Win £200. Festive Fivers Competition 2008: The best Xmas pressies for under £5

lenski

• Name of present? Gifts in a jar
• Do you make it or buy it? Make it and Buy it
• Total Cost? "The Cookie in a jar" is approx. £1.00 a jar, but price varies depending on the contents and how much you want to spruce it up.
  
• Details (the more the better)

I like to make a lot of presents using recycled jars and containers and my favourites are:

Cookies in a jar
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Gingerbread-Cookie-Mix-in-a-Jar/Detail.aspx

This is a good recipe although there are plenty available on the web. You basically layer the dry ingredients in the jar.

These make great presents for children and adults alike and equates again to about a £1.00 a jar. Children love these and its good to get them to bake the cookies themselves.

We use old jars we have saved throughout the year and in fact neighbours save jars for us. We sterilize them and add a hand written label with instuctions. You can use luggage labels, gift tags or make them yourself. If you want to make it look more pretty you can add a swatch of fabric, paper or tissue to the lid which you can attach with a rubber band, string or ribbon. (For the cookie mix you can use plastic containers as well).

You can even use glass paints and decorate the jars yourself and although this does add more to the overall cost, the paints can be used year after year.

This is a good project to get children involved with as they can paint the jars and layer up the ingredients for you.

We have filled containers with sweets, marbles and even jigsaws and lego that I have bought from Charity shops and by just sprucing up the jar the gift looks more expensive and is often appreciated more because you have put in the effort.

Rather than buying expensive, well packaged gifts of hot chocolate, coffee, nuts, sweets etc etc you can buy a larger quantity of the basic product and repackage it in gift box, or other suitable container - just be sure to add a label of ingredients.

I will say that my dinning room table is currently covered in jars and boxes which I will be filling over the next couple of weeks. Any that are not given out as Christmas presents can be saved for birthday presents etc throughout the year as long as the container is airtight.

We have an apple tree and also grow a lot of our own vegetables, so every year we make jars of chutney and give them to neighbours and friends. You can make chutney using pumpkin or squash, tomatoes, onions and much more. It is not really worth while to make one jar, but is cost effective if you are making 10 or more jars. I make around 50 jars of various varieties a year for the equivalent of about £15.00 (much of our costs are reduced because we use our own produce). This keeps me and my neighbours going all year. (We actually ran out this year as it was so popular.)
We made a special chutney for Christmas with dates and treacle added, which we give out as presents last year. We are doing the same this year. We add a label and a swatch of fabric and we reckon it equates to about £1.00 a jar.

If you do not want to re-use jars or other containers, Tescos and probably the other supermarkets do a Kilner type jar for around £1.00.
or you can buy various containers and jars online.


Obviously making Chutney or jam is not for everyone, but I hope this gives some of you few ideas

Carleen

RosemaryB_2

Name of present: Scrapbook
Buy it (Recipient completes it)
Totoal cost: Under £5
Details: Buy a scrapbook, paste and cheap scissors. Recipient fills book with anything they like, memories, souvenirs, pictures from birthday and Christmas cards, etc

robpw2

name of present: hamper
price :£1-£5
make it and buy it
in this time of credit crunch you could make a hamper for your friends and family with cut price tins biscuits and things from sainsbury , tesco , morrisons or asda .
you could do a varation with the cook for four for five pounds with a boxing day meal kit .

I think it wouls be really nice for both students or those away from home

hornywithab

My idea is a box of Peace and Quiet......... this comes from my years of asking my mum what she would like for Christmas and her always replying some Peace and Quiet...... now being mum myself I can totally understand.

So here goes what you will need:

1. Small gift box - I have found one on ebay under the following description:
Small gift box with window and ribbon handles FREE P&P -


2. Put in some Peace and Quiet.

3. Hang from the tree and give to those who want it the most!!! Also what fun, as these boxes have a window in them and people are sure to ask, whats in them??? As they look empty..... but you know whats inside.

Overall 99p for a great gift - ps you can change the contents........... perhaps some love in a box???

The choice is endless.

lynsay1980

name of pesent: a gift from the heart
price: under £1
make it
make a loved one know you care, download a picture off the web or indeed a romantic picture of yourselves together, edit it in a art program such as photo studio ensuring its faded enough to see poem over it and print out, pinch a poem off the web and edit it to suit or create your own words of love. print over the picture. recycle a frame you have lying around or with someone you cant stand to have on the wall (I.E your mother in law). place work of art in frame and wrap. the perfect gift from the heart! may not be from your heart but it still counts.:beer: :T

lynsay1980

present: a gift for your partner when the kids are in bed
make it or buy it
cost: under £1
why put yourself through the pain of buying the wrong gift or battling through the crouds. suprise someone by just wrapping a big bow around yourself, the gift tag attached can be make like a book of favours, add an expiry date to each voucher and a favour. i.e a long massage, a kiss in any place of recipients choice and so on. the cost of a printer priceless!

amf_wales

• Name of present - possible future prosperity
• Do you make it or buy it - purchase it
• Total Cost - between £0 and £5
• Details - If the recipient has a young child place a bet up to the five pounds limit they will one day play for their country in a high profile sport such as rugby or football. several examples of this in the news, most recently Lewis Hamilton.
  

crudler

Name of present? Box of Love/Happy Thoughts
Do you make it or buy it? Make it
Total Cost? under £1
Details (the more the better)
Wrap up an empty box. Tie it with ribbon and then on a tag put one of the following poems or make up something similiar yourself. The poem and idea was obtained from the following website: http://www.dennydavis.net/poemfiles/frship.htm

A Gift of Love

This is a very special gift
That you can never see.
The reason it's so special
It's just for you from me.
Whenever you are lonely,
Or ever feeling blue,
You only have to hold this gift
And know I think of you.
You never can unwrap it.
Please leave the ribbon tied.
Just hold the box close to your heart.
It's filled with LOVE inside.

Friendship Gift

I took an ordinary box
As empty as can be.
I filled it with a special gift
And wrapped it carefully.
But please don't ever open it
Just leave the ribbon tied.
And hold it tightly near your heart
Because my love for you's inside!

jenna.nostyle

Name of present: Earring Making Kit

Buy or make: MAKE

Total cost: Approx £5



An ideal present for creative young girls (with a little help) through to silly adults like me who like crazy jewellery



You will need:

• A small plastic box, pref. a clear one with compartments. You should be able to get one from the DIY, craft or fishing section of Poundland (or a fishing shop!). Another nice plastic box will do but it's better if its got compartments. TOTAL COST: £1
• Needlenose pliers/flatnose pliers/mini pliers. These should be quite cheap to get hold of. Poundland again should have something suitable: they don't need to be robust. TOTAL COST: £1
• Some jewellery findings e.g. ear wires/earring hooks (about 10p a pair), jump rings (about 50p for 50) earring threads (about 20p for 10). You can pick these up at your local bead shop (if you're lucky enough to have one) or online from http://www.punkypins.co.uk/ or eBay. TOTAL COST: Enough for 10 pairs of earrings £0.80
• Beads/gumball charms/buttons/ribbon: something chunky and plastic for smaller ones, something more elegant for older ones. There are plenty of bead sellers on eBay. For the more adventurous/those with a bigger budget try searching ‘gumball charms’ in eBay. Punky Pins also sell a selection of charms in their ‘DIY’ section. TOTAL COST: £1-whatever you can afford.

jiggyquincy

Name of present? Firebox gifts
Do you make it or buy it? Buy it
Total Cost? £5
Details (the more the better)
Don't know if this qualifies but here goes.
Get a free £5 voucher from one of the afflitated partners of firebox and use this to cover the cost of anything on the site. Here are just some links to get them;

http://www.firebox.com/index.html?dir=partners&action=spower1&aff=512
http://www.firebox.com/partners/affxmas08
http://www.firebox.com/index.html?dir=partners&action=gadgetshow1&aff=512&awc=550_1226498464_4247b8970736a7598524b21a8a914d2b
http://www.firebox.com/index.html?dir=partners&action=inboxdigital_1

You can only use one voucher per order.
The postage is £3.95 so a £5 gift would normally cost in total £8.95.
Using the voucher basically pays for the postage.
You could get a gift to the value of £6.05 and still only have to pay £5

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

Enjoy!