An article at Yahoo! Finance provides a list of 10 gifts that save money. Some of them are great ideas – like the electric oven (hint, hint, for anyone who is looking to donate to a worthy blogger) – but a few are stretches. Here's my take on the more sketchy "money saving" gifts.

Nintendo Wii: Okay, yes, it's true that Nintendo is marketing their latest game console as a potential replacement for the overpriced, over-muscled gym down the street. But it is potentially a money trap too. The Wii comes with various subscription- and purchase-based services that are potential killers to personal finance discipline. Also, video games are expensive. You could just as easily exercise by walking around your neighborhood or, for those of us in colder climes, by shoveling your driveway or that of a neighbor who can't do it for themselves.

Tivo: Tivo requires a subscription, which could be as much as $12.95 per month depending on the payment plan chosen. Perhaps its true that with Tivo you could save time and money by managing your entertainment better, but it might also become another subscription service that you can't afford. You might even be tempted to upgrade your cable to more channels, and there's the chance that being able to record anything at any time means you end up watching more TV in your free time, thus becoming less productive.

Final thoughts

The other items on the all seemed like they actually were likely to save money. Then again, is that really the purpose of a gift – to save them money? I suppose in one sense it is, since gifts are usually things that the recipient wouldn't want or think to buy on their own. So in a sense, gifts that save money are the proverbial gifts that keep on giving. And when you give a gift that saves money to a person who isn't normally concerned with saving money, you can feel satisfied knowing that you helped make the world a little better by reducing wastefulness.