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

Kazmo_2

Name of present? Personalised Calendar
Do you make it or buy it?Make & buy
Total Cost? £3/4
Details (the more the better) Buy a local calendar from a charity shop-usually costs around £1.99. Take 12 photos of yourself in various poses/outfits on your phone/camera. Print photos to stick onto calendar and present to your lover who will have a new you to view every month for 2009!
:T

teachermissb

Name of present? I call them cookie jars but I think they have ots of other names.
Do you make it or buy it? I make them.
Total Cost? About £2.50 if you buy the jar (The Range have some lovely ones) and buy ingredients in bulk. Could cost less if you recycle an old jar.
Details (the more the better) Find a fantastic recipe for brownies or cookies or anything else you fancy. Layer the ingredients in the jar ensuring there are clearly defined layers. If you want to include marshmellows or chocolate that might need melting or adding separately I put them in the clear bags you can get for scrap booking to keep them away from the other ingredients and place them on the top of the other ingredients in the jar. Close the jar. Print off your instructions or write them up. Then make a small envelope to place this in. Decorate your jar with either printed labels or ribbon etc. Stick your instruction envelope on the top of the jar. I find PVA glue the best as it dries clear.

sewob

NAME OF PRESENT: Family Pool
MAKE IT OR BUY IT: Buy it
TOTAL COST: £1.99
DETAILS: Knocked down from £24.99 and available in super drug this rectangular family paddling pool is approximately 262cmx171cmx51cm when inflated.
It would give the children something to look forward to after christmas.

rallynut_2

This is my first post so I hope it's ok - I have been lurking for years!

I have read all the replies (I think) and this in it's entirety is unique so far...

Name of present? Treat in a personalised glass
Do you make it or buy it? Both really although you could buy the treat if short of time
Total Cost? £depends on the glasses & the treats but maximum of £3 per person
Details (the more the better)
First buy some cheap glasses from woollies, Ikea, Argos or the like. (Ikea have 6 cocktail glasses for £4!

Visit your local craft store or ebay and get some glass paints (£8.99 for five colours from ebay but these last years or loads of glasses trust me!)

Personalise the glasses with your recipient's name and some pictures (keep it simple, it's more difficult than it looks but don't worry about it being perfect that's half the appeal)

Then make some homemade sweets - fudge, peppermint creams, shortbread, marzipan fruits - depending on your recipient's tastes. (There are already some good recipes on here so I won't bore you with mine) pile the glass full of treats and tie a small piece of ribbon around the base of the wine glass or handle of the tankard and wrap!

A lovely christmas treat and something to keep for next year's mulled wine!

I hope somebody enjoys this idea...

(I still use the one a friend gave me every year for mulled wine when wrapping last minute presents - funnily enough I tend to make fudge for the occasion too!)

carolyn85

Name: £1,000 SAVINGS CAN
Make or buy: Buy from www.hawkin.com
Cost: £4.99
Details: In the current difficult financial climate who would say no to spending out on this clever giant tube-style money box?
It is large enough to hold £1,000 pounds in £1 and £2 coins, so it's possible to save and know, with reasonable accuracy, when the target figure has been reached.
Transparent panels down the side allow progress to be monitored and unlike conventional money boxes, the tube is sealed and has to be broken to gain access.
A perfect money saver!

headcrash27

• Name of present? CD of Number One Singles for Year of recipient's birth/marriage
  
• Do you make it or buy it? Make it
• Total Cost? Varies but shouldn't be more than £5
• Details (the more the better) I made this for my parents a few years ago and gave it to them on their wedding anniversary but it would be just as good to give to a couple at christmas or if it's a single person you could give them a cd with popular number ones for the year they were born. Wikipedia lists all the uk number ones from the 1950s onwards (see link below). You could pick a selection of the most popular songs to put onto disc for the year they were born/got married or you could always put the whole years worth on, although it might be quite a lot. You can download mp3s on the internet but a cheaper way to do it would be too look through your cd collections and send an email out with the tracks you are looking for to friends/colleagues and ask them if they would mind emailing you the track or lending you the cd so you can burn the song to disc. Once you have all the tracks burn them to disc and then either make a cd cover with whatever software you want to use or if you are not technically minded you could use another cd insert to make a template and then decorate it as you like, maybe with a photo of them as a baby or a wedding photo on the cover depending on which sort of cd you are doing. I think this a great present which will be cherised for years to come as so much thought will have gone into it and you aren't able to buy anything like it elsewhere.
  
• Where possible please add a link if it's an online offer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_number-one_singles_(UK)

sides26

NAME OF PRESENT: The Bargain Make-over

DO YOU MAKE IT OR BUY IT? Buy it

TOTAL COST: £4.69 (Plus your own additional gift of time)

DETAILS: To save one of your best girlfriends the hassle and cost of going to the hairdressers for a colour get down to a local Superdrug and buy 'Schwarzkopf Live Color XXL Red Passion 43' or
'Schwarzkopf Live Color XXL Ice Blonde 01' depending on what kind of colour you want. Then dedicate your time to help her transform from one colour to another! While you're waiting for the dye to set it, have a cuppa and a gossip - bliss!!!

Nikki

surfingcat

Name of present? Brownies in a Jar :j
Do you make it or buy it? Make it
Total Cost? About £4 for the ingredients but can make more than one jar from most of them (bags of sugar, flour etc)
Details (the more the better)
A good present for someone who doesn't think they can cook - brownies are easy, especially if most of the ingredients are already measured out for you.

You may have some of these ingredients already which will keep cost down even further and if not you could make a few to get best use out of them.

This looks pretty as it is nicely layered. I guess you could try with other recipes and just add the wet ingredient to the instructions.
You will need a large glass jar (ideally recycled) and the following ingredients (ideally from your local budget supermarket)

• 2 1/4 cups white sugar
• 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

Pour sugar into a clean and dry large glass jar. Press down firmly.
Add cocoa powder and press down firmly. Pour in chopped pecans, making sure pecans are evenly layered in the jar. Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Pour into jar and seal.
Attach the following directions to the jar:
Empty conttents into large bowl and mix thoroughly. Add 3/4 cup of butter or margarine and 4 slightly beaten eggs. Mix until completely blended. Spread mixture into a lightly greased 9 x 13 inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) for 30 minutes or until done. Cool in pan. Cut into 2 inch squares and enjoy!

You can also decorate the jar with some ribbons or pretty fabric over the lid and make custom labels with large white stickers (by hand or on the computer)

Not going to clutter up someones house cause they can use it , enjoy the brownies and then reccle the jar.

headcrash27

• Name of present? Restaurant vouchers/days out/magazine subscriptions
  
• Do you make it or buy it? Buy it
• Total Cost? £5
• Details (the more the better) If you have any clubcard vouchers you can use them to purchase deals on the Tesco Clubcard Deals website. £5 in clubcard vouchers will get you £20 in deals. You can buy magazine subscriptions, days out vouchers or restaurant tokens. If you're giving resturant tokens and you're buying for a couple with kids you could always offer to stay in and look after the kids for them so they can go for dinner, it means they don't have to pay for a babysitter then either! Also, say if it was restaurant tokens i would probably pop a menu in the envelope with the vouchers or if i'd bought them tickets for a day out somewhere i would enclose a leaflet giving details of the attraction.
  
• Where possible please add a link if it's an online offer http://www.tesco.com/clubcard/deals/
  

zulubabe

* Name of present?: Credit Crunch 'Eco Eco' Hamper (because its ECO-nomical & ECO-logical!)
* Do you make it or buy it?: Both
* Total Cost?: As much as you want to spend but can be made up very cheaply
* Where possible please add a link if it's an online offer:
http://www.sainsburys.com
* Details (the more the better):
Most people equate eco friendly items with expense. However you can make a hamper which is eco friendly and cheap at the same time - buy the following items from Sainsburys:
Sainsburys Basics (Fairtrade) Bananas - 1.08
Sainsbury's Toilet Tissues (12) (FSC approved) - 1.28 or 43p for 4
Sainsbury's Facial Tissues (FSC approved) - 26p
Sainsbury's Tea Bags (Basics) (Fairtrade) - 28p for 80 bags
A bottle of Stardrops (one of the few eco-friendly cleaners about) - 75p at Sainsburys (or cheaper elsewhere)

Make sure that you label all items with the cost of each item. Get a cardboard box & wrap it in newspaper with an article about the recession. Add a gift tag made cut out from an old cereal box & most importantly make sure you write the moneysavingexpert.com website on the gift tag.

This should hopefully show the person lucky enough to receive this hamper that they can still care about the environment while still saving money. Enough to make an ecologically minded person happy!

For those worried about the quality of these items I am a very fussy person and can vouch that at the price they all impressed me!

Alternatively if you want to make it with normal basics items you can make a normal non-eco hamper.