a depressing xmas....i have £108 to spend on pressies for 11 people....main ppl are DS and DP

[faeriemum]

arghhhhhh, its less then £10 each.....omg im started to shite myself!

3 for 2 in tesco on gift things.i have got those beer gift sets for male cousiins/uncles that I don't see very often(actually only at Xmas )that were £5 each and 3 for 2.

verbaudet offer - check thread out - bought a activity mat thingy for 99p with p&p inc!

also read the thread in here about online offers - theres some good codes out there.

I think we are doing home made cookies for all neighbours / teachers etc this year. Otherwise a fiver here and a fiver there adds up to an awful lot. Home made cookies wrapped in a pretty piece of paper (or roll of cellophane looks great) is a fab present in my not very humble opinion

Don't buy a present for dp. This sounds corny,but I bet most people would like it....between now and Christmas write down in a little notebook all the times your dp made you smile or feel special.
Not only will he feel appreciated but he may be insired to do those things again!

For grandparents we usually make something-picture frames made from modeling clay and spray painted silver with tiny beads or pearls on can look pretty even if crafts are not your thing.
Put in a nice family photo.

Remember that everyone has had a really broke Christmas themselves at some stage.And the thought really does count!

£5 each for the 9 relations etc and then there will be £60 left for ds and dp I would spend it all on ds and not bother with dp.

OK, cheap presents I've made: (mostly for adults)

Get v cheap terracotta pots and paints, do your child's handprints on it with the date for grandparents/dh. Give with a pack of seeds, or plant in it if you've got one.

Or give the same to be used for kitchen utensils, I have mashers and wooden spoons in mine

Make your own calendar. You have a computer, can you print photos from it? You can find calendar templates online, print out and put a different photo for each month. You can add family occasions too.

Get Ikea photo frames for £1 and put photos in. Or frame old photos from your childhood for sisters (my sister did this for me one year, I loved it)

Make a recipe book for someone. Get your favourite recipes and scan them (or type) into Word, then add comments, photos and print. Bind it if you can or laminate and put ina folder (if you have access to a laminator). Or make a recipe book THEY would love, i.e. easy childresn recipes for someone with a new baby

Make rum truffles, have a recipe somewhere, will post it in a minute. Petit four cases v cheap.

Make personalised olive oils, buy cheap pretty bottles, type up personalised labels, add olive oil and ingredients, so make hot oil (with chillis) or garlic, lemon and thyme etc

Make a personalised journey up for someone, so print off information about a place, write an itinerary, suggest things they'd like to visit, offer to come too and supply the picnic on the day.

For children, how old is ds? Charity shops are great for jigsaws for 50p and for books.

fae, chat to DP about the whole bdget issue. DH and I never get each other anything since DD has come on the seen. Instead we treat ourselves to a nice evening, a good film on the telly, the odd alcohilc drink, a large bar of choclate and......well....you know .

As for everyone else WW had some fantastic ideas and I shall be borrowing some myself. Dont get caught up in all the commercial crap, a though and a token say loads more than a huge shiny gift that's got no thought and not really needed!

Here you go:

Rum truffles

Dry ingredients
3 heaped tablespoons milk powder
1 level tablespoon cocoa
2 level tablespoons icing sugar

Wet ingredients
1 ½ teaspoon rum
½ oz melted butter
3 teaspoons condensed milk
Water

Combine dry ingredients. Make a well in centre and add wet ingredients. Mix to stiff consistency adding 2-3 teaspoons water if necessary. Roll in drinking chocolate powder. Serve.

thanks everyone, you've all helped me so much! ...i've decided to get a box of chocs for anyone who is not ds/dp.....dp will be get alotta loving and thanks to dreamcatcher, dp will have a book of love!
ds will get a few clothes from primark and after a wonder in the charity shop yesterday i found some lovely new books and games.....
it is do-able! ....not ideal....but do-able! .....stress over for now!

Poundland really is great for stocking fillers, and Wilkos. I second charity shops, ds2's main present was £4.50 from a charity shop. Everyone is clearing out stuff before christmas, so now is the best time to go charity shop shopping - and you are helping the charity!

female adults ... get some hyacinth bulbs and some cheap pots from garden centre and decorate them and plant them and put a ribbon round them .. that'll be about £3 to £5 each

i wouldnt say we are broke this year (although we are ALWAYS on a budget) but these ideas are great regardless of your financial circs - the book of moments that a previous poster mentioned for your dh is imo way better than any gift costing hundreds and i know i'll be doing this for my dh along with his main present 'breakfast in bed and a lie in' also a mn suggestion

If you're doing chocolates for everyone, Lidl have some fantastic stuff which is cheap and good quality.

www you are a wwwonder

Yes I would second that. I love your present ideas WWW and now I understand why you got such a lovely reception when you came back!

I am going to do some of these, because although we aren't quite on the breadline yet, it seems silly to spend too much with an uncertain future ahead.

I'm not sure how old your ds is, but last year we printed off loads of those colour in sheets from CBeebies, Nick Jr and Playhouse Disney websites,and bound them together to make a colouring book. DD loved it.

We have given family photo's in a frame to grandparents, etc in the past. Take some nice digital photos and get free prints from here:- www.snapfish.co.uk. No p&p if you arrange to collect from a branch of Jessops near you! Buy cheap frames from Ikea or Poundland for £1 and voila, pressies for £1 each! This year, we're using the free prints to make our own photo Xmas cards to send but you could also use them to make your own photocalendar. I have also bought some nice jars from Ikea today for £1.49 each and intend to bake some cookies / gingerbread stars and fill them for uncles & aunties. They also have 2m rolls of cherub cellophane wrap in red/blue/green for £1.49 and 50m of red ribbon for 49p! I'm intending to make mini mince pies and wrap them up in the cellophane and ribbon for presents to friends. If you can't cook, just buy the contents! Since the packaging was so cheap, you can splash out on some luxury biscuits/chocolates/sweets/mince pies, etc!

I have only just seen this thread. faeriemum I know how you feel with limited money that I can spend. I will and doing the best I can. If I have not got , then other cant have. As long as my DC have a few things and we have a great day, that is good enough for me.

dreamcatcher said what I was going to say. DP cant really say anything that you cant buy him something. If you have not got the money, well thats that. Make him feel loved. and I hope he makes you feel the same.

My gran told me a story when I was little, I can alway hear her telling me this story.

It was about a rich person and a poor person. The rich person gave £1000 to the church Christmas fund. Yet they had millions!!. The poor person gave thier last few pounds. The poor person got a thankyou but the rich person never.
The rich person got moody and wanted to know why.

They got told. That the few pounds were worth more as they were the last few pounds that the poor person had and that they wanted to give to others that had nothing.
Where as their £1000 was only a little bit of the money the rich person had. and they were only thinking how good it would make them look to give a large amount of money.

It does not matter how much you spend on presents, it how you give them that counts.

I was 8 years old when my gran told me that story. and I have always thought of it.

Money can not buy you love.

Love is the only way to get love back. I`m sure your DP would rather have your love than your bad moods b/c you get yourself in money troubles trying to buy him something instead.

Have a great Christmas day, play with your DC and have fun with them. That is the best present anyone can have at Christmas.

A couple of years ago I printed off all the emails that dh and I had sent each other in the first few months of our relationship and put into a book. It was wonderfull to re-live it all together and got dh all hot under the colar re reading the saucy bits.

Dp and I aren't buying for each other this xmas - its my birthday only a few weeks before and I am getting a treatment for bath Spa I hope to spend the day there with my DM next year. DS will probably get pyjamas (he has none in his current size!). I'm going to spend 20 on my mum, the entry cost to the bath spa. I've picked up a couple of cheap bits off ebay for friends children and won't buy for some members of my family. TBH, both Dp and I are working a fair bit over xmas - probably accumalating a lot of bank holiday payments so xmas is most likely to go on credit this year to be payed off in january. Not the right way to go about it but we have brought our first house this year so not in the best place financially. Have you thought of finding items to sell on ebay? Trying to buy from boots (3 for 2 and points to maybe buy another gift?)?