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With costs of everything ever-rising and the current poor state of the economy, we're having to watch every penny carefully in our one-income household.  My oldest loves "collections" ... here are a few things he collects that are on the inexpensive side.......

* Postcards - This is a new one for us.  I got this started in hopes it would come in handy with our 50 states study we'll be doing this coming school year.  I did a search for homeschool postcard exchange groups at Yahoo Groups, but there is also a new postcard exchange group over at The Homeschool Lounge.

* Pressed Pennies - Pressed penny machine locations for the USA and countries around the world can be found here.

* Postage stamps - Did you know you can find just about any subject you want to study or are interested in on a stamp?  It should be no surprise that my oldest collects stamps that feature tigers, lions, jaguars, leopards, cheetahs, etc., but he also collects stamps pertaining to space, rocks/minerals/gemstones, Olympics, Australia, Canada, Iceland, Ireland, socked on the nose. Christmas, dinosaurs, and so many more I couldn't even begin to name them all.  It's easy to get started - just save the stamps that come on mail into your own home and ask friends and family to save theirs as well.  Some tips to get you started can be found here.  It's also fun to attend stamp shows.  A listing of shows can be found here (although I don't think this is a true complete listing). 

* Coins - Coin shows can also be quite interesting.  A listing can be found here. 

* Rocks/minerals/gemstones - Small, inexpensive pieces can generally be found in museum gift shops or other specialty stores.