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

saveroo_2

For female friends and family, I've decided to plant flower pots with a selection of bulbs, planted at different levels in the pot, with a hyacinth at the surface. This means that the present will last from Christmas until late spring and hopefully put a smile on their faces during the dark days of winter. They can be placed in the garden or on the window sill and will come back year after year. A lasting gift and something to brighten up the recession!

rospix

Dreamcatchers
Cost-nothing
You'll need to go out to collect willow twigs and pretty feathers. Apart from a little coloured thread and time that's all.
I looked up How to make a dreamcatcher on the web for weaving hints but it's pretty basic.

I made these for all my nephews and neices aged 8-18 last Christmas.
xxx

kiri42

Name of present? Personalised Photo Album or Scrapbook
Do you make it or buy it? Bit of both!

Total Cost? £4 + bits from around the house

Details: You can make a great personalised gift by decorating an album for use as a scrapbook or photo album. Paperchase sells perfect spiral bound albums for £4 that have a brown paper cover and paper pages - so it can be used to hold photos or as a scrapbook. Decorate the front cover by gluing on a photo, bits cut from last years Xmas paper or cards, a child's drawing, buttons, ribbon, write on the front with markers or glitter pens - the possibilities are endless! You can also tie decorations onto the spiral loops with string. The best part is they can be for Xmas, or more specifically things like Baby's First Xmas, Our First Xmas Together, or for children print out and glue on their favourite tv character and give them a disposable camera to fill the book (I know... that would take it over a fiver, but it's just a suggestion!). Also a great idea for birthdays, Christenings, etc.

Lovely_Lainie

Name of present:- Baking set with a difference!

Make it or buy it? - Perhaps a bit of both

Total Cost - Around a fiver or less

Details - I managed to pick up some material with fairy cup cakes on it and made an apron for each of my girls. I then covered a box with wrapping paper also with fairy cakes on it and filled the box with the aprons, paper cake cases and recipes for wee fairy cakes. You could also put in the ingredients and the toppings like hundreds and thousands or mini smarties. It makes an exciting present for not a lot of money! If you do not want to sew an apron you could just cover a box with the fancy fairy cake paper or similar and pop in lots of fun ingredients to make cakes. All supermarkets have lots of selections of toppings in the home baking section.
Good luck and happy creating!

ih8stress

Name of Present: Swap Party
Do you make it or buy it: You make time and effort!
Total Cost: A few cuppa's and maybe biscuits........
Details:

Get together with a group of relatives, friends, workmates, neighbours etc. and hold a 'Swap Party' where each person brings along a certain number of items to swap.
These can be things they have bought and never used (how many of us have bought something 'which would come in handy', only to put it in a drawer?), unsuitable presents they have received in the past, items they have made etc.
It is probably best to have items of similar value, though maybe someone could swap 2 for 1.

At the end of the evening hopefully everyone will have swapped at least one item and had a good laugh at the same time - not to mention saved money and energy traipsing round endless shops.

Emma_Hughes_3

Name of present:- Lucky dip Lottery Tickets

Make it or buy it? - Buy it

Total Cost - As much as you want to spend

Details - Just pop down to your local newsagents and get your lucky dip/s. Wrap or decorate an envelope. You never know, you could make someone an millionaire!!

v967210

Name of present:- A cat in need
Make it or buy it? - Neither
Total Cost - Free but you may wish to make a donation up to £5

Details:- Get in contact with your local cats protection league and take an abandoned cat off their hands for free. Great for children and people who may live alone. www.cats.org.uk

v967210

Name of present:- Slave for the day

Make it or buy it? - Neither

Total Cost - Free

Details - Be someone's slave for the day; be it a romantic bubble bath, cooking a meal, foot massage, doing the childrens homework for them, housework for mum, shopping for nana, escorting grandad back and to from the legion. Let them know you love them and be at their beck and call for the whole day!

glasshill

All the smart home knickknack shops have metal plant holders. You can make your own very cool lineup of plants in shiny metal tins which look really good and cost almost nothing.

Wash out used tins - baked beans, peas, whatever but it looks best it you get three all the same size - and soak the label off so you have shiny, smart tin.
Punch three little drainage holes in the sides, just above the base ( so no damp bottoms, when you water, let them drain and then they are dry underneath)
Fill with home made compost if you have it, or some multi-purpose from a shop (you get a huge bag for under £5) and plant three matching geraniums cuttings (free if you can find a geranium you like. Just chop bits off and pop them in the compost, they take really easily. Bright red looks great with the tins).
When the geraniums start flowering, time to give them away, three at a time for smartest show.
You can do the same sort of thing for cooks by buying supermarket herbs in pots, splitting and replanting them in the tins and giving away a mint/parsley/basil combo.
Total cost: Tins nil, soil 5p a tin at most, geraniums (scrounged cuttings) free or herbs are around £1 each and usually split into 3 quite easily.

Herbyme

Hi,
To go with the home made soap, how about a hand made wash cloth:
Buy and make
Cost: about £1 for a ball of cheap cotton string, quite good if it's a bit rough
Details: knit a simple square in garter stitch (ie all rows knit) and either leave it as a cloth or fold in half and sew up the sides to make a wash mitt. If you're not sure how, libraries are full of great books showing you how to knit, crochet and generally magic up all sorts of easy but impressive gifts such as this one.