Please help! Need ideas for presents

Mammy0f4

I've only got a maximum of £20 to spend on Easter for my kids, Mother's Day for my mam and mil, and a school book fayre (although have got £2 in book vouchers I should be able to use towards something).

I was thinking it may be better to make things but I've never made any gifts before so I'm stuck for ideas.

Can anyone suggest anything that may help?

Thanks in advance!

lily117

Easter eggs are B2 get2 free in Tesco at the moment. For Mum and MIL what about buying a cheap notebook and covering with pretty material. Or buy a cheap frame and decorate it and put a nice photo of your little ones in it.

[Deleted User]

Do your Mum amd MIL have gardens? If they do you could buy a couple of packets of flower seeds for each of them, and pick up a pretty vase from a CS each for very little money, then they could fill the vases later on with home grown flowers through the summer.

Kiddies might like it for easter if you got in the ingredients to make some chocolate based things like Crispie Cakes and Rocky Road and helped them make treats on easter day, you'd make more for your money than you could buy ready made and they would love making things with Mum !

snowleopard61

For Easter you could buy the packets of little hollow eggs/bunnies etc. in Aldi and hide them around the house or garden on Easter Day for the children to find?

Perhaps make Mum and MIL a cake each, or cupcakes, and decorate them with the children? Or buy a clipframe and frame a piece of the children's art?

Lilyplonk

I think the frames and photos - for Mum and MIL - are a really great idea :T. Have a look-see in your local charity shop for a couple of frames. Sometimes the 'independent ones' (ie local hospice shops) can be cheaper than the 'chain ones' (ie OXFAM/Cancer Research/British Heart Foundation) - BEFORE you go checking out the supermarkets.

Also get the kids to make Mother's Day Cards for Mum and MIL to go with the frames .

If you can possibly use the book tokens - make sure that you do. And check to see if there's any 'special offers' on particular books before ordering. Might be a good idea to check the books out without the kids around BEFORE they tell you what they want - they can't half 'put you on the spot' when it comes to shelling out money for school things :eek:. Make sure that you set them an overall limit where the books are concerned - if they understand the ground rules before going into the hall, they'll be less demanding.

Butterfly_Brain

I have stopped buying them now because my two are young adults plus the fact that I am diabetic.
But saying that Asda have Easter eggs for £1.
And you will find lots of ideas for handmade gifts here:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/792751

snowleopard61

Or make a little scrapbook (card with holes punched in it and tied with ribbon or string) out of messages and pictures from the children and yourself about things they/you love about your mother/mother-in-law or have done together?

Meadows

I am sure you can pick up cheap Easter Eggs on offer around the many supermarkets or cheapy shops, depending on the age of your kids then you really do not need to spend much.
Make some fairy cakes and add a mini egg on top, rice krispie cakes with a few mini eggs (made to look like nests), hollow out a real egg, wash well, decorate and pour in melted chocolate (places like Lidl sell really nice but cheap chocolate) , give them a few of these along side a small commercial egg.

For Mum/Mum-in-Law - well to be honest I would rather just have a bunch of Daffodils (favourite flower) than an expensive gift! The day is a commercial hype and we no longer even call it Mothering Sunday it is now known as Mothers Day - yet another American thing over here. The American Day happens in June and has a totally different meaning to ours which comes from girls in service being given the day off to visit Mum!
I am sure your mum/mil would rather have a heartfelt token than a commercial gift that she may or may not use!
Make up a little pamper hamper buy trawling the shops for chocolate, smellies, a book etc (charity shop if you can), you'd be surprised what you could get for a few £'s and buy taking time to by that means you have given it more thought than just grabbing a ready made gift set.

School book fayre - look in charity shops you can get what look like brand new unread almost for around 50p (that way the book token can be added to mum/mil pamper hamper!).

E2006

As has been mentioned, easter eggs in Asda are £1 each. Aldi do lovely bouquets of flowers from £3, but do bunches of daffodils/tulips etc for around £1.50. You could get the kids to make cards to save money on them, that should leave quite a bit for the book club.

Mammy0f4

Thank you all for the fantastic ideas! :T

I don't normally get the kids Easter eggs to be honest but I usually get a few small gifts for them instead (looks like I set myself up for trouble there by starting that family tradition!) The reason I did this was because their grandparents tended to supply them with a few weeks worth of chocolate.

I love the various ideas for mothering sunday

My eldest caught me out last year with the book fayre and well and truely put me on the spot for two books that got looked at once then never bothered with again. I've been looking through the info sheet they give out before the event and I'll definitely be more strict about what they can and can't have (my 6 and 4 year old will want to go, luckily the younger ones aren't interested in such events yet!)

Mammy0f4

Just cut out pictures of a few cheaper or on offer books from the leaflet for the kids to choose from. Will just have to explain myself clearly to them when we are there that they can look at the other books but the ones we are buying will be the ones they pick before we go. Hope there's no tantrums when we're there! My eldest LOVES books and once he gets something into his head that he thinks is a good idea (or in this case a good book) it's hard to snap him out of it as I found out last year!

Got my shopping lists sorted for Easter eggs and Mothering Sunday presents.

Thanks again for your help everyone!