The Great Christmas '05 Stocking Fillers Hunt

Destiny33

Fantastic ideas here, i knew i could rely on everyone here

I'm starting to get excited about xmas now and seeing my little boys wee face

pdoff

wilkinsons & poundstretchers/instore still have some toys 75% off, loads for under £1. wilkinsons pack 3 sponge balls 25p great for playing inside & out. as long as child is past the chewing stage!

powie69

For girls 3 to 6 years old: try Primark as they have has girls nail varnish sets, fluffy bags with bubblebath, sets with hairclips etc reduced to 25p each. Got a load for my niece for Xmas.

For boys 3 years plus - Tescos had some of there "Mini Series" little cars reduced to 23p each.

Best Wishes

mandi

BoltonMinx wrote:

Is it too early to start looking for great stocking fillers for chrimbo? Maybe we should have a £10 price celing and see what we find

Please post if you have some funky ideas

Oh dear Oh dear Oh dear,

Why do I find this thread soooooooo depressing!!( and please dont take my comments personally)

Is only September the kids are just back at school, summers still here( only just) people are still going on their summer holidays.. BBQ stuff is still for sale.. were still in our tee shirts and flip flops, and our sun tans are just starting to fade..... and what happens.... ????? people start thinking ( or should I say worrying, or better still being BRAINWASHED). into spending money on presents for CHRISTMAS... which is still months away!! :mad:

The supermarkets have already jumped on the Festive Bandwagon ( as you would expect!!!).. Asda had Christmas saving stamp offers in Julys heatwave....!! and I noticed that Tesco is now stocking up on Christmas cake mix, and selection boxes..... :mad:

AND WHY???

Not so we can find cheap "stocking fillers for under a tenner".. Oh NO

its to make us spend money that we cant afford, for presents people dont like.. and in some cases for presents for people we don like !!!for the benefit of the shareholders!!!

And come the begining of October we will be bombarded with the first of Slades "SO here it is Merry Christmas..... er everybodys havin fun"....................................................... well not me!!! im off to my cave in the Himalayas till January :j ( plenty of room for anyone who wants to join me)


The only plus side is I suppose (for all the pervs out there ) is that you can stick your hand up a birds bum on christmas eve and not feel guilty about it :j

In the meantime hope you all dont fall for all that advertising thats about to invade you Tv screens.. Soooooooonnnn

Luvly.cuppa.T

I used Hawkins last year, and although they are good, I found that some of their stuff can be bought cheaper elsewhere.
Beware, it's a contagious site , so you end up spending loads....


Mandi- yes I hear you! I fell that stores etc do start too early and should hold off. BUT and a big one, it helps to spread the costs if you can start buying now. If you don't have much money then you only end up borrowing, so tis better to pay outright, even if it means starting in June!

I've started collecting the store stamps too, as I don't want to have to say no to items at Xmas, such as booze *wink*

This is a good time to start (even earlier) getting xmas pressies, especially value for money. Some presents you don't expect to last, ie the stockings, so you don't mind buying cheap, even better when on sale. The next sale will not be until January, and of course that's too late!

It also doesn't help that when your kids have b'days in Nov, Dec and Jan, as there is more to buy, and of course everyone is buying everything almost clearing the shops in November and Dec- leaving not much for my kiddies b'days!
Better to have something beforehand. I've not quite done this before, each year I'm getting better at it, so I hope to have everything bar 1 or 2 things by Xmas. I'm also hopping that in the long run I have saved money as well as the stress and panic, alongside the plummeting feeling of facing a debt after the fun.

Sofa_Sogood

mandi wrote:

Oh dear Oh dear Oh dear,

Why do I find this thread soooooooo depressing!!( and please dont take my comments personally)

You forgot to say "Bah Humbug" mandi

mandi

Sofa_Sogood wrote:

You forgot to say "Bah Humbug" mandi

hi

well actually iI did..................then thought the better about it........... :rotfl:

crutches

some of us dont fall for the hype but we have to buy now to budget!great thread.mine are 19,18,15,14,14,7,5 and 18 mths.i'll spend up to £15 on stockings and up to £50 on a present.littlies get less spent because their things are cheaper.I mainly use freebies or cheap things,loads of boots offers and ebay/charity shop stuff.
they all gat fruit,chocolate(lidl!) and underwear/pj's/clothes etc.
any ideas on this thread gratefully rec'd.

Gingham_Ribbon

mhoc wrote:

Yes I still do Christmas stockings for my three although my lads are now 13 and the other will be 16 by Christmas. My daughter will be nearly 18.

Doing the stockings every year is getting more and more difficult, finding things that are a novelty, fun, something they would not buy for themselves, something their friends have not got, but also cheap. Some years I spend more on filling the stockings than I do on the main presents.

My daughters is the worse because all the stuff she likes is small and expensive, jewlerry, make up and perfume, you need a huge ammount to fill a teenage girls stocking. And I cant just put in all the bits and pices I have collected form Boots because she knows I am always looking for Boots bargains and offers!

Mary

When we were teenagers we still had a huge stocking. It was filled with pens, razors, deoderant, fruit, sweets, pencil case, maybe a lipstick, school supplies, like stationary etc and maybe one more expensive item like a pair of earings. If we had a battery operated 'big present', then the batteries (or plug in the days before they were already fitted to things) was in there too so we could guess what was coming.

It meant that some of the things were quite big (like a bottle or shaving foam for my brother or a tub or pens) so it filled it nicely but all with useful things that made us groan or laugh.

monkeylugs

UGH I flippin' hate stocking fillers! I can cope with "useful" things such as books, nice pens, colouring books, felt-tips etc (my kids are 2.5 and 9) but I hate the "useless" things that we end up buying just so they have something to unwrap. But as they get older and the "bigger" presents get "smaller" (I'm thinking expensive PS2 games here), I feel obliged to buy small items of crap just so he's got something to unwrap on Christmas day!

This year I am thinking of wrapping up envelopes containing "promises" such as "I will take you and the friend of your choice ice-skating on the next Thursday of the school holidays" or "You can have XXX friend sleeping over, we will hire a DVD, have an eye-toy tournament and eat pizza, on the day of your choice" etc.. Yes, it will still cost money but at least it will be spread out.