Christmas with no blooming money

[Shenton]

That's not strictly true but if I buy the DCs what they want ... Or what I want them to have ... Bikes ... There will not be much left over for anything else at all.
I have a 14,12,10 and 4 year old.
Any cheap but not rubbishy suggestions ?
I don't want to buy stuff that ends up in a landfill

Join the Christmas bargains thread!

Definitely get yourself onto the Christmas bargain thread. There's plenty of lovely mners who can help there - I'm 2/3 done already largely thanks to them!

Look for good quality secondhand bikes. We've bought Really good Trek, Giant and Islabikes for the DC in the past for a fraction of the new cost of a lesser quality Halfords type bike.

Look on Gumtree and local bike club websites.

also look for auctions locally. Freecycle too. Learn a bit about bike maintenance and you could really do up a couple of bikes from there. Especially for the younger ones.

Get them a few practical presents of things you would get them anyway eg new pjs, deodorant, toothbrush, a couple of books.

Plan some Xmas activities eg going to see the Xmas lights,Xmas baking, crafts.

One of the toy sales at the moment has half price bikes

Join your local Facebook (if you are on it) selling pages. There are several bikes for sale on our local one.

My son is getting a bike this year, but I refuse to pay over £100 for something that will be used for only a short time. I got a cracking 14inch bike with stabilisers from the local Facebook selling page.
Could something like that be an option?

wowcher have a choice of 2 adult bikes which might be suitable for your eldest for £79.99 plus £9.99 postage.

Can you sell some of their old toys to put towards the cost of their new presents. Lots of people are having a clear out and selling stuff on ebay/ car boot sales atm. Is this something that you can do?

I second, second hand bikes. One year my dad made me a bike by respraying a second hand bike and putting care bear stickers on it. I loved it! I got dd a bike for her 3rd birthday from tesco for £40. You might be able to find a cheaper bike for your youngest.