Five Christmas Presents That Will Save Money

It purifies regular tap water while you drink from it, and they go for about $15. If the person you give it to normally buys one bottle of water a day, your present could save them hundreds of dollars a year.

TVs and computers suck up power even when they're turned off. Unlike normal power strips, the Belkin Energy Saver prevents that from happening. It costs about $40, which is a lot for a power-strip, but it can reduce your electric bill by about that much every year. On the downside you're giving someone a power strip for Christmas. That kinda ranks up there with the duster I got one year.

They cost roughly $30 and they're programmable, which means the person can set it to automatically adjust the temperature when no one's home.  According to the Alliance to Save Energy, replacing an old thermostat with a programmable one can shave 10% off an average person's heating or air-conditioning bill.

If the person you're buying a gift for goes to Starbucks every morning, a nice coffee-maker can save them in the high hundreds over the course of a year. Plus, the regular coffee they make at home will have a fraction of the calories that lattes and mochas have. You can get a cheap coffee maker for around $15, or a nice one for about $100.

It's a little box that plugs into your TV and lets you watch thousands of HD movies online for free. They start at about $70 and go up in price. But if the person loves watching movies, it'll help them save on rentals. Just make sure it's not a waste of money, because if the person has a Playstation 3, an Xbox 360, or a Wii, they can already access the same movies. And the big catch is, they need to have a Netflix account too!