Absolutely brassic - any ideas for EXTREMELY cheap christmas pressies?

[Alambil]

I have my ds (5), sister (23), parents (49 and 50) and nan (70-somethng!)

Any ideas on exceptionally cheap, but decent presents? Would e-bay be off limits?

All help gratefully received.

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bookpeople.com

Homemade cookies / sweets?

Amazon, for used books in excellent condition (look for 'used - like new' next to the book order)

Jewellery / accessories from cheapo shops like Primark
(I bought a 'silver' brooch in there for my aunty for £1.50, popped it in a little gift box tied up with ribbon - it looked great, at least as good as stuff in the £10-20 price range in shops like Next, and she loved it...definitely worth digging around..I also found a lovely green & blue 'pucci'-style scarf in Mataln for £3 which I gave to my MIL - again she loved it)

A nice (cheap!) hoto frame with a nice pic of the family / kids always seem to go down well with the older generation, I find.

What's wrong with eBay! Go nuts, they don't need to know.

Also do you live anywhere near a discount outlet? our one here has some really cheap stuff, just because it's last season.

For your sister and parents -
we bought a kit with cdrom and paper to make calendars with your own pictures, I think it cost £7.99.
Havent used it yet we are going to take pics this weekend - the software is from www.greenstreet.com
For your 5 year old I'd hit ebay. I got all last years and am currently getting all this years pressies for my boys (although granted they will be 1.7 and 3 yo at xmas so might be less fussy than a 5 year old girl!) from ebay, they are going to have the biggest collection of leap pad and action man stuff ever and for not much money.
TK Maxx is good too but you have to visit quite often to find real good buys under all the 'designer' rubbish.

for your sister, you could start assembling all the fragrance and beauty sample/ freebies you can get your hands on and put them all in a pretty box or a wash bag.

get DS to MAKE things - eg pomander for nan (get an orange, tie ribbon around it to make a hanger, stick cloves all over it) or lavender/ herb bags (square of muslin, fill with herbs esp rosemary, lavender, sage, gather up corners and tie with ribbon).

definitely ebay.

I would also scan charity shops - especially for the 5 year old as at that age they dont thats its not in the box and as long as it looks reasonably tidy and all the bits are there - you'll be fine! I've it loads and my dd is 7.

Just posted this on another thread...

Currently I am spending £10 on stuff I need at Boots and getting the £5 off No.7 voucher (have got 3 so far) and then buying bits of make up and brushes for my niece. Have got £21.50 worth of stuff for £6.50 for her

Buy some bulbs (hyacinths or narcissus) and plant now in pots or bowls, should be coming into flower by xmas. For professional look cover the soil with moss which you have gathered.

May I make a suggestion. I'm near your Mum's age and my Dh is 50. How about pinching a photo from her photo box of her looking fab at either 19 yrs old or what ever photo that you know she likes, maybe even before she met your Dad. In a bikini so something dare I say it sexy. Get a plain cheap frame. May be your dad would like one of himself. We sometimes feel it would be really vain of us to put photos up of just our selves but if it's a gift from family, its alright then. It would feel like you've really made an effort. My friend got me a cheap photo frame from the market with My Boyfriend & hearts around it I still have that frame with DH in it.

Pick the right photo not the one that her old boyfriend took of her nude ha! ha!

If you have time, browse poundland/99p stores. There are some diamonds in the rough, and the stock changes regularly, so they are worth a rummage. We found some lovely ELC type wooden toys for DD in 99p stores - stocking now sorted!

Play.com have a £5 sale on at the moment

yeah. lovely family photos in a nice photo frame or album(can get really gorgeous cheap ones that don't look cheap!). I love to receive these myself.
Last year i uploaded 12 photos to ASDA photoshop they were of the kids and they made a calendar out of them (you can add captions as well) My Mam was over the moon said it was one of the nicest pressies she had. I think I only paid a tenner max for it and it included p&p

my ds2 loves ERTL thomas train which is massively expensive i just bought him a load of used track off ebay for xmas and am going to just find a nice box to put it all in he'll never know or care its not new!!

my SIL makes us all gorgeous biscuits for xmas and makes a special effort with the wrapping they look and taste lovely that with a bottle of wine or something!

thanks for all your ideas... the photo is tricky cos mum does scrapbooking and I can't live up to her standards!!

Also, we are on a really rigid diet so biscuits are out of the question (I am so sad about that!)

I have had a look on play.com and seen some dvds for mum and my son - that is £10 for 2 presents so not too bad!

Going to try to get nan a cheap dvd too ... need to think on my sister and father!

Last year, I made a Christmas Hamper- all those ones in shops are just soooo expensive! I got a basket from our local cheap garden centre (think it was £3), and filled it with locally made honey, mango cutney, biscuits etc.
I've also used my Boots clubcard points to pay for presents as well-especially good when things are 3 for 2.

I did the photo frames, I got some lovely ones from tesco and put good pics in for MIL.

I have to admit I have given imaculate second hand books to the kids and relations. TKMaxx do some lovely big glossy books and sets for good prices.

Mind you the kids got lots of second hand toys the first few christmases as we were so skint.

My advice though is don't go daft, people shouldn't expect loads off you when you have kids, some nice handmade things from the kids can be worth so much more. We often refer to "mindings", little gifts given with lots of thought but not too much cost wize just to show apreciation and that you remebered them.

have you tried an nct nearly new sale for cheap toys and books for the children? our local branch has a pre-christmas second hand toy sale - a fair few of dd's presents will come from there i hope!

The bbok people is a great place for cheap and very good presents. If you have a pound stretcher somewhere near it's well worth looking in for childrens presents.

TK Maxx is also good for buying homewear presents.

Also check freecycle, It is really quite amazing what some people are generous enough to give away

I find Ebay a bit too expensive for kids stuff towards Xmas

I have 5 kids and a good tip for large families is to recyle good condition toys that the older ones don't use anymore and pass them onto the younger ones who really don't worry about them not being brand new

Car boot sales are far cheaper for toys etc than Ebay. IME they're about the cheapest place to get good quality toys. We have got lots of things from these, stuff like hardly used bikes and scooters, mint condition wooden castle, Duplo trainset, all at a fraction of the new or Ebay price.