Cant afford christmas

Rachie_B

wow sammy thats good going

some fab ideas there

ikkleosu

Just want to say that this is abosultely the best place to look to make sure you get the best value for your cash at Christmas.

2 years ago I hadn't discovered this site and I bought all my Christmas presents in December in town. What a fool i was.

So far this year i've got:

For my elderly aunt: A pashmina (Free from Comfort), a DVD fo 3 musicals (£6.49 from HMV on thier 20% off weekend)
For my cousin (25): big chunky belt, silver handbag, glittery scarf, earrings and necklace. (50p per item from Claire's special)
For my friend: 4 pairs of cute boyshorts from Dorothy Perkins (worked out at £1 each due to using 25% off DP discount code)
For varies children:
Barbie game (£5 from Amazon reduced toys )
Spray Art set (£2.50 form Amazon as above)
Sleepytime baby toiletry set (£4 BOGOF from Boots)
5 piece sleep sets (£6 thanks to Tesco 20% off kids clothes)

I also have rolls of wrapping paper 50p each form Woolworths, 40 cards for 20p from Superdrug.


They all come from offers and alerts I've seen on these boards.

Keep an eye out and snap up the offers when you see them and it's amazing the difference it makes.

freebie_fairy

I get some good bargains from poundstretcher, Asda and Wilkinsons
glove, hat and scarf sets from £2.99
slippers £1.99 for kids £3.99 for adults
spa bath bombs £1.79p
dove shower set £3.49
adidas gift set £3.98
umbro gift set £2.95
teddy and lip gloss 99p
kinder selection 97p
diaries and address books £1
bob the builder figures £2.99 - £4.99
body shop and lush are good for freebies
home made fudge or cookies are easy and cheap (add peanuts and raisins, cinnamon, ginger,chocolate or coconut to make them more interesting)
don't get too stressed about how much to spend - christmas is about spending time with the family not how many presents there are.
I get loads of helpful advice from MSEs so keep scanning the threads and freebie chat. Good luck

Frogling

I've got a couple of ideas for home-made gifts:

I've bought some cheap and cheerful wooden photo frames from Ikea (3 for £1) and am going to let my girls decorate them with felt-tips, glue, sequins, etc. It will be messy but good fun, and our family and friends always love getting pressies that the girls have helped to make.

Last year I bought some christmas tree chocolate molds, DD's 1 & 2 put cake sparkles in the bottom of each mold and then we melted down some dairy milk bars and poured the chocolate on top of the sparkles. When the chocolate has set, turn them out and you have sparkly chocolate christmas trees to wrap up and give to people! I ate a few myself, they were very yummy

This site is one I find useful for home-made presents: https://www.organizedchristmas.com It's an American site, so some of the recipes are measured using cups, but that's easy enough. There are some great ideas for pressies that look good and are cheap and cheerful to make: Snowman Soup (a mug with a sachet of hot chocolate, some mini marshmallows and a candy cane), candy cane bath salts (these look really pretty) and chocolate spoons (plastic spoons dipped in melted chocolate a couple of times to give them a thick coating, great for stirring hot drinks) are some of the gifts we'll be giving to family and friends this year.

There are also some gift tag options on the site to print out, some of which come with poems (Snowman Soup http://organizedchristmas.com/article64.html)

suzukibabe

Wow, you lot have made me stop worrying about pressies for the family, going to write down some things from this thread and go shopping to make my own hampers, just one little question, what can i put with 4 cans of lager for they male family members, apart from alka seltzer!!!!??

nearlyrich

I am not skint and I am certainly not tight, but in our family we only buy presents for the children and for adults without children. We used to buy presents all round I have 5 siblings all with partners and we have 8 childen between us, you can imagine how much it cost and how much stress to find the perfect present for BILs etc. ( And how many useless presents we all ended up with LOL)

I host Christmas day at our house, anyone (family and friends) is welcome for dinner, tea or both or can just drop in for a drink. We all have a good day, we don't spend a fortune but everyone enjoys it and they keep coming back.

As someone said above it's just one day and the people who love you would be devastated to know that you are feeling so bad about the whole thing hope you feel better about it now.;)

susie76

Lots of my family were feeling the pinch last year (and, alas, will be this year), so we did pressies for the kids with a £5 limit (easy to stick to for other peoples kids, ), and then a secret santa for all the adults (£15 limit). My partner and i did (ahem, adult) i o u's, we spent about £40 each on our two kids (managed to sneak in extra stocking fillers by buying 3 for 2 or bogofs for other peoples children, and giving ours the "free" present.) We did give presents to grandparents from the kids, but they were photos in home made frames so ridiculously cheap, and asked all friends to stick to the kids only rule. Christmas was not only much less stressful, but actually more enjoyable, as not only did we have the satisfaction of doing it without using credit cards, or going overdrawn, we saved enough to be able to buy a lovely bottle of baileys to treat ourselves!!

iwanttosave_2

suzukibabe wrote:

Wow, you lot have made me stop worrying about pressies for the family, going to write down some things from this thread and go shopping to make my own hampers, just one little question, what can i put with 4 cans of lager for they male family members, apart from alka seltzer!!!!??

A DVD voucher and popcorn?

poppielia

Hi.
I have an idea for cheap pressies for children aged 3-10 years old.
I have gone into poundland and other cheap shops and picked up lots of different pens (gel pens, glitter pens, felt tips ect) and pencils, some normal ones, some coloured, some that you have to click for the colour to come down), kiddies funky erasers (have butterflies, hearts ect also boys ones too).
I have picked up cheap calculaters, rulers and pencil cases and i either give a pack of each of these for every child or i make a readymade pencil case up for each of them. I have also picked up some sets from poundland that have coloured paper,card, stickers in them and these are great for either stocking fillers for your own kiddies or for giving to friends children instead.
The reason i do this is because my 8 year old daughter LOVES sitting for hours just colouring and drawing and also because i remember that when i was a child that i adored getting this kind of stuff that was all mine and that i didnt have to share with my little brother.
If it doesnt help this christmas for you it might be a help for you next year when you can pick those bits up bit by bit during the year.
I went to my local poundland yesterday myself and picked up a few more stocking fillers for my daughter.
Also i dont know if you have a Matalan near you or not but i went the other week and picked up some really lovely childrens pj's and nighties for about a fiver each. (not cheap nasty looking stuff either!)
Take care and am glad you are looking forward to crimbo a bit more now.

hilary1

I bought my grandson some dot to dot books at the weekend. He's 4 and loves them. Not only do they help with teaching numbers and alphabet but he colours them in after. Cost each 29p form Wilkos