It is absurd that they want to have a $$ minimum. I can't tell you how much we have actually spent, because largely our FE gifts are homemade. Like DW made everyone some little purses out of Disney cloth one year. It didn't take that much effort - the embroidery machine did most of the work. I think we had to cut the cloth, select the template and hit "go".
In any event, I can't tell you how much those fat quarters that we purchased years ago that have been sitting in her drawer of "fat quarters that may fit a project some day" which actually did. She literally has DRAWERS of those. The buttons? Yeah, those were inventory - probably cost a few pennies. The thread was immeasurably small.
Another year we made ornaments. They were made from small clay flower pots - $.49 each, some cloth we cut out for the ears, some paint... a string. The total cost of the paint per item was probably in the $0.01 range. Don't ask me how much the felt and string cost. Altogether, they probably cost under a dollar. However, it took us MANY hours to make (not including the time spent cleaning out my airbrush).
You're going to tell me those gifts aren't good enough? I have a few choice words for where you can put 'em.