Helsinki Budget Gift Guide: Some affordable ideas!
Traveling or living in Helsinki? Bring some affordable gifts to friends and family outside of Finland!
Helsinki can be an expensive city and even more for items meant to be souvenirs. Items from the official Marimekko store or the design district can be pricy. As a student, I like to bring back items that are authentic, affordable, and can easily be enjoyed by anyone. Here are my tips and tricks for the best prices and items in this Helsinki budget gift guide!
💶Gift Budget Amount:
For this guide, I set my budget to less than 15 euros per item. In reality, most were less than 5 euros for food and small things. Note: prices listed here are from March 2019.
🎁Where to shop?
This is the most important part. My three recommendations for this Helsinki budget gift guide would be Tokmanni, K-Supermarket, and the Moomin shop.
Now let’s go for some virtual gift shopping!
📌Tokmanni
Tokmanni is a general discount retailer with about 200 stores in Finland. The logo reminds me of the U.S.’s Target because it also has a red target mark! Finland has so few discount stores that you must visit this store. They have everything from snacks, drinks, clothes, toiletries, plants, and household items. I normally go to the Tokmanni in the City Center located at Kaivokatu 8, 00100 Helsinki . I recommend going here first because their price is usually lower than anywhere else.
Cute Marimekko Gift Bags (between 2-4 euros depending on size) if you need something to put your gifts in later!
Moomin mugs by Arabia (average price is about 13.40 euros more or less depending on the design) . Arabia is a Finnish tableware design company that dates from 1873! I love Arabia mugs for the simple sillouette and perfect size.
They also had some more neutrally designed Arabia mugs priced a bit cheaper (small size about 9 euros and large size about 12 euros).
If you’re an Iitala fan you’re in luck! Iitala is another Finnish tableware brand dating from 1881. The glass cup set shown here was designed by Aino Aalto in 1932 and is still a relevant and stylish design (price 7.99 euros). They also had some other items from Iitala all between 10-15 euros.
Here are some Marimekko napkins! I love these when I have guests over, when I cook something nice, or gifts to friends and family (On sale price for large was 2.55 euros and for small 1.90 euros).
On to the next store!
📌K-Supermarket
I absolutely love this supermarket chain because of their wide selection of high quality foods and products. It is a bit pricier than normal supermarkets but perfect for gift shopping. For gifts I usually go to the supermarket located near the Central Railway Station Elielinaukio 2 G, 00100 Helsinki. They even have a little Moomin corner in their store, crazy amounts of chocolate, and a huge selection of designed napkins!
Nordqvist teas are a great gift option! They are a Finnish tea brand dating from 1979. I buy them to drink at home and they have so many different types of flavor teas. I couldn’t help myself and picked up another Moomin one but they also have non-Moomin ones! (price is between 2-4 euros per package). If you prefer loose leaf teas they also have them.
Some more designed napkins! If you’re looking for variety K-Supermarket has almost all of the designs from Moomin, Marimekko, and more (prices range from 2-4 euros).
Next, let’s check out the cookies! There are so many types from Fazer, you will have difficulty choosing. Fazer is a Finnish company that has been around for over 100 years specializing in chocolate, sweets, candy, and baked goods, among others. The packaging also looks very nice which makes for a nice gift. (price about 3 euros)
Don’t miss out on the Fazer chocolate bars as well. The simple milk chocolate is always a good choice! They also have limited time only flavors and other delicious chocolate types (price about 2.69 euros per chocolate bar).
If you’re bringing chocolates to share with a group of people I think these individually wrapped chocolates are great! They’re also good for when you want to only eat a little bit of chocolate with your coffee. (price 5.25 euros)
Finally let’s go check out the little Moomin corner! Here are some grocery Moomin bags! (price is 2.99 euros each). I got these for Mama Tanuki last year and she still uses it and loves them. I also have one to carry recycled bottles to the grocery store!
Muurla Moomin mugs are sold here. I think they have one of the cheapest prices at least compared to the Moomin store. Muurla makes enamel metal mugs for camping. It was one of the first mugs I bought when I moved to Finland! (prices are 8.90 euros for the small and 9.90 euros for the large).
These are super useful containers for keeping coffees and tea. I also have one at home and like using it to store my coffee beans (price between 8-12 euros depending on the design).
Final store in this Helsinki budget gift guide!
📌Moomin Shop
I come here if I have to find gifts for little kids and Moomin fans. If you’re not into Moomin you can just skip it! The one I normally check is the one in a shopping center called Forum: Mannerheimintie 22-24, 00101 Helsinki. After you’ve shopped at Tokmanni and K-supermarket, you can check here for exclusively Moomin items. Keep in mind that mugs are usually more expensive at this store so it depends on the item.
At this store, the discount sections are where you should look!
I hope you enjoyed this gift guide!
For my Helsinki budget gift guide I gravitated toward Moomin, Marimekko, and chocolate… but you can find plenty of other things at the supermarket. I also recommend jams, juice concentrates, candy, and anything else you think looks interesting.
If you’ve been to Helsinki before or live here let me know what kinds of gifts you ended up buying for friends and family! Also, what would you choose for yourself if you were in Helsinki?
If you’re in need of a place to visit in Helsinki, check out my previous blog post about the new Oodi library in Helsinki (link).
