best old style money saving christmas hints and tips

[Deleted User]

I have two granddaughters who are both 16 (three months between them)I bought two nice Christmassy bags for a pound from the card shop a few weeks ago and have been filling them up with lots of small gifts and presents ect make-up wipes face & hand creme, tights,shampoo,conditioner,eye-make-up remover & small bits and pieces from Superdrug that young college lasses on small incomes would use everyday over the next few months.I don't suppose each bag came to more than about £15 each but they are crammed full of odds and ends.As I have my Uni discount card I even got 10% off a lot of the bits.I know they will appreciate the 'goodie bags' and it hasn't broken the bank as I have collected the bits over several weeks when ever I have seen a 'bogoff' instore as well.As I have seven grandchildren aged from five to nineteen its sometime hard to think what to get them all. The three youngest boys are easy as they love puzzles and annuals and board games but the hardest at the moment is the 14 year old boy as he's a bit in the middle too old for toys yet too young to shave .I shall probably end up getting him something towards his fishing as he likes doing that. I also have six family birthdays between now and Christmas so its a bit of a nightmare at times. Roll on January

cyclingyorkie

i do that for my daughters - been collecting bargains for months now - half price make up, Boots No7 stuff bought with their £5 off vouchers. Will complete the bags with stuff bought with points at boots!

BexInLondon

scrimpingbadger wrote: »

Got this one out of a Cath Kidston catalogue (I never buy anything - just copy the ideas!): slice up an orange and dry in the oven on low. Thread a ribbon through them and voila, a tree dec wot smells nice.
Me and the rug rat might try that one..

If you want to save a bit more money simply sprinkle the slices with salt and pop them in the airing cupboard or on a radiator. I put mine on a piece of kitchen roll and turn them over once or twice. They really keep their colour this way. It takes a few days longer but works just as well if not better. It's a great way to use up dried up old oranges lurking in the fruit bowl!

BexInLondon

Oh and here's an idea for homemade presents. I've bought lots of petits filous, various kinds of chocolate, and lolly sticks. I'm going to melt the chocolate, pour to about halfway up the filous pots, then put a stick in (and find a way to make them stay standing up). Once set, these little chocolate lollies can be stirred into hot milk to make a hot chocolate to the richness you like (and if you're like me and don't like it too rich) you can eat the rest of the chocolate lolly. This is how they do hot chocolate in Bruges. I'm going to give people little cellphane wrapped bags containing lollies of various different kinds of chocolate.

curlytop12

def going to try the dried oranges decorations.
this is now my favourite thread!

eselt

Great thread. One of my MSE efforts this year has been to buy DougEd coffee in the big jars especially when its been on special offer, then save the jars (which are really nice with a proper glass sealed top) and I plan to buy big tins of the chocs that all seem to be a fiver at the moment and fill the jars and pretty them up with ribbon etc. Should look nice in the hampers I'm trying to get together.

Also I've got together as many photos of relatives/friends etc and made personalised calenders using MS publisher-just cost some glossy paper and time-used the ring binder 'thingy' at work and they look great.

Another nightmare I have is 11 12-15 yr old little girls to buy for, so I went on ebay wholesale section, health and beauty and managed to bag 2 lots of avon/body shop wholesale lots (86 ITEMS-ALL NEW!!!) and plan to dish them out amongst them all-cost me less than £50 for the lot and when they arrived they were all good quality stuff-I think the girls will be really chuffed-they'll think I spent a fortune.

I'm not as tight as I seem honestly, just a bit skint like most of us this year!

eselt

Oh and just to let you know about the cheekiest MSE xmas wheeze I've come across so far- last year a friend of mine held a 'Delia Smith' themed boxing day buffet and everyone had to bring their favourite Delia dish-hence she didn't have to provide a thing apart from a few breadsticks....taking MSE a little too far methinks?

Aril

This Christmas tip is a new one to me and one I picked up from my Mum today. She embellishes plain baubles in a number of ways. Last year she decorated them with a beaded design using necklaces that she bought from various CSs and then broke them down. This year she's got white plastic balls to decorate- I asked her where she had got them and she guffawed and said that she's cut them out of old roll on deoderant bottles [obviously having thoroughly cleaned them first:rotfl::rotfl:]
Aril

Aril

We're not Christmas pud fans in my family so this is the pud I'm doing this year that my SIL gave me at the weekend:
Black Forest Trifle
Blackcurrant jelly
Tin of purple fruit eg black cherries or handful of frozen berries [we'll use blackberries]
Pint of custard- use 1.5 times as much custard powder as recommended to make it thicker
Big bar of plain chocolate
1 chocolate swiss roll [she had used the value one]
double cream or whipping cream
Slice swiss roll and lay in bottom of dish. Scatter fruit over. Make up jelly but only use 3/4 pint of water. Pour over fruit and leave to set. Make custard- leave to cool very slightly and the break 3/4 of the chocolate into squares and stir into custard whilst still hot to melt it. Leave custard 2 mins and then pour over jelly. Leave to set. When the custard is cold put whipped cream on top and then grate the remaining chocolate over it.
It wasn't heavy or sickly.
Aril

purpleivy

timmmers wrote: »

My Mum used to have a "thrifty" old lady neighbour she looked after and every Xmas she came round and gave her a card and waited until she opened it...then spirited the unwritten envelope away when she left to use again :T

Her tightness was better then any decent Xmas pressy as it was sooo funny. The pening of Elsies present became a feature of the day, Mum used to recieve things like an old coathanger wrapped in second or third time used paper :rotfl:

As a daily routine this old lady used to wash her face in a morning using the warm water from her hotwater bottle from bed :rolleyes:

t

COrrrr bet she smelt 'rubbery'!:rotfl: