Cant afford christmas

jillie1974

i had totally forgotten about that instore shop!!
i feel a lot more positive about it all. i have registered on pigsback so will see how that goes. i'm off to read the other threads that peolple have mentioned.
as for who i'm buying for
there is my mum and my 2 brothers and sister although as they live in Ireland my mum usually buys them and i buy ours!
then i have MIL,FIL,SIL niece who's 6,BIL, Grandma (82) and my bestfriends kids- 14,9,6 and 2
Kids are greta and i'm definitley going to poundland tomorrow in Bury1
going to check out the freebies bit to see what else i can get!
Thanks to everyone for their help!!:T

finc

I've got 45 nescafe beans I can post to you if you want. Have a look on the site and see if there's anything you would be interested in redeeming them for. I was going to get 3 of the pamper sets but I don't actually need them. There is a P&P charge from them for most of the gifts but only £1-2 each item.

PM me your address if you want them.

Murtle

there is a link in the OS forum for buying presents for elderly relatives/friends that has loads of good, relatively cheap ideas.

I'll post back with the link if I can find it....

x x

aw finc that is very sweet of you x x

Roz_V

What gender are your BF's kids?

Perhaps for your neice and one of your friends kids, an arts and crafts set as mantioned above? Some pieces of coloured paper, felt tip pens, pencil crayons, blunted scissors, glue sticks, packets of stickers etc... most can be bought fairly cheaply from pound shops, wilkinsons etc. And if you do it for more than 1, you could make the most of BOGOFS and "bumper packs" which you can then seperate.

For the 14YO (prob be better received if female) or maybe even your sister, what about a Winter Warmer themed present? Cheap scarf and gloves from Primark, Hot water bottle, fluffy socks, slippers, etc?

I have a whole list of Hamper ideas that I have gathered together from this forum and other websites - PM me youe email address if you want me to send a copy.

victory

Phatmouse wrote:

Why are you all doing this to yourselves. Its one day out of 365. Its a time to spend with family who unless they are a bunch of s***s will not care if they get a present off you. When you are wishing your life away and the year over in October its time to give yourself a shake take stock and forget about christmas.

So agree, so much pressure, for what? Ask them what they got last year or the year before(I bet they can't even remember!) and more importantly ask them if the present changed their lives? NO it did not, nice gesture if you can afford it, if not, just give them love!! xxxx

cats_whiskers

Hi Jillie
Don't worry that you cannot afford big Christmas presents for your friends and family this year, I'm sure that they would rather see you happy and healthy than stressed and overdrawn. You sound very considerate even to be thinking of buying presents for others. You clearly enjoy giving presents, not just receiving them, and are getting yourself upset that you cannot give as much as you would like. Having little money at Christmas is never easy especially when it appears that everyone seems to be spending loads of £££.

However, you sound sensible and know that it is not worth getting into debt over. If you still feel the need to buy for everybody then the suggestions and threads on here are fab at money saving ideas. Hopefully, once you have some inspiration and have bought a few money saving presents then you will begin to relax and enjoy the challenge.

In the past, whilst a student I gave my sister and 2 children a big tin of chocolates to share and a family type film to watch. All bought on offer of course.

I have also made up the mug presents but put in either some tea bags or coffee and some biscuits, although I usually tried to buy the ones a bit better than own label just so it looked a little bit more expensive.

Also a terracotta flower pot (could get the children to decorate this first) filled with a few packets of seeds or bulbs together with any other gardening related items on offer.

Enjoy your Christmas in your own way.

Cheers
Cats

katchambers

Hi OP, there are already some lovely ideas on this thread but this is mine.

Check out this thread:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=257392

In the first post is all freebies and discount coupons for all magazines, I contribute very often to this thread.

As an example, if you buy New Woman Dec issue you will get a free Benefit Make-up palette, you can see it here at boots:

http://www.boots.com/brandtreatment/flexible_brand_treatment.jsp?classificationid=1027257&wblinktype=SITD

The top 3 palettes are the ones you can choose from. If anyone in your family/friend group loves make-up get this, I love Benefit make-up, and it is worth £16.50 so you can essentially get all the girls one of these for the price of the mag which is £2.80, that is not alot to spend on a FAB gift, plus you get a magazine to read guilt-free!! It is supposed to be one per customer but if you buy several magazines and go to different outlets, such as boots, debenhams, john lewis etc they won't know

Good luck
Kat x

jlw_3

Hi, things are tight for us this Christmas and one thing I've done is recycled some of last year's gifts. My husband received an electric corkscrew from his mum and as he doesn't drink wine it has stayed in the box unused - now my brother would really love this so guess what he's getting for Christmas. I also agree that if you tell family and friends how bad things are nobody would mind not getting anything. Christmas should be about being with family and friends not about how many presents you get.

jillie1974

:T thanks katchambers i'll be buying that magazine asap!

iwanttosave_2

jillie1974 wrote:

i had totally forgotten about that instore shop!!
i feel a lot more positive about it all. i have registered on pigsback so will see how that goes. i'm off to read the other threads that peolple have mentioned.
as for who i'm buying for
there is my mum and my 2 brothers and sister although as they live in Ireland my mum usually buys them and i buy ours!
then i have MIL,FIL,SIL niece who's 6,BIL, Grandma (82) and my bestfriends kids- 14,9,6 and 2
Kids are greta and i'm definitley going to poundland tomorrow in Bury1
going to check out the freebies bit to see what else i can get!
Thanks to everyone for their help!!:T

Thats where we are getting our baskets from.

There is a new home funishing shop opened where new look used to be, maybe get a nice picture frame and frame a nice picture of the family for your mum?

There is the old fashioned sweet stall on the outdoor market, maybe buy a cheap jar from somewhere and fill it with sweets and a nice bow for your friends kids?

With regards to your neice, or even if your friend has girls, I have made a hamper for my 7 year old cousin, it cost about £6 all together, I will list what I got and from where.

Big mug (set of 4 from asda £2) 50p
2 sachets of hot choc (asda) 34p
xmas teddy (poundland) £1
3 bang on the door books (au naturel) reduced to 45p, they are near the back oof the shop on the right hand side, two aisles from the till.
set of note pads and pencils (pound land) £1
ruby and millie nail polish remover wipes, normally about £5 (poundland) £1
Gorgeous hair clip (au naturel) £1 but they have loads of hair stuff reduced
nail polishes (indoor market) £1

Total £5.29

Then just get a little gift box from instore or au naturel for £2.

If you want a list of anyone else I have done, just give me a shout. I have done one for my gran, MIL, FIL, grandad and another older cousin.

Oh in asda on the baby asile they have some lambretta mens stuff for 99p from £2 odd each, I got some body wash, deoderant and hair gel for £2.77 and put them in a gift box.