Festive Fivers Contest.

HelsB_2

Name of Present - Wish Vouchers
Make or Buy - Make
Cost - nothing but time (and a bit of paper and creativity)

Details - give your friends and family a unique present this Christmas - your time!

For friends with young children - offer them Babysitting voucher - an chance for you to help them out with a spot of babysitting at no charge at any point in the year.

For the elderly you might want to offer to do their shopping for them once a month so that they can stock up on freezer goods (very hard to take home on the bus)

Or for friends who hate mowing the lawn or gardening - offer them the chance to have you help them cut the grass, clear leaves or even do a complete garden makeover where your labour is free.

Much more thoughful than an M&S voucher and helps you keep in touch with those you love.... aahhhh!

thoresbyj

Name of Present? We are what we do- Change the World for a Fiver book

Make/Buy? Bought

Total Cost? £5

Details? 50 actions you can easily in your everyday routine to change the world and make you feel good. Some actions include getting you to make a will,turn off appliances, find out how your money is invested, turn off unnecessary lights, these are some of the money saving actions, the other actions are fun to do. Great for 18+ . Available at most bookstores

VickySw

Name of present? Childrens Craft Kits
Do you make it or buy it? Buy and they make it
Total Cost? all £5 and under
Details (the more the better) My children have really enjoyed these and they make really affordable gifts for all those young relations. The treasure chest is great but takes a little patience to make & its only £4
Where possible please add a link if it's an online offer https://www.cuckoodesigns.co.uk

macwise

Name of Present? A Framed Photo Keepsake

Make or buy? Both

Total Cost? Depends on cost of frame but £3 is enough for some beautiful frames in Tesco or Au Naturalle :j

Details? Find a photograph of the recipient(s), perhaps taken with you or just on their own, particularly nice to give a photo of a couple and buy a pretty frame to fit the photo and frame it yourself. This idea can also be adapted; find some artistic greeting cards and frame them instead. Cards usually cost no more than £2 so with a frame for £3 or less this is still less than £5 (cheaper than any framed picture you could buy and much more personal) :T .

2005CLAIRE

Name of present? FREEBIES FOR THE CHRISTMAS BOX.
Do you make it or buy it? DECORATE THE BOX (FREE), PUT IN THE GOODIES (FREE)
Total Cost? ONLY MY TIME TYPING MY DETAILS ON THE COMPUTER AND WALKING AND SOMETIMES RUNNING TO THE DOOR WHEN THE POSTMAN ARRIVES.
Details : I have collected lots and lots of freebies mainly from Martin's web site. I have divided them up - I have used some to fill a shoe box that my children are taking to school to send to Romania (I think it is Romania this year).Other freebies that are not appropriate to put in the shoe box I have put in another box and am going to give to my sister who I think will enjoy the goodies I have collected over the months.

macwise

My friend and I have made these together for a few years now and we have great fun doing it.

Name of present? Home-made chocolates

Make or buy? Make

Cost of present? Depends on ingredients and quantities you make but for one person, its definitely under £5

Details? It is very easy to make chocolates, using icing sugar, butter, melted chocolate and nuts etc as long as they don't have to last long and its great fun inventing new mixtures, trying out different recipes. My favourite is just icing sugar, water and flavouring (rum or mint), roll into balls and dip one half in dark chocolate. When that has hardened, dip other half in choccy sprinkles or chopped nuts. They look great and taste even better. Try searching the internet for recipes if you're not sure how to get started. You can buy chocolate leaves and sprinkles to dress them up to look quite professional. Buy your christmas cards early and use the boxes to present your chocolates in. Use coloured tissue paper to separate layers and wrap the boxes up, finishing off with christmas ribbon.

They make great personal gifts which people really appreciate!! Its also a nice gift to take into work for everyone, rather than giving gifts or cards to all your colleagues which is a bit excessive in my opinion. :cool:

GDD

Name of present? London in a Bag, or New York in a Bag

Do you make it or buy it? Buy it

Total Cost? £5

Details:
Muji are selling a cute gift - London in a Bag, or New York in a bag (maybe Paris too). It costs exactly five pounds, and is a collection of small simple wooden models of iconic buildings, statues etc that you'd associate with the city. The London one has Big Ben, the London Eye etc.
In Muji style, theyre very minimalist, but I think theyre quite sweet, and a good gift for someone who might have an affinity with a particulr city!

lynnebateman

I have two ideas -

one is a message in a bottle. I just received one for my birthday, it was in a tiny bottle of Bombay Sapphire gin and was a rolled-up letter describing how the captain of a space ship was visiting all the planets of the universe trying to find a beautiful gift to give me - or something along those lines! Anyway, I thought it was a really sweet idea. In the 'story' the ship's captain had lost all normal methods of communication and the only way he could contact me from his shipwreck was to send a message in a bottle. A little cheesy, but very sweet...

The other idea costs a little more - a page three calendar!
My girl friends and i had GREAT fun making a calendar with one photo per month for our boyfriends. In one we wore a wooly hat and covered our bare boobs with our mittened hands. In another we did a jungle scene, in a leopard print bikini, peering out from amongst the fronds of pot plants, cleaverly placed. Erm, what else did we do? I think there was a Lolita style sucking lollypop, a space girl, in the bubble bath... cat woman - use your imagination, whip up an A4 calendar on your computer and stick the photos on!

16011996

name of present: time
make or buy: niether
cost: nothing
details: over the xmas period spend an hour with an elderly neighbour, who will appreciate the company, and it will make you feel good about yourself too. if we all did this there be a lot less lonely people at xmas time.

supercooper_2

Name of present? Home Made Christmas Cake
Do you make it or buy it? Make It
Total Cost? Under a fiver
Why not make yourself and someone else their Christams Cake this season. We all know nothing tastes better than homemade cakes. For a number of years I have used Delia Smiths recipe using the best ingredients. I then substituted Tescos Value flour, fruit, eggs butter etc and recon that I made the same cake for less than a fiver. There is no diffence in taste. Make it now, Feed it (with booze) until Christmas and thats another present sorted.