Help for keeping it cheap in 2013 - Alternative Present Ideas

OLDBILL_2

Please, please help me. I am due to go on maternity leave and desperately wish to be able to afford to take a full year off with babe.

I am looking at our finances and this year we have spent a ridiculous amount of money on presents for family and friends. I have 15 people in the family and spend £30 on their them at birthdays and Christmas = £900!! Plus some of little ones friends parties etc - 5 of which are neighbours so I have to buy for them - £5 each at birthday and xmas = £50

I like to spend about £100 on my son at xmas and birthday = £200
and Other half deserves something special - usually £50 and a meal out somewhere for his birthday and about £50 at xmas = £150.

=£1300!!! = £108 per month

I tried to rejiggle it to a £20 budget each instead of £30 and got it down to around £900 but still, this is a massive amount of cash and could help me stay off work for about 2 months...

What do other people with big families do?
I have tried asking my family not to buy for us and vice versa but they say 'yeah, yeah' and then go ahead and buy as they normally would. That just makes me feel cheap and thoughtless and embarrassed that theyve bought for me.

I wish we could just buy for the kids but I would feel guilty if I didnt buy for my parents as they help us out so much.

I make the money I spend on them go really far with the grabbit board and discount codes etc - so the presents they get are usually worth twice what I paid but still...

I have invested in the river cottage handbooks this year (my xmas present). We have been growing veg and Ive had a stab a making chutney. I will be trying jam and pickled green tomatoes etc BUT my parents are the only people who appreciate these things. My sister isnt a foodie and other halfs mum is WAY bettr and making all this stuff than me and has stock piles of her own!

I wish I had some kind of skill and could make things. I thought of pinboards... but even those cost money to make. By the time you've bought the boards and fabric and ribbon, there's my budget gone!

Any ideas peeps??

TIA

Own_My_Own

The first thing is - If you get £30 worth of gifts for £10, they have their £30 present. There is no need to spend more.

I add up what it would have cost me full price not what it actually cost me.

See how many people you can buy for in the Jan Sales. Boots have a good sale for smellies.

I make a list of all the people I need to buy for and keep it with me. That way when you see something in the sale, you can see who you can buy it for. This will save you buying sale items with no-one in mind, getting home and realising it isn't suitable for anyone.


I try to get all the birthday presents in the sale and then forget about them until needed. This will stop you panicking mid year that you have 4 birthdays in one month.

If your parents are going to appreciate homemade chutney then write it on your list and make them some.

There is a thread on here about hampers. I will add the link so you can see what you can put together for very little money.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1175727

Come join this thread
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3935899

We are a happy lot with lots of ideas. We will be going all year next year. I am restarting it in Jan. So we will be there for every birthday as well as Christmas.

Edit - We also have a lot of babies born on the thread, so you won't be the only one with a newborn.

dizzy_lizzie

I like to google thrifty gift ideas. There's a lot out there as well as here on mse.
This link has some nice ideas The Art of Thrifty Christmas Gifts
and here Thrifty Gift Ideas
Also Amaz*n have bargain box sets for £10 and under
x

carlamarie_2

OLDBILL wrote: »

Please, please help me. I am due to go on maternity leave and desperately wish to be able to afford to take a full year off with babe.

I am looking at our finances and this year we have spent a ridiculous amount of money on presents for family and friends. I have 15 people in the family and spend £30 on their them at birthdays and Christmas = £900!! Plus some of little ones friends parties etc - 5 of which are neighbours so I have to buy for them - £5 each at birthday and xmas = £50

I like to spend about £100 on my son at xmas and birthday = £200
and Other half deserves something special - usually £50 and a meal out somewhere for his birthday and about £50 at xmas = £150.

=£1300!!! = £108 per month

I tried to rejiggle it to a £20 budget each instead of £30 and got it down to around £900 but still, this is a massive amount of cash and could help me stay off work for about 2 months...

What do other people with big families do?
I have tried asking my family not to buy for us and vice versa but they say 'yeah, yeah' and then go ahead and buy as they normally would. That just makes me feel cheap and thoughtless and embarrassed that theyve bought for me. suggest a secret santa instead? where you would only buy a present for one person each worth, say £50?

I wish we could just buy for the kids but I would feel guilty if I didnt buy for my parents as they help us out so much.

I make the money I spend on them go really far with the grabbit board and discount codes etc - so the presents they get are usually worth twice what I paid but still... count the full price of the item instead? ie. if you bought something for £15 which was half price, instead of thinking theyve got £15 left, think of them as finished!

I have invested in the river cottage handbooks this year (my xmas present). We have been growing veg and Ive had a stab a making chutney. I will be trying jam and pickled green tomatoes etc BUT my parents are the only people who appreciate these things. if your parents apprieciate these gifts, then go ahead and give them
My sister isnt a foodie and other halfs mum is WAY bettr and making all this stuff than me and has stock piles of her own!
look at making hampers for gifts which can often work out cheaper and be more thoughtful. if the m-i-l grows herself you could make a gardening hamper, your sister could have a pamper hamper etc. the possibilities are endless.

I wish I had some kind of skill and could make things. I thought of pinboards... but even those cost money to make. By the time you've bought the boards and fabric and ribbon, there's my budget gone!

Any ideas peeps??

TIA

have you considered giving joint gifts ie, if you buy for a family or siblings you could make a movie hamper with dvds to suit all and drinks/treats. etc

gifts for kids could be baking or arts and crafts hampers. you can make these as cheap or expensive as you like.

other than that, i know you ve asked family members not to buy gifts but have you actually told them that money is tighter and you would rather give the present buying a miss? explain that they would offend/embarass you if they sent you gifts after youd decided not to.

or if you/them still wanted to the treat, why not all go for a meal and each set a silly budget for table gifts (such as £1 or 2 with a silly theme) you would get to spend time together and have a good laugh at the gifts


hope this helps in some way

dory22

you can only spend what you can afford, use the deals in the shops 3 4 2 it may be less then £30 per person but how about see what you have left after you brought at least one present per person, the cost of food etc do you have a boots/tesco card, at the moment in boots they should have just sent out vouchers for double your points, if you enough/spend enough from 3 4 2 then use the double coupon you can put those towards a presents.
iv been going into boots reduced section through out the year iv got 2 lots of FCUK fragrances reduced to £9.99 5 of my friends are pregnant at the moment to so got bottles, wipes baby stuff ruduced in there, a lot fo the times if you spend over a certain amout they give you a £5 no7 voucher you can get things in number 7 for under £5 so that can be added to the presents, iv got a lot of my presents this year in the sales.

i buy £1 scracth cards and pop them into presents for people i'm not spending a lot on.

asda has a 2 for £10 & 2 for £20 toy sale which is great as some of the stuff in there looks a lot more expensive.

its the thought that counts, not the price.

C_J

Something I have done for a couple of people this year is to track down a copy of the local newspaper from the place they were born, for their actual birth date. Most town libraries have an archives section with all the local papers stored on microfiche, and you can have an A4 sized print out of the page for about 50p. Sometimes I have been lucky and found the actual birth notice which their parents had put in the paper which makes it even more special.

I have also found that if they were born miles away, emailing the librarian in the town (info can be found in the relevant county council online pages) is always useful as sometimes these lovely people will find the right edition of the paper for you and email it to you, and you can pay online.

Sometimes I just frame the front page, and sometimes I make a collage of the news items, like a scrapbooking journal.

A4 size frames can be bought at the pound shop, so it's a really inexpensive gift, but people are always overwhelmed by how thoughtful it is because you've seemingly gone to such a huge amount of effort. It's good as a birthday gift, but works just as well as a Christmas one

OLDBILL_2

Thank you all. There are some really good ideas in there... feeling a bit more positive now... just gonna have to be a mixture of honest and creative!

stimpy27

For the last couple of years we have put all adult names in a hat and then brought for just one other person, we put a max spend on it and usually ask the person what they actually want. I have three kids and I'm on mat leave so things are tight but it also saves valuable time.
Initially I was embarrassed to suggest it but everyone was actually delighted and pleased to be getting what they wanted instead of 10 boots gift sets!
A friend of mine does themes, so one year they have to all do something homemade (get ideas from not on the high street, etsy and
Pinterest and another occasion they had to fit presents in a ahoebox or buy only second hand.

Not sure if you already have kids or ideas to save for future cheap prezzies........This year I have brought some porcelain paint and cheap small plates from ikea, I'm gonna make spare change plates and cuff link plates from the kids, in the past I have got the kids to paint on some box canvas put their names and dates on it and given to grandparents. Also photobox sell tiny photo books in which you can collate photos from the whole year and give to family members.