Finished baskets!!

mary43

Always do a 'shoe box of bits' for my son and just totted it up

Candle like wine bottle in wooden case -unused, from charity shop - £1.50
Gloved - new - from charity shop £2.
Tea bag dish plus two tea bags - dish 50p from charity shop, tea bags freebies
Footballers clay moulding set (meant for child but sent for a laugh) bought from charity shop,unused...........£1.95
Wooden musical instrument/oddity that rattled when shaken...............£3
Liverpool football prog............found inside book bought from charity shop - so class that as a freebie
Incense sticks................£1 from market

Total...........£9.95.

I don't reckon that was bad at all. Mind you I do send him some money as well.
Still just goes to show it needn't cost a lot.
My friends 'santa bag' of stuff from charity shops came to about £10 -we always agreed it had to be charity shop finds and no less than that amount.

I think these things can be as cheap or as expensive as you want them to be.

passion8

pookienoodle wrote: »

I work in a pub.
the amount of branded items we get sent is just silly.
I finally found a good use for them.

Thanks pookienoodle (I love that nickname btw).

Too late for me for this year, but my BIL has a pub, so I'll ask him if he gets any freebies

That bucket really stood out for me, so I'll mention that one in particular

Just about to catch up on all the updates, but thanks again x

passion8

I'm sure that friends and family weren't just being kind lol, but I received so many compliments on my "efforts" , that it made it all worthwhile. Sorry that there wasn't any photos: no camera before Christmas and no camera for Christmas lol.

Like other posters have mentioned, a couple or more of those that received them thought they'd been done by a store, or similar, and at least three people said I should do it as a job. I daren't tell them that I'd be out of pocket lol, or that mine were nowhere near as good as others that have been posted here

Some of mine were 'themed', as in one was just candle based. Because it was expensive candles, (Vera Wang etc), I'd have been way out of the money saving loop, or so I thought, but I mixed and matched cheap with expensive, mainly as fillers, and it worked a treat.

I did the same with Cath Collins (sp?) candles ..... right basket and packaging, and they looked as good as VW. I'm thinking of colour-co-ordinating next years with cheap and expensive - for instance, I mixed the Vera Wang with pound shop "fillers" that just happened to be the same colour and if, in return, I receive the same back in a present, I'll applaud their money saving efforts.

The biggest compliment I received was about the 19p heel carriers that I bought from *bodycare*. I popped a pair of waffle Dove slippers inside, and popped those into a new cellophane bag (c/o the lady on eBay that sold them). Less than a quid and had two uses People loved them. They looked bad alone - put together, they looked good!

I think the message is ......it's all in the packaging

rose_sparky

If I pop my clogs between now and next Christmas, I'll have so many wicker baskets that I won't need an expensive 'box' .... just wrap me in cellophane and a bow And, as a bonus, I received two hampers this year (shop bought but in lovely baskets, that I've promised the givers the baskets back next Christmas, but full of presents (cheap ones ), for them.

I have to admit that when I was wrapping them, especially after the 4th one, I wondered why I didn't just buy vouchers. But then I'd have missed the bargain hunting, and the achievement I felt making 75p look like £5.00. The initial wrapping, and double-wrapping lol, was a pain. But then it got better I wish I had more room to make more and make them earlier in the year!

It's easy, as *postingalwaysposting* asked, to think that once it's been done, where's the point? I think it's all about tailoring presents to suit people, and adding the finishing touches. It was easy to wrap up 4 presents in foil, and stick them in a boring gift bag. It wasn't so easy to spend the same amount of money making a pamper hamper look like it cost a fortune.

To me, it hasn't been a case of money saving, but making the presents, (expensive and cheap), look as appealing as possible, and I think I achieved that. So, many thanks to all the contributors of this thread. I've loved seeing, and reading, all of your efforts and ideas.

Huge thanks to the OP, and I hope you all had a great Christmas! xxx

huxley

I think it can be very easy to spend alot on hampers mine did not cost alot and certainly saved me money as they were family themed so cheaper than buying little bits for several people, the 5mins peace one used the taster bottles of wine asda were doing for £1.50 then you got a voucher to use that against full size bottle which we had for christmas dinner so they were free realy,dvd was bought with earned points (wh smiths card) popcorn not alot, sweets I bought a big tin when they were on special offer 2 for £9 kept one for us and split the other one between 3 hampers, put in fun instructions for use, our hampers this year were themed more as a sublte reminder that after we spend time together opening presents together at christmas its nice to spend time together whether it be a movie night or a girlie pamper evening;)

scattymam1

Totally agree with you passion8. The thrill for me was making a £5 basket look like i'd spent quadruple the amount.

A big individual "Thanks" to kaja86 for starting this all off.

My baskets went down amazingly well - everyone loved them -(thank god cos the wrapping process was terrible, had to chuck the sellotape at husband during this to stop him from criticising) and I couldn't wait to see what people thought of them that I forgot about my pressies. My fab sister in law even made the effort and made me one as I've droned on about them for the last 6 months so she thought I would like to receive one too.

easter next, I was thinking £1 shop cuddly bunny in a basket surrounded by mini eggs/lollies etc; wouldn't cost much and would be a bit more personal than £3 egg from asda!

bedshaped

Maybe you already know this tip but I thought I would post anyway.

I wrapped my baskets in cellophane last year which looked lovely but I didn't like the thought of people being able to see what was inside them without unwrapping and exploring.

So this year I used an extra wide roll of the foil type wrapping paper. A 7.5 m roll bought for £1 in Poundland did 4 large-ish sized baskets with some left over for smallers presents. I wrapped exactly the same as with cellophane and gathered up the excess at the top before tying up with co-ordinating ribbon. Everyone commented on how much better they were with the foil wrap than with the cellophane as the gift retained its element of surprise.

Lara

I did that with some of mine bedshaped. I also used tissue paper that I had bought from Costco. 100 sheets for something like £4 and I still have enough left for the next couple of years I think - plus enough cellophane for next year too!

I have had so many calls from people saying thank you and how beautiful they were and how much money I had spent on them . They weren't cheap hampers but I had kept my eyes and ears open over the last few months so weren't as expensive as people thought. I was thinking next year I'll give money saves hassle etc but then I had such a fun time wrapping and making them look good I doubt that will happen, especially with all you on here! :T :T :T

mary43

I think I'll cost mine out before I do them. My intention is to make a nice gift without spending a lot so I'll work out some sort of list first of the contents, plus cost of basket and stick to a limit.
I need to cut back on what I spent this year that's for sure and this seems an ideal way to do it.

crispeater

i stuck coloured tissue or crepe paper over the top of mine to stop the spies lol

mary43

There's always people who enjoy unwrapping all the individual items rather than just see them altogether. Think I might wrap my bits and pieces up in foil then put them in the hamper, wrap the cellophane around add a bow and a gift tag, maybe giving a clue to the theme of the contents -if there is one.
My friend allways puts little clues on the things she buys me and its fun trying to guess what they might be...........lol