FREE Christmas Gifts?

boiler_man

Check out your local hedgerows to see if there are any damsons, blackberries, rosehips or sloes left. Any windfall apples being given away? If so you could make an assortment of hamper goodies with some addition of sugar.

Even better if you have some gin or vodka at the back of your cupboard begging to be flavoured!

Not keen on love vouchers? Could make a chequebook of more practical things for OH to cash in - can be anything from an evening in sole control of the remote to a walk or picnic on the beach/park/woods etc

Homemade wines can be made quite cheaply if you can find some demijohns on freecycle (or improvise with another container). See http://www.homewinemaking.co.uk/yabb2/YaBB.pl for some good ideas for how to make wine out of supermarket fruit juice.

Above all else, enjoy your time together at Christmas!

meg72

How about a Christmas stocking with jokey things. One year when I was stuck for something different (and cheap) I for my elderly parents I went to Poundland and bought a couple for stockings and 2 curly wigs, one bright Red the other bright Green.

I then scouted round for jokey things to put in, things you would normally put in a childs stocking chocolate coins, bottle of bubbles, party blower, lollypop, bag of marbles, colouring book and crayons, bouncy ball etc.

Then because of their age included paracetamel and throat sweets.
packet of tissues , a bottle of cough mixture and indigestion tablets.

I forget whatelse but I wrapped everything in tissue and crammed the stocking full, putting an orange and a few nuts in the toe as they always did that with ours when we were little.

They were thrilled with their present and they cost me less than 5.00 each.

They said they hadn't had so much in fun in years as they had opening them and bless my 80yr old Dad wore his green wig all day.

They are both gone now but I take great pleasure in this memory.

For me a Christmas present is not about money its about the thought and the effort to find something to please your loved ones and hopefully create a lasting memory.

sarah182xxx

what about some empty jam jars filled up with super cheap sweets (for eg toffees from the value ranges as they are often in brightly coloured wrappers. Bit of tinsel and a fancy home made tag and the'd look lovely

Hope you manage to sort something out and have the wonderful Christmas you are hoping for and deserve xx

Laurajo_2

If you've got time on your hands, have a look at the comping thread - of course, it isn't guaranteed but worth a shot!

Also, when I was at college and fairly skint, me and my group of friends made a pact that ALL xmas presents would be second hand....I actually managed to get a Versace shirt for £4.50 from a charity shop - yes it had been worn but you couldn't tell, and ten years later it is still his favourite shirt and gets comments from people.

whitewing

When we have been really tight for cash, the mistake we made was feeling sorry for ourselves. We could have planned for a magical Christmas anyway but I went into 'saving cash' mode and begrudged any penny and DH went into 'if I can't have x, I don't want anything'. What works better for us is to have less of the stuff we like, eg baileys is apparently on offer this week at morrisons, so we may just get one bottle of that and no other alcohol. (This is an example, other years we may have cheaper or no alcohol).

SilS

vickyholly wrote: »

how about a movie fest with popcorn etc,

yep...a romatic dinner, candles and a good movie sounds perfect :T

rach_k

You could look again at the 'romantic' stuff like vouchers, poems etc and just put your own spin on it. A poem doesn't have to be soppy, it could be funny, clever or just plain dirty Vouchers can be practical or silly too. I used http://www.tagxedo.com/app.html recently to make a birthday card for my OH. It wasn't soppy at all, just loads of words to do with our lives... 'cake' and 'chicken' featured prominently (along with the names of our kids, of course!) and he really loved it. I will print it bigger and put it in a cheap frame for the wall too I think.