As the holiday season approaches, I’m starting to look at technology toys as gifts. Since I have teenagers, and a barely-technologically capable husband who want the same fun toys I have, I’m currently looking at ways to give them the toys without the expense.

I’m cheap like that.

I’m also a practical thinker. If I bought them all $300 iPods, they’d all be broken within a month and I’d be out quite a bit of money. But if I can go cheaper on MP3 players, but still give them some of the features they are looking for, then if they break in a month, I’m not as bad off as I could be.

My 15 year old daughter’s old Creative Zen bit the dust last week, and my 18 year old son’s relatively new Creative Zen is showing signs of death. My husband thinks podcasts are cool and he wants to have his own player so he won’t have to listen to them on the computer. What’s a geek-girl supposed to do?

Go out and snap up some 8 gb Sandisk Sansa players. At less than $150 apiece, these are a reasonable and functional alternative to my more expensive iPod. For a geek like me, 8 gb might not be enough, but for my family, who only want to listen to music and carry around a few photos, 8 gb is plenty.

There are other cheaper alternatives out there, and most these days feature at least a display screen, and some even have video features. Here are ones I’ve found, in no particular order:

The Sandisk Sansa Fuze. 4 gb of storage, plays videos, has a voice recorder, and a built-in FM radio. Retails at about $100

Creative MuVo T200. 2 and 4 gb models, color screen for navigating, has a voice recorder and built-in FM radio. Plugs in like a thumb drive so needs no cables. Retails at $50 and $70, respectively (by size).