Festive Fivers Competition: The best Xmas pressies for under £5

snoopy178

• Name of present? Multi-Function Keyring - Alcohol Breath Tester and Timer with Flashlight
• Do you make it or buy it? Buy
• Total Cost? £2.99 (£4 or £5.53 with delivery)
• Details (the more the better) 4 in 1 multifunctional unit with alcohol breath tester, count-up and countdown timer, flashlight and keychain
  Provide a simple speedy method to analysis BAC (blood alcohol concentration) at anytime and anywhere
  Timer function keeps the time limit for your parking, studying, test, sport, etc.
  Super bright orange LED torch function fit for your go in a dark environment
  Light weight, compact and portable to carry on keychain
• Where possible please add a link if it's an online offer http://www.6deal.com/en/alcohol-breath-tester-and-timer-with-flashlight.html

angelofinnocence33

• Name of present? Personalised Photo Frame Collage
• Do you make it or buy it? Make it and buy the frame!
• Total Cost? Depending on the size of the photo frame from 99p at Wilkinsons or check out ebay some very good deals on there too!
• Details (the more the better) - Find all your favourite photos of your loved one, unclip the photo frame, get a piece of cardboard or very thick paper the same size as the frame (I tend to use the one that comes with the frame to keep the cost down!), and lay out all the photos. Then start to collage them all together i.e. put your first photo in the right hand corner and work form there, you can cut the photos to fit around each other. Make sure you either stick them down as you collage or have a very large space on the floor to shift it onto and then stick and paste after your happy with the final result

I have been giving these as gifts for years as a lot of the family live abroad and it's great to see them on their walls when I go to visit! You can also add cut outs from magazines as captions or write your own, can be very funny if giving to a friend. With the family just let the photos do the talking. Hope that all made sense! :rotfl:

Juliav_2

• Name of present? Christmas Muffins
  
• Do you make it or buy it? Make It
  
• Total Cost? £4
  
• Details (the more the better). Buy a long glass or glass container and put in (in this order) 300g self-raising flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 2 tsp ground cinnamon, 2 tsp ground mixed spice, 100g pecans or walnuts, 140g tropical fruit medley, 100g light muscovado sugar. Layer all the ingredients into the glass or container and seal. It looks great. Then on a gift label write "put the contents of this jar into a large bowl, make a well in the centre and add 2 beaten eggs, 1/2 pint of milk, and 100g melted butter. Mix into a light batter. Divide into 12 muffin cases and bake at 190c/fan 170c/gas 5 for 15-20 mins. Use within 4 weeks. You can top off the jar with ribbon, a little spoon, and really pretty it up. This is perfect for children, gifts for grandparents to make with the grandchildren and best of all you can buy ingredients and make a good few of these. Great for your children to give out as cheap pressies to their school friends. Hope you like it.
  

Juliav_2

• Name of present? Mulled Wine Gift Set
  
• Do you make it or buy it? A bit of both.
  
• Total Cost? £5
  
• Details (the more the better) You will need to buy: 25cm square butter muslin (can get in department stores & hardware stores), 85g demara sugar, 1st ground ginger, 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg, 1 cinnamon stick, 70cl bottle of red wine ,8-12 cloves, 1 orange.

Put the muslin on a flat surface, put the sugar, nutmeg and ginger inside. tie into a pouch with string and attach to the neck of the bottle, inserting the cinnamon stick to the bottle with a little sticky tape.

Stick the cloves into the orange and pack into a box lined with tissue paper, shredded paper etc along with the red wine. Tie the gift tag to the bottle and write: "Pour the wine into a pan and add the contents of the muslin pouch. Add in the orange and 1/2pt water. Simmer for 5 mins, serve and then enjoy - merry christmas".

dianadors

Name of present? Home Spa Kit for Best Friend
Do you make it or buy it? Obtained all items free of charge
Total Cost? £0
Details (the more the better)
Large overnight bag obtained using free code from Freemans (Friend ordered a top so no spend for me)Filled this with:
Bath robe, slippers, towel and 3 full size pampering products (Obtained by saving Nescafe Beans from jars used at work)
http://www.nescafe-pickmeups.co.uk/Content/1_Home/Landing.aspx
Beautiful boxed Manicure set - Fairy washing up freebie
Treatments - Dozens of Samples sent from freebie site and also lady in office buys tons of mags and never uses free samples. Includes 5 full size Pantene Time renewal products I was sent to test and a Dove full size body lotion. Sally Hansen nail kit (full size - 3 bottles- from the freebies site. Trevor Sorbie trial size shampoo - boots advantage card freebie.
DVD's - freebie site (Phil and Fers funny bits) also Newspaper giveaways(also from office)
Satchets of Coffee plus frother- a bloke walked into our office and asked if we would like to test some new coffee!!! Who me? Queen of freebies! He gave me 30 samples! Frother was a Baileys freebie.
Books - Baileys Coffee table freebie. Free gifts from The Book People
Cornwall Today magazine - I have a subscription and one month they sent me 2 copies.
Cosmetics - Boots No7 silk roll with 5 cosmetics in, I had to buy Mum a mothers day pressie, so I bought it from Boots and got the free gift for my pals collection.
Perfume - lots of free samples
Plus loads more stuff - I cant remember what else is in because I have been wrapping as I go - I must admit I was amazed at what I had collected over the year when I started wrapping it all. Its a large bag and I am struggling to fit anything else in!! Next year I am aiming to obtain most of my pressies through "Freebies"

Squeakybrain

Name of Present? – In this case it is a Table Top Dishwasher (admittedly 2nd hand, though according to the supplier it’s less than 18 month’s old).

Do you make it or buy it? – Neither.

Total Cost? – Depending on the individual, it can cost a few pennies to nothing.

Details (the more the better)? – The link given below is for one of the “Freecycle” sites on Yahoo Groups.com. On this particular occasion, an elderly disabled friend asked if I could find somewhere where he could get a small dishwasher from (either new or second-hand) for as cheap as possible.
I went on to my local Freecycle group and put the request on-line. Within a few hours, I have been offered a Table Top Dishwasher, still under its extended guarantee (which I’ll be collecting later to day).
As for the explanation on the cost, on this occasion I used my own system (including the cost for the electricity – a few pennies) to make the request. However, if you would prefer not to pay anything to make the request; go to your local library and use their computers and electricity, this way, it shouldn’t cost you anything (100% Free).

Where possible please add a link if it’s an online offer? - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cramlington-freecycle/

:rotfl:

If Music Be The Food of Love............Why Don't Rabbits Sing?

daveyg

Name of present? Glow in the dark jumping beans, Animal memo pad, Mini paint set, Christmas bath gels, Jumping frog AND a skipping rope.

Do you make it or buy it? Buy

Total Cost? £4.96

Details (the more the better): Yes, you can get ALL of the above for less than a fiver, and there are loads of other great stocking fillers to choose from too! The selection I made for £4.96 includes the 6 items below:

1) Four large jumping beans that wriggle unpredictably and glow in the dark for added eeriness.
2) 40 page memo pad printed with monkey, elephant or pig design.
3) A plastic container holding a palette of watercolour blocks and tiny brush.
4) Four festive shapes filled with scented bath gel. A one way valve even allows the pouch to be re-sealed.
5) A frog! Squeeze the plastic bulb to make him jump along.
6) An inexpensive classic skipping rope for exercise in the playground or at home!

All of these great kids ideas are from www.stocking-fillers.co.uk

Davey
:j

HenryMobilet

This site is great for ideas, it's saving me a fortune.

Being a bit of a scrooge I don't spend much on my kids xmas stocking - The get a satsuma, maybe some trumps and some of these :j

http://www.thepinksugarmouse.com/30

http://www.thepinksugarmouse.com/23

but the best one of all that I found (Which I do have to splash out for my older child) is this beauty

http://www.thepinksugarmouse.com/42

I like getting the top trumps as they are very cheap, but the kids will play with them for hours or we all spend a few hours together making a figure for our nativity scene or to give to my dad.

http://www.redcross.org.uk/shop/product.asp?id=70308&category=716

Maybe for my daughter??

pieandapint_2

Name of present? Rocket Glitter Lamp
Do you make it or buy it? Buy It
Total cost? £4.99
Details: Focus DIY currently have their ROCKET GLITTER LAMP at half price reduced from £9.99 to £4.99!

Link: http://www.focusdiy.co.uk/invt/201362

pinkkatie

Name of present? 5x scratch cards
Do you make it or buy it? buy them
Total Cost? £5

Details (the more the better) Well they have the chance of winning thousands, added bonus to the pleasure of being allowed to have a good old scratch on xmas morning!!!!

Ha ha ha ha ha!