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

Fivepointtwo

Hello everyone! My first post!

• Name of present? Favourite Recipe Book
• Make it or buy it? Make it
• Total Cost? under £5 if handmade
• Details (the more the better)?

This takes a little bit of pre-planning but is a lovely project to occupy yourself with.

You will need to buy a scrapbook or unlined hardback notebook, then plan the structure of the book – think about the size of the book, what recipes you want to include and how you want to organise them (whether by course, or by ingredient or by season or by something else that is meaningful to you). Consider a page layout and collect pictures and embellishments to go with your recipes: you can take photos of the finished dish, use magazine cut-outs or online stock photographs of the ingredients, add family photos, memorable quotes or you could watercolour/sketch on the book itself if you feel able.

If your budget stretches further and you are a little bit PC-wise, you can create an online scrapbook using the various digital scrapbooking sites for background papers and decorations, adding the typed up recipes and photos, and then get the book printed by a specialist photo company. This will allow you to make several copies easily but does cost a fair bit more than £5!

The book can be adapted to include favourite family recipes, a compendium of your best budget meals (!), or a collection of a recipe submitted from each of your friends, countries you have visited… the themes and possibilities are endless and this makes a fantastic present for generations to cherish.

I am not sure if this was already posted in the past, but it means so much to me that I wanted to share it with you all – I grew up in really close family where good, slow food, using recipes passed down through the generations, and family meals around a big table were hugely important and I was extremely lucky to be able to sit down with my granny and have her recite her masterful recipes to me before she passed away. I’m now in the process of turning the collection into a book to give as a Christmas present to her foodie daughters and nieces/nephews (my mum and uncles/aunts) – who I know will be thrilled to get a record of something they thought was lost!

the_roadshow

Name of present: Juggling balls and instruction manual
Make it or buy it? Buy it
Total Cost? under £3
Details:

http://www.jugglenow.com/juggling-instructions.html

You can either print out this free online guide to juggling and then buy three budget juggling balls on www.firetoys.co.uk for £2.68 or simply log on to eBay and buy 3 balls and a juggling guide for £2.99. Try a seller called Gadgetbazar who offers this price. I got this present for Christmas last year and can now juggle properly! This is a great present for all the family to try out on Christmas day.

trace_567

Name of present: Wind up torch
Make it or buy it: Buy
Cost?: £5 or less. Can spend more if you want to.

Details:
You can buy wind up torches in several places. Some online (so yes postage will cost you more) but many online can be found on the high street.
Some of the links do say currently out of stock however they may either come back in stock or you could find them in store.

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.202-5972.aspx Tesco currently out of stock, may well find it in store £4.77
http://www.wilkinsonplus.com/invt/0245862 Wilkinsons £3.99 in stock online
http://www.woolworths.co.uk/web/jsp/product/index.jsp?pid=50935163 woolworths not currently avalible, again might find in store or be in stock later £5.00
http://www.robertdyas.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=311&storeId=91&productId=33844&langId=-1&cache_entry=-1&parent_category_rn=&parents_parent_category_rn=&top_category_rn=&showSubCategory=&top=Y&fromPage=SearchResults Robert Dyas in stock online. Likely find in store. £4.99

I'm sure that you can pick these up at various places at a price that suits you. For near £10 you can now get them with radios that are also powered by winding them up.

I think this gift is a must for anyone who hasn't got one already. Perfect for power cuts, as no need for batteries. Safer than candles too. During a power cut I expect the person will think its the most useful present they ever got.

foxy*brown_2

Name : 'This is Your Life' CD photo album

Do you make it or buy it? Make it

Total Cost? approx £1 for blank CD (this does depend on you having free access to a scanner and cd writer, but most libraries have these if you don't have your own)

Details: collect all the photographs you and others have of your prezzie recipient/s. scan them all in to a computer & save as picture files (.jpeg etc). also add any photos taken on a digital camera/ camera phone. it you have a digital camera, use the software for it to crop / rotate pics as neccessary. you can download free editing software if you don't have any. is nice to put the photos in some sort of chronological order, but you don't have to do this. then copy the photos onto a cd or dvd.

next, make a cover for the disc box (square music-cd shaped jewel cases are the best boxes). i tend to make my covers in the style of the "This is your life" TV programme red book. Using a gold/ yellow coloured font, you can either print "xxx name this is your life" onto red paper, or use a red background under the text. create it to the size of a cd box, print, cut it out and pop it in the front of the cd case. if you fancy a different cover, you could use one of the best/ funniest photos and add a caption/ title if preferred, or any design of your choice.

you could also make a back cover, in the style of a cd track listing, but with humourous listings of the highlights of the recipients life instead of song titles. or you can put a photo on the back cover, or anything else you fancy.

this works really well as a family prezzie as you can use the same photos for each family member and just create a different disc & cover for each one. maybe even call it "xxx name, this is your family". this is especially nice if you all live far from each other.

also, instead of or as well as photos, you can also make a disc of video clips and copy them to a dvd.

BlueNose1984

Name : CD of your favourite songs

Do you make it or buy it? Make it

Total Cost? approx £1 for blank CD.


Details: Download and/or rip favourite songs of the person you are buying this for and burn to the CD.

cjrphale

Every year my friend and I make each other a Xmas gift and always try to make it something tghat we will enjoy / use etc.

Below if the gift I have just made her for this year. She has just had her bedroom decorated and I have made her 3 cushions to go onto her bed to match her newly decorated room. I made these at a fraction of the cost of buying them in a department store.

Name of present? Decorative Bed Cushions
Do you make it or buy it? Made it
Total Cost? Approx £1.50 per cushion
Details (the more the better) The best place (and cheapest) to buy the materials for the cushions is at a market. If you live in the midlands you just can not beat the Rag Market in Birmingham city centre as there is just so much choice and so very, very cheap. If you don't have a market accessible where you can buy the material from a local store and ask what off cuts they have which should be plenty for making a cushion or 2.
The other option for material to cover the cushions is to go to a car boot / jumble sale and buy an article of clothing that is the right colour / pattern and use that to cover the cushions.
THe cushion pads can be brought for around £1 (even cheaper if you go to ebay or even buy second hand ones from a car boot / jumble sale as the pattern doesn't matter as you will be recovering them)
THe cushions take very litle time to make (if you have a sewing machine) and are very simple to do. You don't have to put zips or buttons on. You can either just sew the covers on so they can't be taken off to wash but I prefer the cover to be able to be washed so just over lap the material at the back so the cushions can be slotted in or out quite easily - they actually look really stylish too.
My cushions turned out fabulously and I have sneakily checked them against her bedroom and even if I do say so myself they look very expensive and gorgeous.

Heinz

• Name of present? Weather station;
• Do you make it or buy it? Bought it (ebay);
• Total Cost? £2.19 (before delivery);
• Details (the more the better) [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Weather Watch Home Weather Station Kit[/FONT]
• [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Your Own Complete Weather Report[/FONT]
• [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Tells You Everything but the Time [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Including[/FONT]
• [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Rain gauge[/FONT]
• [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Wind Speed[/FONT]
• [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Temperature[/FONT]
• [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Wind Direction[/FONT]
• [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Can be erected on Boat, Barn, Fence,[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Garage, Clothes Line, [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]patio;[/FONT]
• Where possible please add a link if it's an online offer See THIS ebay link;

Great educational gadget for youngsters (7 or 8 years old upwards, I'd think).

Gets 'em out in the fresh air and introduces them to science, statistics, record keeping, etc.

Smickan

cjrphale wrote: »

The other option for material to cover the cushions is to go to a car boot / jumble sale and buy an article of clothing that is the right colour / pattern and use that to cover the cushions.

Following on from CJrphale's fantastic post

If your child has an absolute favourite top that they love to wear and have grown out of, but it has a lot of life left in it, turn the main body part into a pillow, arranging the arms and such in a humourous way, crossed, claspsed together, something, maybe even make it look as though there is a neck underneath and sew a few beads on to dress it as a necklace. Costs maybe a pound to get some cushion pads and beads and the like and needs some sewing knowledge, but it's great for a snuggle against when feeling sad (or maybe even when at uni when feeling home sick, turning an old top of your own into a cushion with 'HUGME' on the front to leave with your daughter - could almost feel like getting a real cuddle from mum when crying down the phone to her (trust me! It'll happen )

mbohea

• Name of present? 4 Lottery Tickets
• Do you make it or buy it? Buy It
• Total Cost? £4
• Details (the more the better) 4 chances at winning a lottery jackpot, unlikely chance of winning but you have to play to stand a chance and because the tickets were a present you cant lose!
  
• Where possible please add a link if it's an online offer

lespaulthroughamarshall

Name of present? A wad of Iraqi Dinar

Do you make it or buy it? Buy it

Total Cost? Any amount you wish up to £5.00

Details (the more the better) : Did this for two secret Santa's last year and the gift was the centre of attention at both parties. You simply buy £5.00 worth of Iraqi Dinar and they come with an interesting and factual letter. During the previous occupation of Iraq, their currency fell to an all-time low. When the allied forces vacated the stability improved and the currency value soared. £5.00 worth of Iraqi dinar then woiuld be worth a lot of money now. Under the current climate, the currency is again at an all-time low - if history repeats itself, the lucky recipient of this gift MIGHT be sitting on a gold mine. The projections show that if the growth rate contines, then this £5.00 gift could well be used to purchase a small house in a few years time !!

If the predicitons are correct, the recipient will be rich - if not, then it provides an interesting present that wil be the talk of the crowd for months to come.

The accompanying letter can conclude with something like "I don;t know where we will both be in years to come, So when you are sat on board a luxury yacht or on the patio of a fine restaurant, sipping expensive wine or even just in a take-away having a cheap meal for two on me, on XMas Eve- you will always think of me".

Try it, it works.......