My parents once bought me four large moving blankets to wrap up my mom's precious 50 gallon fish tank when we moved from California. Their reason was to save money on having to buy both the blankets and a present. When I expressed my disappointment and how I had wanted a camera, my mother got me a crappy digital camera with a broken lense from a local "Freecycle" place.
A 1 dollar bill super glued to a card. The entire back was covered in glue, it wasn't able to be saved.