Christmas is coming!! please help me

[evelyn]

I have made my list, cheked it twice, and am now in a pannik because my isa containing £80 just isnt going to pay for gifts for Mum, Dad n wife, brother n wife n kids, mad aunty, batty nanna and friends x4.

I have looked online for things i can make that looks good and that i can afford but all i am coming up with are pages i have to subscribe to for just £30 or so. Or pages on pages of kits to buy, that i feel it would be cheeper just to go and buy the manufactured product.

Do any of you thrifty folk know of any web pages that are actualy free to get info from that have ideas that are affordable.

Or better still, do you make anything that is tryed and tested and cheep that you would be happy to give me the instructions for?

Eve

[Green Aura]

Hi Eve
One year when we were flat broke we made everyone handmade truffles - amazingly cheap to make and everyone seemed to like them. They cost a fortune from a chocolatier and are so simple to make!
You could make your own boxes, even create your own name and logo, and I've bought the tiny paper cups off ebay for a couple quid for loads.

[Rosendula]

Hi Evelyn,
There's an interesting thread here that might give you some inspiration. I'm afraid I've never been much good at making things, but it is something I want to improve on. My ideas off the top of my head

• For my 2.5 year old, I made some little 'find the pairs' cards - 2 sets, one with numbers on and another with Noddy characters. I don't know if that's any good as an idea for your nieces and nephews.
• You could also explain the situation to them all and spend your money on food instead, inviting them all round for a home-cooked meal on various days throughout the Christmas period (or all on the same day if you're brave and/or mad ).
• Perhaps offer to babysit for free.
• How about a home-baked hamper? Get some clean cardboard boxes and line them with wrapping paper and fill with things like home-made bread, mince pies, quiches, sausage rolls, etc. You might need to tell them what you're giving them so that they can avoid making or buying that sort of stuff.

One thing I tend to do is save up reward points from my credit card and Nectar and use those towards Christmas, either by spending them on presents, or spending them on my normal shopping and using my shopping money for presents. Do you have anything like that you can use?

[Milims]

If they are avid readers how about these?
This one costs a little bit of money but could have big returns. There's a site called Green Metropolis that sells books. All the books are £3.75 with free postage, BUT you can sell your own books there for £3 each. They also do on line book tokens. So what you cloud do is give someone an on line book token - say for £10, they can choose their own books and then sell them back or sell others on there. That way they have an ongoing supply. Also, for every book sold a donation is made to the Woodland Trust (I think it is). This way you are encouraging recycling of books as well as making a donation to an appropriate charity.

There's also a site called Daily Lit (I think it's a .com - but just google it and it comes up) they will send bite sized chunks of a book via e-mail. So how about making a christams cracker with the appropriate link in and you'll have supplied them with endless free books.

[Milims]

Hi Eve
One year when we were flat broke we made everyone handmade truffles - amazingly cheap to make and everyone seemed to like them. They cost a fortune from a chocolatier and are so simple to make!
You could make your own boxes, even create your own name and logo, and I've bought the tiny paper cups off ebay for a couple quid for loads.

Please could you post the recipe - I'd love to make some for my sis. Thank you

[Green Aura]

We got the recipes out of a couple of recipe books - I know one of them was a Cadburys book and I think the other was by Mary Berry. Both long gone I'm afraid.
But I had a quick Google and here are a couple of sites that look interesting.

http://www.chocolate-source.co.uk/choco ... uffles.htm

http://www.famousfrenchdesserts.com/cho ... cipes.html

Hope these give you some good ideas - in fact I might have a go again myself this year.

[StripyPixieSocks]

Gifts in a jar are a great pressie make a sweet and a savoury one perhaps? Just do a google search for 'Gifts in a Jar' and there's loads of websites out there.

Jewellery... silver plated ear-wires and glass beads make for very pretty earrings or necklaces if you're feeling adventurous and can be done of a low budget.

Buy a wine kit that's ready in 3 weeks and either make it plain or do what I have done this year... make the wine up using half the water then when it's ready to top up after 3 days with the rest of the water use 100% Ribena juice (or similar that hasn't got preservatives and such in) in it... I will have 6 lovely bottles of red with Raspberry and Blackberry and 6 bottles of white with Strawberry by Christmas. Makes around 12 bottles for £15-ish?

Make a memory jar? http://www.ehow.com/how_2098206_memory-jar.html

Print out a cheque book style gift voucher book containing things like (as someone said above) 1 Nights Babbysitting or a home cooked meal (or for a partner something a little more naughty )

Failing all those have a grub around on etsy or e-bay for ideas you can make yourself or just get inspiration on.

[Helsbells]

I really like the memory jar idea, its lovely.

You could make sock monsters for the younger ones:
http://www.monster-munch.com/how-to-mak ... k-monster/

How about making soaps from scratch, the ingredients are relativley cheap if you buy them from a manufacturer rather than in kit form.
You can add petals, and herbs like lavender to make them pretty, and wrap them in a nice fabric to really make them special.
Or what about salt dough wall ornaments you can make all sorts of lovely wall ornaments, MIL has a lovely tree, and I have seen cats and dogs and all sorts of animals.
Another nice one to make is lavender bags they are easy and cheap and can be as simple or complicated as you like from ust a curcle of fabric tied with ribbon to a cross stitch design.
Hope this helps,
Helen

[Milims]

I love the sock monsters! The are soooooo cool! Think I may have to make one for my neice - shes 19!

[Milims]

And thank you for the truffle links Green Aura

[george]

A good place to look for how to make things is the site http://www.instructables.com/

They have a whole heap of things to make listed under different categories like crafts, food, kids etc. At the moment the front page is all about Halloween but it should move to Christmas fairly soon!

I like this one for younger kids

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-a- ... a-Toddler/

This site also has how to do some diy stuff too if you ever need any help with that.

[red]

perhaps its time to make a deal with family and friends?

we stopped swapping presents with some, and others get homemade goodies. we arranged it.. everyone does the same.

[Green Aura]

This might give you an idea or two as well.

http://www.allfreecrafts.com/indexpage.htm

[george]

Also if you are any good on a computer, you could consider making calendars with photos of you and your family used for each month. The only cost is the cost of the ink and the paper.

[Penny Lane]

For my 11 year old brother who loves counting the money in my change jar I'm putting chocolate coins & rice paper money in an old coffee jar that will be tarted up.

For each of my parents & sister I'm making pasta sauces, a small cake, giving a small bottle of our homebrew and something silly - like a sock monster and decorating shoe boxes to put it all in!