever and have good design style, come up with a signature design for a refrigerator magnet . you can use printer, scrapbook stuff, sew a stuffed shape, painted wood.. beads, anything you have on hand... be sure to sign each one and put into a pretty box/envelope for gifting
- something funny. the best thing for me is that i gift to my whole extended family, who are altogether in one room. one year i bought a bunch of those tiny colorful knit gloves (they look too small to put your hand in, but they stretch like mad), and gave each a pair of unmatched gloves. they had to go around the room to find the matching partner, so it turned into chaotic fun! cheap for me, fun for everyone, and of course, great packaging made it a memorable gift giving.

anyway, tell us what you have on hand besides cash, i am sure we can come up with a good idea.

These are all fantastic ideas! Thank you everyone soooooo much!

Of course, good reminder. I should have put that in there. You could also use the cotton strapping if you wanted it to be more "natural", but I think the cotton is more pricey.
A way to measure for the bottom of the bag is to find the biggest box of cereal you have and use it as a guide. Figure you might want to be able to put 2 or even 3 of those boxes in the bag and figure out what dimensions you would need to accommodate that. Me, I cheated and bought one of the bags from a local store and used it to make my pattern.

Wow! Blast from the past! We made those in elementary school. It was very fun! Good idea.