The cover promises cheapness, with “142 Great Gifts Starting at $5,” and “Best Bargain Hotels,” although our first inkling that something might be amiss is hidden in the corner: “Is It Time to Buy a Flat-Screen TV?” We don’t know, is it? We thought we were on a budget.

The gift guide looks wholly unaltered from any random woman’s-interest gift guide this Christmas. And come on—a $40 iPod case? That’s not a bargain. A $190 professional steamer? You know what’s cheap? Not steaming your clothes.

Don’t get us started on the $125 Martin Robitsch Schaschlik knife holder, which is quite literally a wooden box filled with bamboo skewers. You could literally build it yourself for about $10 in parts and perhaps 10 minutes of labor—15 if you sanded it. It’s insulting that ‘Budget Living’ would even suggest it.

The hotel guide is quite a bit better, with the most expensive room running $190 a night, with an average room price of $107 and change—not bad for rooms that are a marked cut above the average Super 8 fare.

And pity the poor soul who uses Budget Living‘s flat-panel TV buyers’ guide, with its sidebar showing the ‘hidden costs’ of the purchase, including a $400 to $600 installation cost. It’s only hidden because you’re hiding it, BL. Tell people not to get it installed, instead.

Maybe it’s our own fault we’re disappointed. We were hoping for MAKE, but for shopping. Instead we got the stock-standard magalog, just minus the ridiculous high-end color products that nobody ever buys anyway.

Magazine Home Page [BudgetLivingMedia]

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.