Please help me earn daughter-in-law brownie points!

[Tobermory]

My MIL shops ridiculously early for Christmas, in contrast to my last minute more laid back approach.
Somehow I find myself with the task of buying gifts for her to give to various relatives children. It will be easier for me to buy them something, shell pay be back so I'm not out of pocket but they must be bought in next few weeks. Cue much stress!
So, please help me earn some Brownie points and give me some suggestions.

12 yo girl ( have nooo idea about 12 yo girls)
9 yo girl
5 yo boy

Budget £10 per child.
And thankyou in anticipation!

12 YO Girl - if ears peirced, some simple earrings, or a little set from Lush?

9 YO Girl - couple of books by Jacqueline Wilson (what I was reading at that age) -may get extra brownie points for books, too, rather than "new fangled technology"

5 YO Boy - Lego kit! Can get some for about a tenner, especially on Amazon

Not sure about jewellery but Lego is a v good idea I think!

Wondered about a craft kit for the 9 yo.

Cheap tshirt and fabric pens for 9year old?

5 yo - If you can't find a Lego set then you can usually get small Playmobil castle for about this price

9 yo- Klutz Paper Fashions

12 yo - A manicure set?

hi have a look at play.com - they've got loads of stuff don to a fiver each.
my dd is 11 and my ds is 7 and i've ordered a few of the fashion angel books (books that they can use to design clothes - all my dds friends seem to like them) there's hair and makeup and accesory ones as well, style me up sets which are more jewellry making kits and star wars jigsaws and models for ds.

There are loads of craft kits as well and its all free delivery

Thanks for suggestions but keep 'em coming. Have bought Lego for the 5yo boy.

Now two girls to buy for....

12 y o girl - make up set, dvds ( girly 12 chick flicks perhaps), I-tunes vouchers, handbag.

9 y o girl - horrible histories jigsaw, kit from hobby craft, cake recipe book plus decorating stuff.

The good thing about being so early is that there are still some sales on!

I'd say a little purse or similar like www.accessorize.com/browse/bagshoppurses?ex=co_wizr-locayta&collate=price&collate=pdxtstyle&collate=pdxtcolor&collate=atrxsize&collate=pdxtmaterial&sortname=ascending&sortrelease=disabled&sortprice=disabled&sortorder=name%3Arelease%3Aprice&fieldcatrestrict=xancestorid&termtextcatrestrict=shop&typecatrestrict=exact&fieldrtype=type&termtextrtype=invt&typertype=exact&fieldpcatid=pcatid&typepcatid=exact&fieldprice=price&minprice=0&maxprice=5&typeprice=rangefilter&termorder=catrestrict%3Artype%3Apcatid%3Aprice&template=wz_locayta&pagenum=1&perpage=12&threshold=0&spellcorrect=1&datasource=accessorizeeuen&setsortorder=price,name&setsortprice=ascending&setsortrelease=&setpagenum=1&bklist=icat,4,shop,bagshop,bagshoppurses these (different patterns) and then for the older one a few cheap nail varnishes in fun colours these are 3 for £5, and for the younger one some nice hair clips? or nice crayons?

Sorry that first link is rubbish. Try this

Also, Accessorize have a young range here

Paperchase have some good crafty stuff

Oooooh good idea doubledegree, I very much like the accessorise stuff for the girls.

Sorry - just realised I only linked to the main website for the younger range. That's a bit rubbish of me. Assume you found it ok though...

this is classic wifework, isn't it? how did you get landed with this job?

Isn't it?

A combination of me being a bit of a soft-touch and MIL being erm.... assertive ... is a v polite term! Even as I was agreeing to it, the little voice in my head was shouting warnings. MIL is away right now, but on her return I will be waiting for the enquiry about my present buying!

No ideas, but your MIL is taking you for a mug. She clearly doesn't shop early for Christmas. Why did you let her get away with this?

At most I would have presented her with a list of ideas for things that she could go and buy herself the lazy article.

It's not as if it's for your own children. That I could understand.

For these items you're right she hasn't shopped early but she is squirrelling away her purchases.

I grumble a little but am happy to help her. She would do the same for me if I had an aging relative to buy for. If I really didn't want to then I would have refused. Isnt that family is about- helping each other out?

www.thebookpeople.com is great for cheap book sets. You can get a set of 10 books for a tenner - sometimes even less - and they come in a nice box or bag so look like they are a set rather than just a great pile of books that you have randomly picked up.

Much much cheaper than buying the books individually or from a book store or even amazon - and sign up for their newsletter and then time your purchases so you get the free postage or extra money off.