Christmas on a £10 per person budget

Fuzzy_Duck

It's been a bad year and I'm having to stick to a budget of £10 per person this Christmas! I was wondering if people could share their bargain pressies for £10 or less? I've got a few bits already but could do with some inspiration!

I got a lovely dress for my friend from this site:
http://www.kategarey.com/

I paid £10, but the price is even lower now! It's really good quality, but I did have to go a size up as the sizing runs small.

I'd recommend looking at the whole site actually, there's some lovely bits for women at great prices

So what have pressies have you picked up for a scandalously cheap price so far? Please dont tell me I'm the only person that starts this early- I struggle if I don't start during the summer sales!

chirpychick

Hey, pop over to the Christmas chat thread "let it snow" there are lots of ideas on there and will reassure you that you aren't the only one to be thinking about Christmas already (I have almost finished!)

Some items that I have got have been paint your own money boxes from the entertainer for £3 instead of £6 for small children.

Also joining survey sites I have managed to get items from Amazon for "free" using the rewards.

Look around for free gift cards i.e £5 no minimum spend at mama's and papas and then there are items that cost £5 so if you have toddlers/babies to buy for you can get them a gift for free.

Look out for offers on the grabbit board.

You could make pots of gold or snowman soup in mugs .

Hope this is of some help.

Fuzzy_Duck

Thanks chirpychick, I'll take a look. I've got a few bits here and there but still no way near done!

I wish I were buying for kids, it'll be so much easier to get them something nice under budget. Sadly I have a lot of adult men to buy for and they always seem harder!

chirpychick

you could try making the pints of socks or the pots of gold, I think these go down really well with men and can be done for £5 easily.

Also what about homemade items ? my dad always wants cake and fudge!

My husband is a hankie man, he can never had too many!

I do think men are hard to buy for, I have found myself buying things like mugs or gadgets from places like hawkins bazaar or past times.

Just check Grabbit and hotdealsuk each day for bargains.

Fuzzy_Duck

Fab suggestions! The pots of gold look fun and tasty things would go down well with most of them. Thinking about it my dad uses hankies too so will have a look into that too Thanks again.

garlicko

We do this every year for all the adults in our house with the understanding that gifts are to be as thoughful of the individual person as possible. I have just started looking now. Last year I bought personalised photo calendars, fridge magnets, notebooks etc when vista print were doing the offers of get one free-everyone loved them.The trick is to open as many different email addresses as you can to get them free! I also look at groupon, living social etc for their offers and gltiches on here (I was lucky enough to get the bodyshop offers and got 2 gifts sets worth £26 each for free. It is keeping an eye out for bargains that definitely counts.I also collect all the free samples out of magazines eg. foundation samples, lilgloss, perfume etc and when we go to perfume counters and put those in little gift boxes on the xmas table. Hope that helps and feel free to share ideas!

joedenise

I sometimes get "3 copies for £1" hobby magazine subscriptions as gifts and just cancel the DD after they've received the 2nd issue. If you tell people, or give them a card saying you've bought them a 3 month subscription to such and such magazine they're really happy. I also try to get something cheap connected with their hobby. For example, the gardening mag subscription and a trowel for them to unwrap on Christmas Day.

We all try to do cheapy christmas pressies in our family!

Denise

ALittleInLove

I do hampers for my close family and fill them with random odds and ends that might seem weird as presents. Generally things like:
- lip balm, any odd bits of make up (sometimes freebies) and hair ties for my sister
- nice toiletries (buy when they are on offer and save a bundle),
- Free twinings fruity tea bags (my mum loves them and she can try new flavours),
- Wierd gadgets for the boys like a binary watch i got from ebay for 99p for my brother or a recoding pen. They are talking points and help keep us entertained for a while.
- Clothes in the sales are great too. I just bought my sister some dresses(£2) and jeans(£3.50) on the asda george website.
- Go to shops like poundland or home bargains and you can often find cheap sweets, i like to put a collection in a mug and wrap it in cellophane. You can tailor the sweets and mug to the persons taste.
- Play.com have a sale on clothing and other random things including doctor who kids back pack for £2.49 and moshi monsters t-shirt for £2.99
- I got some nice coffee scented candles with real coffee beans for 39p from dotcomgiftshop and tealight holders 39p and incense sticks 10p.

I love shopping in the sales, I get a buzz from saving money (Yes i'm a dork!) and it looks like i spend alot more than i actually do.

Side note: It's always worth getting your wrapping paper and xmas cards in the january sales too. I got 15 rolls of wrapping paper from the card factory last year for 1 pound! Chuck it in the attic and ignore it until august when i do my first lot of wrapping

Hope this helps

kingfisherblue

I don't know if it of any use, but today I bought England car window flags for 8p in Morrisons, plus little England football kits with a sucker to put onto windows - also 8p. Both are stocking fillers for my sons.

They also had packs of England and Union Jack trumpets (six in a pack) for 8p, Union Jack eye cover thingummys (the type you put over your eyes to relax) for 48p, and Union Jack car mirror covers for 8p.

All could be added to hampers, and most are suitable for men.

continualdiamond

http://www.dotcomgiftshop.com/

I got some bargains from here in the week. Spend £50 and its free delivery plus you also get a free return label.

I'm from Australia and wanted to be super organised to get pressies posted by end of Sept surface mail for only half the price compared to airmail.

Some bargains I got were:

* Rotating flower tealight holder £2.95 reduced from £5.95 (Just wanted to point out I spotted this in a shop yesterday for £9, ouch. Feels even better picking it up for £2.95 now)
* Bracelet for £8.48 reduced from £16.95
* Earrings for £4.48 reduced from £8.95

kingfisherblue

For your brother, would he like a framed print of the area where you grew up? I used to work in a shop that sold these, and they were very popular. They varied in price from less than a tenner upto about £70. A less expensive one woould have a lighter weight frame and it would be easy to pack and post.

A similar idea is the history of the family surname. My in laws loved theirs when I bought them a framed copy about ten years ago. They still have it on display, although they move it around occasionally.