The Gift Cupboard!

rubytuesday

I fill jars with layers of epsom salts and dried rose petals and add essential oils costs next to nothing and looks good.They had some really nice mason jars in The Pier for a couple of quid which I will get this year. Also have a presents box under the bed. Glad to have been introduced to the advantage card and Boots.com.

purplegirluk1

I thougt I was a rare person who shops all year round for christmas presents, its so cool to know that there are so many others out there. People look at me as if I have just grown a second nose when I tell them I'm buying christmas presents in the summer hols. Hee hee, its their loss though cos I have got the majority of our family gifts sorted and I hve spent under £40, not bad.

Our local Post Office is having a ref-furb soon so they are selling everything from the shop half price until its all gone. I think that this may be the case in other stores too as the re-furb seems to be nationwide on stores that need it. I picked up lots of kids stationary sets today, all under 1 pound.

I have bought three plastic crates that are stored in our eaves cupboard and all the gifts are stored in them. I will need more soon enough though! I have always kept a note book with a heading for each person and made a note of the prices paid and the prices they were reduced from. That way I know how much I actuallt paid for all the presents and how much it would have all cost it they were full price.

I think I will try the idea of cutting out a picture from wrapping paper and glueing it onto a little bit of card and using these as gift tags, cool idea.

sooz

gift box or cupboard?

i have a whole room.........once it was the spare room, but i can't find the bed.

it's filled with things from the boots threads mostly....

savingpennies

I save all those nice present/bottle bags and reuse them though I do have to be careful who I give them back to. I use a pair of pinking shears or fancy craft scissors and make gift tags out of last year's Christmas/birthday cards. Kids help and add glitter sometimes.

Maisie

A shop nearby gift wraps for you. So if it's free take advantage of that when buying presents.

Another shop used to do this free but now charges 50p which I think is well worth it as they do it so nicely. Ideal for a special present or copy it.

What they do is first wrap in coloured tissue paper one or two sheets in contrasting colours and scrunch the ends at the top of present. Then they put a piece of fine net over all that and gather the ends at top of box with the tissue paper and put matching or contrasting ribbons around the tissue and net. You can contrast the colours as the tissue shows through the net. It looks expensive too.

You can buy the net material and I always look in the remnant box at department stores for odds and ends. Shiny polyester material (like satin) wrapped around a present and tied at top with ribbons looks good too. Cut the edges with pinking shears or zigzag scissors.

Sometimes in markets you can buy sequins on a ribbon at not much cost and they look good tied around presents.

Katinkka

I got some junk mail the other day which included an offer to join a card club. If you join, you get 12 free assorted good quality cards, a nice box to store them in, a calendar sheet thing to write birthdays on and something else which I've forgotten right now.

I get this. It IS good and the cards are good quality and you do save money if you send a lot of cards. We don't really but what we do is *freeze* our deliverys for a few months at a time so we don't get too many. We always have a card for every occasion now which is very convenient.

SuiDreams

I have tried to do the gift cupboard thing this year, but haven't done as well as I'd hoped. I bought a few little bits and pieces in January, most of which have been made into larger gifts for Birthdays. I bought a few Cheap DVD's for Hubby at the beginning of the year, but his mum bought them off me for his birthday present. The best present I've done so far is a litre bottle of Smirmof that I got from work, in a basket with some mixers, very cheap but looked really expensive. All I have so far for this Christmas are 1 Mug, A couple of Botanics gift sets bought with the £5 Voucher, a handbag, some Homeade Jam bought at work last week and some Biscuits from Croatia. Most people are going to getting hampers of some sort, probably either food ones or pampering ones.

JAMIEDODGER

have just sorted out my "gift cupboard" this morning as i had to get out some presents as i have 5 birthdays this month!!!

had a look at all that i have accumalated this year and i have all birthdays sewn up for rest of this year and most of next! (except my kids)

i have the youngest two sorted for xmas already and half of DS1, just need to concentrate on DS2 prezzies now (he is quite difficult to buy for)

rest of familys presents for xmas are done hooray!!

going to try and save PMS money from oct/nov and dec towards january sales for next years prezzies

SuiDreams

I wish I was that organised.

louise_1981

I think this needs a bump, especially at this time of year!!

Bump and enjoy

Louise