If you can buy some cheap vodka (I mean the cheapest you can find), put some sugar and whatever fruit you can find into it now, decant at Christmas and you'll have lovely presents. I gave a bottle of rhubarb and ginger voddie to a friend to say thanks for loaning us a roofbox for hols, and he was thrilled. Rhubarb came from the garden 6 weeks ago. Sloe gin (using cheapest gin, sugar, and sloes - harvest in Oct or so) is lush. Blackberry voddie or gin is great too, and raspberry voddie mixed with white wine is yummmmmmm. Even HM limoncello is great - use the peel and juice of a load of lemons with your sugar and voddie (my recipe only calls for peel, but I threw in the juice once and it was so much nicer, I have done ever since!!). And that makes a lovely long drink mixed with 7up.
Hedge-row harvesting is great for alcoholic concoctions, and for jams/chutnies etc too.
A paper plate covered in a doilie with cookies/gingerbreadmen/brownies etc on top, wrapped in cellophane, makes another great HM pressie.
Save orange and lemon peel, to make candied peel. (You can use lime too if to make a baking pressie). But if you leave in long strips, just cover it in chocolate and that is another yummmmm sweet treat that is easy to bag up.
Like others have said, often people really appreciate the time spent as much and more than money. I've given HM pressies to a few different people over the past 5 years or so (finances really were secondary part of that) and they have ALL gone down well. A mix of sweets, baking, drinks, dried herbs from the garden, chutney, all from the kitchen - with the odd shop bought thing added sometimes (like 1 nice cheese bought to go with HM oat biscuits), or a HM tree decoration added to decorate the box (little things sewn, cross-stitched, knitted or crocheted).
I have seen reciopes too for things like bath bombs, hand scrubs and other nice bathroom treats that can be HM, and I've made HM candles using the ends of old candles melted down with new wicks (bought) and poured into cups bought from charity shops or reused the candle glasses (like IKEA candles in glasses), sometimes with a few drops of essential oils added to smell nice.
Save any nice jars, bottles and boxes you get. Scraps of ribbon can be great to decorate things, and use cheap packing lables to identify contents but write them nicely or add on little stamps or stickers to make them personal.