Price limit on gifts for DHs side. £5 and thoughtful?!?

[Suddengeekgirl]

Can it be done?

MIL has reported that as there will be so many of us at Christmas (14 I think) there will be a £5 cap on presents.

TBH we weren't even going to buy for all 14 so will have to discuss that at a later date.

Anyhow, is anyone else having the same challenge struggle I'm not really sure where to start!

Although I am tempted to get 4.5yo ds and 2.5yo dd to choose for everyone. Then there can be no complaints!

Second hand cds?

you could make a new suggestion... that you just do a secret santa? so everyone just gives one present with say, £20 limit or whatever you think suitable?

£5 AND thoughtful is difficult. buy them each a book???

The works is quite good for books - I've bought pretty spiral bound codeword books in there for less, they do nice cheap recipe books or note books.

Spiral bound book was a puzzle book - they had word searches and crosswords too.

The little square BBC Good Food recipe books are brilliant if you know any cooks - I think the 101 cakes and bakes £3.49 is better than my Mary Berry book!

bundaberg - I agree! It is trick to be in budget and thoughtful.

It's me that wants to do a thoughtful gift - it would be easy to buy any old tat for £5 that 'would do' for each of them but that seems like a waste!

Don't think I will get away with suggesting a change from the plan. MIL gets an idea in her head and isn't easily swayed.

I really must get my head around having to hand Christmas over to MIL this year. I keep having ideas of things to do and then remember I'll just have to go along with the ILs.

Bluesky- will def look there. Trouble is any cooks are always on SW or WW so can't win there with a cook book.

Maybe I Should let dh deal with his sides presents... Oh no wait I did that last year and he ended up returning everything because it was crap/ wrong and I did it all.

totally agree, in fact I was going to say that all you're going to end up with is a hundred-odd tatty gifts that no-one actually wants.
complete waste.

can you sound out other family members and see how they feel? maybe you could stage some kind of mutiny? haha

some thing handmade..

fudge? skittle vodka... bailys?

www.amazon.co.uk/Chocolate-Biscuit-Christmas-Tree-Mould/dp/B00FXNITKC/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=5N7EQZDZ4IRX&coliid=IAJUQ393SQ5ZA

buy one of these.. do them decorate and put in a nice plastic wrap?

Christmas socks
chocolates
small gourmet food items -eg posh salt for foodies
stationery
hair bobbles
hand lotion
scented candle
nail varnish
itunes voucher
packet of seeds
bubble bath

Last Xmas I bought some cellophane cones from amazon & filled them with people's favourite edibles.

Hot choc powder with marshmallows & a candy cane taped up the side for dd

Sour cherry sweets for ds

Toffees for fil (we also bought him theatre tix & they were meant to take with them)

Other ideas are posh coffee & some mints, bath crystals, etc.

Then I tied it with a nice ribbon.

Handmade might be the way forward...I already have 8 jars of blackberry jam.

I think you should all pick a name out of a hat and get one big gift for that person so that everyone gets one decent gift. I would much rather one £40/50 gift than 14 small gifts.

Yep me too fortyfaced!

£14x5 is still £70! I don't want £70 worth of tat!

Not sure on age/sex of who you have to buy for so this may not be of any use

Funky tights
Books – the book people have loads for under £5
Chocolate - thorntons is on offer in Superdrug at the moment
Boots have a big section of gifts in their 3for2 range for £2-5 - body sprays, candle sets, mens smellies, childrens toys, etc.

£70 worth of tat is too much tat.

I think the Secret Santa suggestion is the best one. Get someone a gift they might actually have a chance of liking and isn't tat-like!

And then I would make/bake something small for everyone too, but I like doing that jam, fudge, sloe gin, xmas brownies etc. (This is optional, but I really think Secret Santa would be the best thing)

Yes do secret Santa we do it with in-laws, there are 10 adults all together so we each buy a £50 gift. It started at £30 but SIL pushed up the budget.
It saves a lot of hassle and money.

Homemade chocolate slabs.

www.azeliaskitchen.net/chocolate-slabs-the-perfect-christmas-gift/

I'm thinking of doing this, I'm on a budget

I got Ds 7 to buy a gift for each grandparent aunt and uncle last year with a £5 budget and it was actually ok except dads gift.

He got MIL and SIL a braclet they love jewelry from BHS both under £5. FIL and my Dad a football annual for their fav team - 3 for 2 i think the deal was. Uncle 1 got football book, my brother got toiletery set cos he is very self obsessed.LOL!! My mum got chocs as she is a nightmare to buy for.

At the last second he realised he had not got his dad something so he picked up a pack of bic pens - he said dad would think about him while are work. He got home looked at his gifts which he was very pleased with then started to cry about it as he decided it was rubbish. So he had to nick one of my gifts.

It can be done though.

Either secret santa or buying for kids only or go to Tiger if you have a shop near you. You can pick up some lovely stuff for under £5 for children and adults.

www.tigerstores.co.uk/mobilestores.php

Interesting bottles of beer or cider.

Sod that! £70 worth of tat is too much....

Mind you, I'm not a big fan of family secret santa either. SIL had a budget of £20 and bought me........

A mug with hot chocolate and marshmallows
And some teaspoons . I felt utterly cheated and .

Could you not just buy for the children and maybe get the adults a lottery ticket / scratch card each?

don't put too much effort into the homemade stuff though (except for the ppl you actually really like)

you'll only end up feeling resentful as you receive a pile of tat in return :P

Adults do not need 14 times £5 worth of crap.

Just buy for children.
You are wasting time and money on something nobody actually wants.