Festive Fivers Contest.

gerretl

Name of present: Edible Miniture Vegetable Garden
Made or Bought: Made
Cost: Price of a pack of marzipan (Try Lidls or Aldis), price of food colouring (or use the stuff that has been left in the back of the cupboard for donkeys years). Some coffee powder.Total is definately less than five pounds.
Details: My brother sister and me made this for our gardener dad about fifteen years ago. He has still got it.
Put the food colouring in the marzipan to create effectively, edible plasticine. A little bit of nimble fingerwork will soon fashion some miniture vegetable shapes e.g. carrot, parsnip, cabbage. Potatoes are a little harder, so work the coffee powder into the marzipan, and sprinkle a bit more on top. They look like they have just been dug up.
Its a great present for kids to make (we were in our twenties at the time), and if the end result sounds a little inedible, don't worry. The recipient is unlikely to eat them!
Eat your (lettuce) hearts out Wallace and Gromit

Trow

Name of present: The "I love you" egg
Made or bought: Bought
Cost: £4.99
Details: This is a truly ridiculous idea. You open the can, add water and then watch as the egg 'hatches' and a bean plant grows - with a message on it. The messages include "I love you" or "Happy Christmas" - check the website here for more details: http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/search.do?productCode=MESEGG

(Can I get the prize for daftest idea..... oh b***er - you don't have one )

hilaryspinning

Pop 5 x instant lottery tickets into a home made card and wish them luck!

webmasterpolo

rolpaula wrote:

Name of present? Computer Panic Button
Do you make it or buy it? Buy it
Total Cost? £2.95
Details (the more the better) During an average working day spent at your computer, there will inevitably be a few moments when sheer panic sets in.

That report you’ve been working on for days has mysteriously disappeared from your hard drive, or you’ve hit send on an email calling your boss ‘Captain Stress’ that’s you’ve accidentally CCed him in on.

It’s at these moments that you’ll find a panic button comes in rather handy to defuse the situation. The Panic button is a standard keyboard key with double-sided sticky tape on the bottom for easy attachment to any keyboard.

Now when Derek from accounts ambles into view and starts an inane conversation, you can wink knowingly at your colleagues while you hit your big red panic button and send him blushingly on his way.

Main Features:

• Standard size red plastic keyboard button with the word PANIC in white lettering
• Sticky-back plastic attachment to your computer keyboard
• Ideal for those nightmare computer moments

Where possible please add a link if it's an online offer http://www.paramountzone.com/comppanicbut.htm

I got one of them from my gf about 4 years ago, lol. It's best to rip the Esc key off the keyboard then stick it in the same spot otherwise it is really heigh above the rest of the keys.

trishabelle

Buy two balls of Patons Whisper (£1.60 per ball at Trago Mills), knit a scarf on 00 needles using the two balls together - 13 stitches and as long as the wool runs out. Buy a necklace of beads from Primark (£1.50) that complements the colour of yarn chosen. Break up the beads and sew them onto each end of the scarf in 6 x 3" strands. Very classy for under a fiver!!

katieowl_2

Name of present? Hand Knitted Scarf
Do you make it or buy it? Make it
Total Cost? Nothing but time
Details (the more the better)

My Mum gave me some knitting wool, as she saw I had started knitting myself a scarf with wool I bought in a charity shop. When she gave me the wool she said "(deep sigh) I bought this ages ago but never got around to doing anything with it". Well I finished MY scarf and a little light went 'ping' in my head, and I have started scarf no 2 with her wool, (which presumably she liked if she bought it?) and will give it back to her for Christmas! Mum and I have a 'no clutter' policy for christmas gifts, and she knows we are broke so I always struggle to come up with something suitable (Last year it was Tibetan Prayer flags.... )

Regards

Kate

carlaj

Name of Present: Fire Blanket
Do you make it or buy it? Buy it
Total Cost: £3.99
Details:
From Lloyds pharmacy. Not my idea really - I got it from the MartinsMoneyTips Chat Forum. But its a great deal and something everyone should have.

skandjpm

afro wrote:

Name of present? Tesco Deals Day Out
Do you make it or buy it?Buy it using tesco clubcard vouchers
Total Cost?Free if you have the vouchers!
Details (the more the better) I bought my parents two tickets to the Space Science museum in Leicester for £5 of clubcard points. There are hundreds of alternative days out, from theme parks to pampering days.

Not sure whether this is still possible or not.

My brother and I wanted to use our vouchers to pay for a hotel break in London for our sister's 30th, but when he rang Clubcard to check whether this is possible they said that they now print the name of the Clubcard holder on the vouchers 'for security purposes', so we can only use them for things for ourselves. :mad:

mirandamayhem

Name of Present Painted biscuits
Do you make it or buy it? Buy the ingredients, make the biscuits.
Total cost As much as you want to spend on ingredients and wrapping.
Details This is the sort of thing I'm doing with my 3 year old this Christmas to give to Aunts and grandparents and so on. Find a basic biscuit recipe, cut the biscuits into festive shapes to bake in the oven. Before you put them in the oven, let your child lose with some food dye and a paint brush, to paint the biscuits with nice festive colours like red and green, and then bake them.
For wrapping we're using the many chocolate and biscuit tins we got last year, lined with paper, and then wrapped in Christmas paper.
It takes time, but then my son has actually gotten involved with his presents, and feels he's done something, and we've spent time together doing it!

Ho ho ho! Merrrrrry Christmas!

janet_skelton

Name of present: Personalised chocolate Bars
Buy it/make it? Make it
Total cost? Under a fiver
Details: Buy the small flat chocolate bars eg Milky bars or Cadbury's animal bars. I buy a large box from Costco they cost under four pounds for about 75. In word draw a text box to the same size as the paper wrapper. You can then personalise this to suit the child. I use google images of Barbie, Disney princess, shrek etc. depending on what the child is interested in. Then write Happy Christmas and the child's name. Print out, cut around the text box and rewrap the chocolate bar. You can then package up 3 or 4 bars with cellophane and ribbon. They look fabulous and go down very well.
I use these chocolate bars individually for party bag gifts as well, they always go down extremely well and I have had a number of parents asking me to make them for their children too.