Help! £5 Christmas

sethsgran

My daughter in law knows how to be frugal, she isn't mean just careful. Last year my husband got a lovely watch from them bought in the Next clearance for £4. They are students and I admire their resolve not to get in debt. She also had a lovely bag for herself, when I made comment on it her reply was "£2 next clearance". This girl can sure find a bargain there, just one of the many reasons I love her. You need to pop in regularly to a shop to pick up the bargains.

SuperSaverSue_2

I love all the ideas for baskets, might do one for my sister and her bloke!

MeNikki

I used to stick to a rule of £10 per person, but as I wanted to treat my brother to something special last year I had to cut back on some other gifts.

For my mom I usually hunt on eBay - she loves her thimble collection and I bought her a 'lot' (2 display cases with a number of thimbles for around £7.50 inc p&p) I might have gotten her a few other little bits, but some were freebies I collected throughout the year.

For my partner's parents I decided on some second hand books, one of them being one I had read and gotten another (hardback copy) of from a friend. Furthermore I picked up some books in local charity shops and I gave them a bottle of wine (brought back from Spain) to share plus a toy for their cat that my own moggy wouldn't touch.

For brother and sister in law (and their partners) I made some framed pictures. During a birthday party of one of our nephews, I took pictures of all the kids. Had them enlarged to A3 (with pixum.co.uk - A4 sized 8x12" cost £0.58 +P&P) ordered at a time when that size was on special offer and picked up 4 clip frames in IKEA. I think I spent about £4.50 per picture (and frame). Both sets of parent absolutely loved having a nice picture of both of their kids to put on the wall.

For the kids I bought loads of colouring books, pencils, finger paint in a local pound shop. And as far as I heard they didnt destroy the wallpaper and one of the little ones has now got a passion for drawing and painting.

Result.

This year I am thinking of buying them a family day out to a zoo or some other nice place. How/where can I convert my Tesco vouchers into days out?

My partner will probably get a little chequebook again with vouchers for breakfast in bed, will not bug you to help me cleaning this weekend, will cook your favourite meal, you can be in charge of the remote control over the weekend, etc. Plus maybe a voucher for B&Q or some laminate flooring. We decided not to buy anything too expensive for one another as we want to slowly re-decorate certain rooms in the house.

Happy christmas gift shopping/creating to you all

KME91

Tesco clubcard deals... transfer your points to days out here: http://www.tesco.com/clubcard/deals/

feeling inspired by this thread... going to do some retro sweet boxes for my nephew and niece (and the OH, he's just a big kid at heart) and i'm already collecting christmas gifts.... i have a big family too so have to plan in advance

computerwoman

try this place...

http://www.underfivepounds.com/index.asp?source=webgains

Sallys_Savings

MeNikki wrote: »

I used to stick to a rule of £10 per person, but as I wanted to treat my brother to something special last year I had to cut back on some other gifts.

For my mom I usually hunt on eBay - she loves her thimble collection and I bought her a 'lot' (2 display cases with a number of thimbles for around £7.50 inc p&p) I might have gotten her a few other little bits, but some were freebies I collected throughout the year.

For my partner's parents I decided on some second hand books, one of them being one I had read and gotten another (hardback copy) of from a friend. Furthermore I picked up some books in local charity shops and I gave them a bottle of wine (brought back from Spain) to share plus a toy for their cat that my own moggy wouldn't touch.

For brother and sister in law (and their partners) I made some framed pictures. During a birthday party of one of our nephews, I took pictures of all the kids. Had them enlarged to A3 (with pixum.co.uk - A4 sized 8x12" cost £0.58 +P&P) ordered at a time when that size was on special offer and picked up 4 clip frames in IKEA. I think I spent about £4.50 per picture (and frame). Both sets of parent absolutely loved having a nice picture of both of their kids to put on the wall.

For the kids I bought loads of colouring books, pencils, finger paint in a local pound shop. And as far as I heard they didnt destroy the wallpaper and one of the little ones has now got a passion for drawing and painting.

Result.

This year I am thinking of buying them a family day out to a zoo or some other nice place. How/where can I convert my Tesco vouchers into days out?

My partner will probably get a little chequebook again with vouchers for breakfast in bed, will not bug you to help me cleaning this weekend, will cook your favourite meal, you can be in charge of the remote control over the weekend, etc. Plus maybe a voucher for B&Q or some laminate flooring. We decided not to buy anything too expensive for one another as we want to slowly re-decorate certain rooms in the house.

Happy christmas gift shopping/creating to you all

With the family days out you could make up a mini hamper to go with it, like we've discussed in another thread.
i.e. A farm/zoo trip.....£1 animal puppets from tescos, £1 animal colouring book, jigsaw etc. etc. Legoland some small lego sets and lego colouring book..I think there is also a lego website with instructions on too.

Sometimes its nice to make up a poem (if you're clever...which I'm not ) but it really finishes the hamper off. Someone on this board kindly made up one for me to go with my hamper ..makes it evenmore special and different.

Sallys_Savings

If anyone is making up a car washing hamper...i.e. bucket, sponge etc Tesco are selling bits cheaper at the moment (I think the offer runs out next week) if its any help. Just bought sponge (50p cheaper), shampoo (70p cheaper), wheel brush (£1.15 cheaper). All the pennies count

Stephen_Leak

A couple of years ago, after I was made redundant and things were really insecure financially, my wife and I set not only a £5 limit on presents for each other but also a challenge to get as many decent gifts as possible for this.

I split the presents into categories - something to eat, something to drink, something to read, something to wear, and something else which I can't remember now, with a limit of approx. £1 each.

IIRC something to eat was a little box of two or three chocolates from Thorntons. Something to drink was a 1 glass-sized bottle of wine from M&S. Something to read was a book of daily horoscopes for the year for her birthsign, so it wasn't just a quick read.

I "copped out" slightly on the something to wear by getting her a £1 gift voucher from one of her favourite clothes shops.

PS. ISTR that the something else was something smelly and was a travel-sized tube of something from M&S she had used and liked during the year.

milkydrink

I agree that people should not go so overboard at Xmas so as to ruin it for themselves worrying about money.

BUT rather than buy 5 things from poundland (which I would just bin), how about 1 decent thing, a nice mug or a posh shower gel or a nice note book ECT ECT.

I would much rather 1 small decent thing than a load of cheap things.

emay

kimevans wrote: »

I agree that people should not go so overboard at Xmas so as to ruin it for themselves worrying about money.

BUT rather than buy 5 things from poundland (which I would just bin), how about 1 decent thing, a nice mug or a posh shower gel or a nice note book ECT ECT.

I would much rather 1 small decent thing than a load of cheap things.

£1 shops are good for little 'uns, just bought my cousins birthday pressi from Asda £1 range, she got magnet making kit, stamp set, sticker pack, pen set, scrapbook and a plaster paint-your-own fairy. All individually wrapped and in a gift bag (re-used - I never buy gift bags!!!)