£5 gifts

[Imissprosecco]

So yesterday at a family BBQ, we all got talking about Christmas and the cost of living. We agreed that for adults we would get a token gift with a budget of £5 each (or £10 for a couple). The more inventive the gift, the better!

I'm going to guess that millions of people will be having similar conversations and so I thought it would be a good idea to have a thread for suggestions for gifts for £5 or less.

Anyone like to join me? I really don't want to give cheap bottles of wine/boxes of chocolate if i can avoid it, but also don't want to give useless tat. All ideas welcome!

Books.
If you are buying for one than one person The Works do 3 books for £6 so that's £2 on a book. You could do 2 lots of the offer so everyone gets 2 books plus a £1 chocolate Santa.
2 novels and chocolate would make me very happy.

Agree with books, or a nice bookmark
Notebook & pen
Seeds or plant
Something homemade & personal if they'd like that, scrapbook/photo gift maybe

Would they mind secondhand? Charity shops can be great for random gifts and you can get a lot more for your money.

I always find buying books difficult. You really have to know someone we'll to know what kind of book they'd like and to know what books they had already read.

Showergel. 1 nice bottle for £5. It's the sort of little luxury people will cut back on.

Books are a terrible choice. You won't know which they have read already.

A game if it’s a couple. Lots for under £10. Or a spice cooking kit.

I like to make up little hampers or big hampers budget depending
For example:
All my neighbours(older ladies) get a little token hampers each year from us. I tend to shop throughout the year for items in the hamper and this year so far I have:

Oven Gloves £1.25
Matching cooking apron £1.50
Soap/Moisturiser set £2
Christmas theme 100p jigsaw £1
Scarf/hat/gloves set £2.50

Majority of items all bought in Jan sale.

• Will also be getting little mini box of sweets for £1

Total £9.25

Obviously doesn't include the cost of the wicker hamper/cellophane or tissue paper but I buy this in bulk to use all year round.

If you have any particular skills, it can be nice to swap services rather than goods. For example, if you are good at painting nails, you could offer to give a manicure, either with a little set of polishes or using your own products. If you are good at ironing then offer to do a load of ironing (I'd be happy if someone gave me that as a gift 😂). Baking/cooking a meal, photography (with photos on a memory stick), DIY, decorating, etc work well.

I just honestly think the best thing is a ‘buy for children’ only rule. Especially when the alternative is a token gift/ novelty silly thing. Bah humbug 😀
These ideas sound fun in August, but when it gets to December and you’re in the primark queue buying fluffy socks for grown adults and thinking fml, it loses appeal I think.

A couple of years ago our family decided to set a £10 limit per person, and it had to come from a charity shop. I bought my sister an absolutely beautiful original watercolour of a local scene - for £8!

💯 and tbh if you’re not the sort of person who’s used to regularly keeping your costs down and having to shop smartly, you will struggle to find something for under £5 that won’t just be a total waste of that money and end up being thrown out or dumped in a charity shop.

That’s not aimed at the OP, the ‘you’ was meant in a general sense.

@chillipenguin I assume the gifts are for close family - surely you know what type of books/authors they like.
I mean I wouldn't get my dad a book because he hasn't read a book since circa 1959 but for the rest of the family I know what type they generally like.

But I've no idea what books they already have or have read from the library

I think the idea of a little luxury that people might be cutting back on would be lovely. You’d have to know what they like, but a really lovely soap from their fav shop or their favourite chocolate or a bag of their favourite coffee would be a good present if we’re all likely to be having less treats.

I don’t mean random generic things but if you know someone’s favourite shops and interests then anything that would just give them a little bit of joy/luxury.

For my family these types of things usually = naughty gifts so a few sex toys from pound land

Luster dust

Sex toys from poundland ?😃
love to see dads face when he unwrapped that on Christmas morning

A mug. A nice mug, thoughtful and that reminds you of them -- whatever that means to you and them. Can be found easily in a pound store, charity shop or supermarket.

We have a £5 secret Santa limit both at work and on both sides of the family.
Tiger balm
Lottery tickets
Yankee candle small jar (currently half price on Campus Gifts, and probably will be half price again on Black Friday)
Banana guard
Monopoly Deal card game
Pill box
Microwave mug cake kit
Earrings
Joke book
Crossword book

I have a friend who is a volunteer with a well known charity shop group in Ireland. They told me that coming up to Xmas they sell brand new gift sets. They also sell other band new item's. They said they have got lovely gifts for 5 to 10 Euro.
I have a friend with brother's, sisters , brother in law's and sisters in law and parent's. They decide as a group a few years ago to do Chris kindle. So rather than a £5 spend and a load of small item's they get one better gift. They set a budget of £50. They use an online site that picks out names so they don't get themselves or the same person again a year later.

Yeah they have a surprisingly good range

Very handy for these cheap funny gifts!!

We did this but for secret Santa so we knew already who we had but I had my DB's partner and she has the most amazing long hair that she really takes pride in.
I bought her silk pillowcase for £5 in the sales, it went down a treat and not something you'd think of treating yourself too.
Agreed that things like posh shower gel/lush items/rituals or the like it something people will not buy unless they have the £££ to splash x

I think this is spot on. I'd also like a book or a plant or chocolate (one bar, not 5 bars of dairy milk for me personally but some would love a massive dairy milk bar). Tea. Bit niche, but pot feet would make me happy! A gift voucher for a local coffee shop

I absolutely would not want a mug, mostly because we have 10 million already, anything from poundland, or random bits and pieces. I would be perfectly happy to have something from a charity shop.

I understand the idea of the fiver limit but I'd rather do nothing at all if it was just going to be generic stuff that would 'do', or the secret santa as mentioned by a poster above, so the limit is higher if the idea of doing nothing isn't one that would go down well.

Sorry to the poster that said oven gloves 😂

Please don't get me oven clothes.

Those mini size perfumes from M&S or Next
A lipstick
Mug
Fluffy socks
A cactus
A book... supermarkets usually sell novels for about a £5

Oh, gosh, am I the only one who's reading this thread thinking please, no, none of this shit? I would actually rather a box of Celebrations.

I won't be all Bah, humbug about it, but they're your family, surely you know what they like. Like, I know my mum loves jigsaw puzzles and I know my dad loves some stinky cheese.