If you had £400 to spend on Hamper where would you buy it & what would you buy?

Mummy_Jo

Hi all

I am seriously hoping you can help me. I am organising a Summer Fete for our local town and one traditionally one couple have put together a hamper - a rather large first prize and a smaller 2nd prize. Anyway to cut a long story short one of the people who normally put this together has terminal cancer and are unable to put it together. So, they have given me £400 to put this all together.:j:j:j

I have previously won this Hamper and it is AMAZING - packed with really good quality items

I want to do them justice and put together a great hamper. I was thinking of 3 prizes but what would you do and what things would you include in them?

Do you think that it would be a good idea to get them all from M&S or Waitrose?
I need this all sorted by the end of May

Thanks in advance for your help

Jo

cte1111

Spirits, wine, champagne, cake, chocolates, nuts. Caviar? Maybe do something different and put in an ipod, board game, something like that. Or you could do an adult hamper, kids hamper, and home hamper.

nunnygirl

How about a breakfast hamper? Tea, coffee, cafetiere, biscuits, cups etc?

ka7e

It's such a large sum of money to spend! If you run out of ideas you could make the balance up with M&S vouchers. They can be used in any department - for chilled food that can't be left out in a hamper, housewares or clothes.

jenniewb

Try to get a theme, something like "English Picnic", "Wimbledon" or "Sea-Side Supper" would probably go down well.

Things people want to buy but don't buy would be good. Many hampers I have seen have things like Sarsons vinegar, a few apples/oranges and Dairy Milk chocolate in them. Fine, but very bland- many people already own these things! so maybe getting the premium or deli type ranges, things like Balsamic vinegar, exotic fruits or premium brand (like finest or taste the difference brands) and Organic or posh chocolates.

For taste? M&S win hands down, Waitrose (atleast where I shop) are good for customer service and friendly, but the food just tastes like any other store. Grab an Orange from M&S and one from Waitrose, you will notice the difference!

Or you could buck-the-trend and go for a non food hamper, Health/activities (family sports things and active -style games) and Beauty (Lush, the Bodyshop..etc).

ThinkingOfLinking

You can get great hampers from Fortnum & Mason as well as M&S and Waitrose.

They have a selection of luxury bits and pieces in them.

If you're making it from scratch, add luxury items people wouldn't buy for themselves such as Hotel Chocolat chocolate, and premium balsamic vinegar, Veuve Cliquot champagne instead of Moet, etc etc.

robpw2

I would go to aldi and by lots and lots of food and drink etc from there ..

PrincessPeach_2

My sister usually does hampers for Christmas and always goes to Fortum and Masons, where she gets a few key items, ie Tea and Biscuit tins, Jams etc, then uses Marks for wines etc,

Also what about Harrods? They have lovely tea and biscuit tins.

robpw2

why spend money on a few items from expensive stores when you can get a lot of items from cheaper stores its a summer fete .

most people who buy tickets as these events proably wouldnt know the difference between champagne and lambrini and would nto know caviar if it swam out of the sea and slapped them in the face ..

freebiequennie

maybe source the baskets first so you know what you are working with you could easily do 3 different ones maybe of different sizes with £400 even after taking cost of baskets off.

put sparkling wine in a good quality one is jacobs creek sparkling at around £8 a bottle, some organic juices, some nice store cupboard essential like extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, nice pickles, luxury jams.

you could always make one an organic hamper, asda does some lovely organic wine as do abel and cole also organic beers.

voucherlover

You should be able to get 3 prizes for £400, if you work out roughly how much each one will cost eg 1st prize £250, 2nd prize £100, 3rd prize £50. I liked the idea of theamed baskets, the first one could be a luxury picnic hamper that you could fill, 2nd could be a travel one if you got a cheap suitcase from somewhere like Debenhams and filled with beach towels, bucket and spade, lilo, sun cream, aftersun, travel first aid kit, bottle coolbag thingy and wine etc, then 3rd could be a make up bag with beauty items (inc freebies) or a tray with breakfast items.
Have fun with it