Skint Christmas - homemade present ideas?

[gillyart]

Trying to think of good, thoughtful homemade presents as trying to save money... ???

Fudge
Chocolate truffles
Can you knit or crochet - if so poundland had some nice thick wool last week

£land plain photo frames and personalise them with embellishments & a nice photo

Cheap glass jars and again embellishments and value mints or toffee sweets tie a pretty Xmas ribbon around

Asda 32p chocolate is yum melted into Xmas shaped ice cube trays popped in the fridge and wrapped in little organza bags

Xmas shaped cookie cutters and do cookies or shortbread

For kids eBay has sweetie cone bags for £2 for 50 and a few bags of sweeties from £land or value asda/Tesco will make an exciting gift for them!

Homemade flavoured olive oil. This is especially cheap if you do lots and don't mind everyone getting the same present. Get fancy glass bottles, fill with oil, then add rosemary/thyme/chilli/garlic. The sooner you do it the better as it has time to infuse.

Similar idea but with sugar in nice jars and adding cinnamon/lavender/etc

Lastly (and a smidge more pricey), same thing again but with flavoured spirits. Rhubarb vodka is particularly delicious. This needs a good while to infuse though so you'd have to tell people not to drink it yet!

The jars/bottles can be dressed up a bit to look Christmassy, or with your own labels. Here are the kind of things I mean:

JARS:

www.amazon.co.uk/Mini-Kilner-Preserve-Jars-70ml/dp/B007VP8H5W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413904853&sr=8-1&keywords=jars

BOTTLES:

www.amazon.co.uk/Traditional-Vintage-Airtight-Preserve-Bottles/dp/B007CJPP5M/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1413904920&sr=8-2&keywords=bottles

If you can get a good discount code, photobooks can be not too expensive. Or if you only have a few pics of the person, put some in nice frames or get some sort of montage.

I do like a nice home made scarf, or join the 2 ends to made a loopy thing.

I think doing one nice thing looks better than lots of bits and bobs, and often works out cheaper too.

Fizzy bath bombs. You can get the ingredients cheaply on the internet. Add a bit of essential oil/dried flowers if you have. If you're making for kids, round up the cheap plastic tat in the house and press toys inside as a surprise.

Lots of great ideas here. For more ideas, pop over to Pinterest. That place is bursting with homemade Xmas ideas.

I will gift you my Baileys Fudge recipe... The world needs more baileys fudge! You can use the Aldi/lidl Irish cream which is like a fiver a bottle, and a bottle goes a long way... And I use the cheap-as-chips basic dark chocolate from tesco/morrisons etc at 30p a bar.

Basically melt 4 x 100g bars of dark chocolate and leave to cool down a bit. In a seperate bowl mix together 3 x cups of icing sugar and 1 x cup of 'Baileys' or any Irish cream drink until well combined. Pour in the melted chocolate and mix well. Pour into a double clingfilmed tin and set overnight in the fridge. Cut into lots of very small squares (it's very rich) and wrap in pretty plastic bags or boxes for a lovely homemade gift. Or hide in a dark room and eat it all yourself...

My idea is a bit cheesy but works well for those people who have everything. If you have access to a computer, create a single document with a promise to do something. I did the 12 days of Christmas as a theme, so, on the first day of Christmas OP (insert name) gave to me, ' a promise to clean my oven for freeee' told you it was cheesy! I did all 12 days and my gift ideas ranged from cleaning the oven, tidying up the garage to making an evening meal etc. my dm loved it as she has everything she needs but loves a hand around the house. It is a gift that can last all year if you plan it well and costs nothing but time.

I like the idea of making chocolate slabs -
Melt cheap chocolate (Aldi has a good selection) and pour into a mould - you could use the base of a silver foil takeaway type tray, they're quite cheap to buy. Before the chocolate sets decorate with sweets or whatever (smarties, jelly tots, nuts etc).
Lots of opportunities for fun - you could decorate with the recipients initials for example or you could alternate and swirl white/milk/dark chocolate into the mould (think hotel chocolat slabs).
When set, wrap in cellophane and decorate with a Christmas ribbon.

Sorry, should have been clearer - remove chocolate slab from mould before wrapping in cellophane!

Agree a present amnesty with as many people as possible?

Spiced olives in a nice jar?
Knitted hats are quite easy; scarfs even easier. Try the fancy ruffled yarn.

Paint and personalise wooden coat hangers?

Shortbread
Gingerbread men

Christmas tree decs

I you have children hand foot prints in salt dough for the tree

Cup cake mixes in jar ribbon etc

We made papier mache bowls one year (nice ones with a proper rim and a foot). I think we did about six for the price of one bag of value plain flour and two old telephone directories. We already had some paint/varnish.