really old style living?

fiftyeighter_2

mardatha wrote: »

Starting to worry a wee bit about xmas, the money just isn't there this year. Am doing home made food hampers for all three of the kids families...but is that enough ? I usually just put a card with money in for the GC but its awkward. The cheapest toys or clothes are such a price and I've got 6 grandchildren to buy for.
It's great going really OS and looking up books to see what Victorians gave each other - but kids wont appreciate a hand made bookmark or a hair ribbon! (specially when they're boys!) lol
But the other aspects of winter/xmas are ok. I had the idea of buying candles - we never have candles, the RV think only weirdos burn candles :rotfl::rotfl:- and giving the house a quieter, more old fashioned type atmosphere for deep mid winter.

I feel the same as you Mardatha and like you i have 6 grandchildren to buy for, well if you count the one thats due at christmas. I no longer buy for anyone else though. Its a shame but i just cant afford too. I also have my 15 yr old daughter to buy for. Yes i had her rather late in life. lol. The children have so much now and everything costs so much money. (mind you would we really want it any other way) I shall be putting £20 in an envelope for each of them. I have already started saving. Good grief thats £120 not counting my daughter. :eek:

Hippeechiq

mardatha wrote: »

:rotfl:Oh my god incense would finish him off. He's think I'd turned into an old hippy. My daughter makes candles, her house is full of them. She used to give me lovely ones but they just sat around gathering black coal dust and I told her no more. I might shove some in the hampers for the other 2 families though.
My main probs are two five-yr-old boys and two girls, one aged 2 and one aged 10. I will think of something but right now the money isnt looking good at all. Every week the food costs more (well there's noway this is OT cos women must've been saying that for centuries !!
He is having to really watch his diet/diabetes as the weight is still falling off him and I'm worried. So we are low carbing and it means a lot of meat and no cheap easy fillers - but his health matters so we must.
We have decided to get rid of live tv if we get any poorer. I never watch it at all and he is bored of repeats and just watches soaps :rotfl: he can watch them on this laptop.
If I let him...

Oh my! Hard times indeed, if you considering allowing him to share your lappy :rotfl:

Re the kids - this might be a rubbish idea, but could you not get them a big tin of quality street/or roses to share?

I don't know how many children live in the same house, but might that be an idea? I don't know how tight money is (and I'm not trying to pry) but Te$cos & $ainsburys are currently selling the 1kg tins for £5

If the six children are spread over say 3 homes, how about buying a (or two) tin/s and sharing them out in some kind of container (like a kilner jar, old coffee jar) per child that you can decorate for either a girl or boy to make it more presentable?

Incidentally, Te$co & $ainsburys are also selling the 400g boxes of QS & Roses for £1.99

I'm not very crafty, but I know a lot on here are and may have a better idea for what to put the sweets in - but kids always loves sweets

Not really suitable for the 2year old....um, I'll have to think on that, unless you knit her some funky mittens on a string to feed through the arms of her coat? Kids that age are always losing their gloves

annie123

I love candles and incense, tell the RV next time he complains about something I'm sending him some:D
My son's flat looks like a cross between a Victorian mad professor and a Bedouin tent! could send a pic might the RV might worry about who your 'mixing' with :rotfl:

how did that happen, hadn't finished posting:mad:
EDIT;
Presents for small people;
Whilst I'm skint this year, like you I'm making all gifts, I've had worse ones financially especially when my son was small.

I made 'Santa's lucky dip' box
Biggest box I could find, covered in cheap wrapping paper filled with shredded paper and wrapped 'little' presents (pass the parcel type wrapping to make it last longer:D) that I got in charity shops/pound shops.
When he'd finished and found all 10, we pulled off the paper on the box to see my version of a sit in bus:D We chopped up other bits of cardboard and added to it over the next few days.

Good for any age as he and DD got them for several years including DS's 18th and DD's16th

pink_numbers

I've borrowed a tip from the tightwad's gazzette for a cheap but personal christmas presents for 4 to 10 year olds. This only works with kids that you regularly visit their home in the evenings.

I'm buying the child a book (little house on the prairie this year), a second hand copy no less! The book is not the present, but me reading them a chapter from the book each time I visit them is the present. I ran the idea pass the mum and she likes the idea I think the little house book will also get the child to appreciate what their parents provide for him/her.

mama67

Hippeechiq wrote: »

This is the thing - we can try our best to budget, but items no longer go up by 2p or 5p, it's 10p, 25p, 50p, 75p and often more. A favourite ploy of A$das seems to be to Rollback the price of something for a couple of weeks, and then not so much as Roll Forward as Fast Forward it afterwards :eek:

This item hasn't gone up by much, but an example is their own brand BBQ Ketchup......been £1.18 for a few months, then they rolled it back to £1 for about 3 weeks, and now it's gone up to £1.28. You think how many items we all buy when we shop - that only has to happen to 10 items, and you're down a quid, and lets face it, most things go up by more than 10p a time. We're on a hiding to nothing, we really are.

We all know that the cost of cheese, bread and milk has soared, but I think the item that I've noticed that has rocketed out of all proportion, is Baked Beans....a 4 pack of H3inz Baked Beans, £2!!, and they have been £2.18 at one stage...... I mean.....WHAT?!! they're baked beans fgs! and it was kind of overnight too wasn't it? I've stopped buying them on principle.

By the way - I'm a Lakel@nd Plastics virgin :shhh:

Mr T has He!nz baked beans on offer at the mo 6pk for £3.10 and bogof, so 26p per tin if that helps anyone

mardatha

I used to be very ingenious re presents - I never gave plain ordinary things, but my inspiration seems to have died. I mind one year I made mine all pirate chests with "gold" pennies and chocolates, beads for the daughter, plenty £1 coins, nice shiney new ones. I might do something like that again for the 2 5yr old boys. But with less £££s now LOL!
Thanks for all nice ideas. I just sat down for a natter and here's the RV home for his tea - be back later !

ginnyknit

Did my shopping O/S today on Bolton market with my Mum and Dh in tow. Had to be very patient as DH isnt good at the mo and both he and Mum are deaf I survived and came out with bag on wheels full of food and spent just over a tenner Just wish we were nearer so I could check on Mum more often and get my bargains from the market. Have a day off tomorrow as Sil is taking Dh fishing - you would think they were going for a week the amount of provisions they take :rotfl:

Nipped in Hobbycraft to look at the sale and got 50 gold cards and envelopes for 2.99 so just got to decorate them now and thats one job done. As for the rest of Christmas I am running out of inspiration too Mardatha, have zilch cash but lots of bits and bobs to search out before I pack the rest of the house out. Mum bought some wooden xmas decorations to paint from Hobbycraft last time we went so may give them to nephew and his pennypinching lovely wife as a pressie for their 2 kiddies. Other than that no clue. Did get a couple of paper mache initials a while ago for Dgs and Sil's other little boy so will decorate them (about 8 inches high 1.99) and then just knit them stuff. Going to spend the day crafting - she says hopefully - and they may have a better idea of where I am upto

meanmarie

About 5 years ago I decided that I wasn't going to kill myself to try to get presents of roughly equal value for my (7) grown up children, so I announced that I was spending a maximum of €5 each on everybody...they have had scarves, nice soaps, stuff I have got for little or nothing in charity shops through the year and socks, hats etc...it has worked well as they know that what they get from me will be odd/funny but not expensive. For my grandchildren I have knitted twinsets for the 3 girls, who are 5 and 2, sweaters for the 8 and 9 year old boys, they will all get some chocolate coins in silver and gold paper and an age appropriate book...I think that they do very well and the first person to complain will be off my list!

Marie

mardatha

I used to be good at thinking up stuff and enjoyed being "different", but now the energy has gone and its not the same. Last year though, I really enjoyed making the hampers and will do that again. I did home made cakes and shortbread and this time I will make jam and print off nice wee labels. I melted down a lot of old chocs and made new ones, put in tiny gold petit-fours cases. I got a cheap white teapot and two mugs, and shoved the whole lot on one of those big white plastic Ikea trays, with some Earl Grey teabags artistically scattered But not sure what to do this year.. I sort of felt that maybe at xmas people already had tons of food in the house and that mine might be wasted. But cant think of anything else to do.

wssla00

Everyone this year are getting old style hampers. I am making my niece who has just had a baby chamomile syrup for colic and sleeping problems, pom pom bath (dried chamomile to you and me) muslin squares, lip balm, bath fizzers all home made

My mum and dad will get ones tailored to them (chilli rub for arthritis for my mum etc) and will include food gifts too.

As much as she is a corporation in herself, I cannot recommend Martha Stewart's website highly enough! Really great handmade gifts including sweet little mittens I'm making for my great niece. I may also make this bouquet for someone expecting their first baby!