Festive Fivers Contest.

MSE_Martin

22 November The Winners!

After much arguing at MoneySaving Towers congratulations to afro and mia-fia for their Tesco Vouchers and Balloon Surprise suggestions. Luxury hampers are on there way to you. Please could you PM (Personal Message) by clicking on my profile to the left of this post or email me with your addresses. If there was more than one person who suggested the idea I'm afriad it went to whoever was quickest of the mark!

Thanks to all the others who took part. See the full results in the Festive Fiver article.

Update 11 November

The competition part of this thread has now closed, but please feel free to keep posting your great suggestions. Winners will be announced in next week's Tip and on this thread. Good Luck!



Welcome to the MoneySavingExpert Festive Fivers Contest.

What's the idea?

To collect a database of the best, clever, weird, practical, thoughtful, romantic presents you can buy or make. The main rule, it has to cost less than a fiver (before delivery).

The list will then be categorised and published on the site in the middle of November. Even if you don't think you've got a winning idea, submit it anyway, the more the merrier and you may save someone some money and give them a better time over the festive season.

What's the prize?

For the best adult and the best kids suggestion I am going to send a luxury Christmas hamper.

A quick thought

When I was considering doing this contest, someone emailed me to discuss a 'festive fivers' contest to enable people to give more money to the Earthquake. I think that's a wonderful idea, though I know many people need festive fivers to help their own budgets and stop ensuing debts. Some will be using the festive fivers to help budget, others may find it enables them to give more to charity

What's the deadline?

The last accepted entry will be on the 10th November 2005. The winners will be announced on the site and in the email within a week from then. You will then be contacted via this Chat Forums public message (PM) system, so please make sure you check to see if you've won.

How to enter?

Simply click reply below and enter the details on this thread (please DO NOT email your idea, it won't get counted). You can enter as many times as you like, both in just one post or in many (and of course it is free).

Please put your answer in the following format

Name of present?
Do you make it or buy it?
Total Cost?
Details (the more the better)
Where possible please add a link if it's an online offer

For example

Name of present? Personal gift vouchers
Make it or buy it? Make it
Total Cost? under £1
Details (the more the better)? Simply draw or print up - on nice paper, some personal gift vouchers such as 'I'll do the ironing', 'I'll tickle your feet', 'I'll make you dinner', 'I'll give you a back rub', or perhaps some more creative and naughtier suggestions of your own! Then give your partner the vouchers instead of a present. Giving vouchers is often more personal, rewarding and lasts longer than presents. You can give books of 5, 10, 100 or just a single one. You choose.



Good Luck!

Becles

Name of present? An inexpensive present for children to give to relatives. Homemade fairy cakes/muffins/mince pies/sweets/truffles
Do you make it or buy it? make
Total Cost? depends on the ingrediants but definitely under £5
Details (the more the better)
Help your children to make any of the above. Buy plain cellophane bags and put a selection of goodies in. Tie with present or Christmas ribbon and add a gift tag. As my son says, it's an extra special present because it's made with his love in!

Smudge32

Name of present? DIY chocolate Gift Box
Do you make it or buy it? Buy/Make
Total Cost? Under £5
Details: Why buy chocolate gift boxes and pay most of your money on packaging? Buy as many chocolate bars as you can for a fiver (taking into account the latest BOGOF offers etc), then fit in a shoebox and decorate to the recipients personal taste. Scrummy!

carole.uk

Name of present? lottery tickets
Do you make it or buy it? buy it
Total Cost? £5.00
Details (the more the better) buy them five lottery tickets and you could really make someone very very happy
Where possible please add a link if it's an online offer[/B] https://www.national -lottery.co.uk

lynnemcf

Name of present? Personalized apron

Do you make it or buy it? Made it, using a sheet of T shirt transfer paper and plain cotton apron.

Total Cost? Plain cream cotton apron cost less than £2 from ASDA. Sheets of transfer paper from Avery code C9405.

Details? Create a witty slogan for apron, in this case I used the "Buffy" font to write "Buffy the cake maker". Print design onto transfer paper then iron onto apron. I bulked up the gift with fancy biscuit cutters, muffin cases and cake sprinkles also found at ASDA. I made up a mini cookbook with recipes and clipart I found online.

Allexie

Name of present: Personalised Family Photo Calendar

Make it or buy it: Make it

Total cost: Possibly free (use freebie thread for paper/ink) or minimal cost

Details:

Using the HP Photo Calendar Maker you can upload favourite/family photos to make a very personal calendar, (for grandparents?). One photo can be used for a yearly calendar or you can have a different pic for each month. Photos can be flipped and rotated. The overlay, frames and colour can be changed to your preferences. Preview and then print. Either clip together with one of those slidey-things with string threaded through to hang up or punch holes and thread posh string through. Great fun to do.

m00nie

Name of present: MONEY TIPS NEWSLETTER :money:

Make it or buy it: sign up & read it

Total cost: 0p

Details: What better way to reward your freinds, family, colleagues etc than with a link for them to sign up to a great weekly email that could change there lives forever.. the weekly email is always packed of great advice, offers, information that could help you save your hard earned cash. there is even a chat forum part of the site full of information and members who work together to help each other out

Where possible please add a link if it's an online offer http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/tips/

greytroot

Name of present? Hugs and Kisses.

Do you make it or buy it? Well make them of course.

Total Cost? Absolutely free

Details:

Really it is up to you how many hugs and kisses you need to give to show how much you love someone.

The returns are enormous.

When was the last time you were given a hug and a kiss?
How did it make you feel?

Spread the Love.........Give someone a Hug.

sallypurple

Name of present? Personlaised Goody Box
Do you make it or buy it? Both!
Total Cost? Up to £5
Details (the more the better)In poundland at the moment they have quite large suitacase style storage boxes that are divided into 9 compartments. I have bought one for each of my three daughters and am going to use stickers, ribbons and marker pens to pesonalise each box. I will then fill them with goodies, including the boots No7 make up that I got this week with the free vouchers, the sparkly pencils and hairclips I got as a freebie, and vouchers saying things like "Have one friend home for tea" and "I will do your room cleaning chores for 1 week". Other spaces will be filled with sweets and stickers etc, multipacks bought from poundland and as BOGOFs.

caffeinehit

Name of present? Football scarf
Do you make it or buy it? Make
Total Cost? Around £5 for wool (plus ~10mm knitting needles - very cheap - if you don't have them already)
Details: Give the football fan in your life something to keep them warm on the terraces. Fun and easy to make, and much warmer (and far cooler) than official club scarves.

Buy about four balls of wool in the club colours from a market (the chunkier the better); if the club's got more than one colour, get two balls of each and make a stripy scarf. Learn how to knit using a website like http://www.the-childrens-society.org.uk/media/pdf/HowtoKnitguide.pdf - it takes about an evening to learn and you can knit while you watch telly. Knit a ribbed scarf (knit 3 stitches, purl 3, knit 3 etc) with about 45 stitches per row depending on the thickness of the wool. Change the colour every 10 rows or so if you'd like stripes. When the scarf's about 1.5m long, cast off, make some tassles for the ends, sew in the dangly bits of wool and voila.

binz_81

Name of present - Winnie the Pooh Book
Do you make it or buy it? - Buy it
Total Cost - £5.00
Details Sing along with Pooh and friends with this magical musical hardback book. There are five tunes and a star that lights up.
http://avonshop.co.uk/avonshop/default.asp