Can you make bargain hampers?

[shentok]

I am really keen on putting together some homemade hampers as gifts this year, to include mainly homemade items but I'm really struggling to see how I can put them together without it costing an arm and a leg (e.g. the ingredients, the jars/bottles). Do any of you have a fab hints and tips or should I just accept that they are costly to put together? Thanks

Ooh watching!

I bought bottles from jamjarshop.com for a good price, and I save jam jars through the year. I buy plastic xmas pudding bowls from Lakeland, they're a reasonable price.
As mine are all for family, I ask them to save me the empty bottles and pudding bowls, so I can reuse them.

Have you tried your local freecycle for jam jars?

I am finding this at the moment
I am making a couple of largish hampers and wanted to make lots of little homemade bits. To budget for this I have already started with some bits eg. chutney, pickled onions etc.
For jam jars you can actually buy jam in cheaper supermarkets like asda. If you buy their bog standard basic stuff you can chuck it away and still have the jar :o
I also second asking for stuff back afterwards (though mainly Kilner type stuff TBH rather than plain jam jars)

For the actual hamper get some boxes from the supermarket, the low fruit ones are good. I covered them with brown paper one year and used shredded brown paper inside for the padding.

Ikea have cute jars for 80p. DD and I made blackberry and apple jam (cost of jars and jam sugar, fruit was foraged), and Christmas chutney (cost a bit more for ingredients but not expensive) for her grandparents. I bought hamper baskets in Ikea as I'm putting extra stuff in too (they were £7 each though) but I often see baskets in the local charity shops you could use.

There'd usually huge rolls of cellophane in lidl near Christmas for £2 which would wrap up loads of fudge/mince pies/cookies etc and you could tie off with some cheap curling ribbon from Poundland. £3 would would probably do for years!

thanks so much for all your posts

I saw some lovely jars in the local pound shop the other day. Worth a mooch

I save jam jars etc. but did not have enough this year, and found cheapest way was to buy jars of Tesco (or similar, I except) Value lemon curd (26p), marmalade (28p) or jam (29p) and ditch the contents. The jars are fairly basic, but look great with a circle of festive fabric secured over the lid with a rubber band, and with a pretty label on the front. Also used the bottles from cheap vinegar (used it to clean drains, so not completely wasted!) for raspberry vinegar - again these perk up not end with a pretty label and a fabric lid cover. Lakeland stock cellophane bags, about £3 for 50, which are great for sweets, chocolates and biscuits, and look really good secured by a piece of ribbon with a card label attached. I have also bought cellophane from our local florist (about 50p/m) to wrap hampers, have never seem this in LIDL on the roll but will look now.

Yes I have noticed that poundland have dome nice jars in ideal for hampers would look lovely with some ribbon round them and a label on. The range also have some cute little jars too I think.