£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!

@namechange5575 that's actually a really nice idea.
The idea of a gift at Christmas really is so somebody has something nice and new that they will get pleasure from.
This is probably the easiest way.

I like the idea of time or gift voucher for something that giver has as an expertise.

My DH often asks me what I'd like. I always say 'time' but of course that's impossible.

I'd really like someone to sort out my digital music and photos. If someone offered to spend time doing that I'd be overjoyed.

Could those ideas work for anyone?

My ideas:
Find a favourite photo and get it framed for the recipient
A magazine
Offer to babysit so person can do something they enjoy but don't get time for
Ask if they have an Amazon gift list or similar
Charity to donation to a favourite cause
If you know them well spend time researching free events that are happening over the coming years that they'd like and then put all the dates in a calendar or diary for them

Reading this thread I’m so glad we don’t do gifts - and if I was skint and I ended up with loads of stuff I don’t need I’d feel a tad resentful. In the spirit of Christmas I think the £5 gift should come from a charity shop would be the only way I could reconcile myself to it - at least it was a donation to charity rather than generating profits for Poundland.

I've suggested this before on here on one of the 'gift angst' threads and I'm surprised it's not more popular.

I see no point in gift lists because telling someone to 'buy me X from Y shop' is not a gift, because there's been no thought and choosing from the giver.

But I also don't really see the point of surprises between adults who can generally buy their own things within reason, so a surprise gift just leads to the recipient having to use/wear/look at some thing that is not quite right and denies them being able to choose their own things.

If everyone bought their own present, it would be exactly what they want, they possibly get to buy something they've been putting off because they can't justify the spend and you still get to talk about it and show it to your nearest and dearest 'what did you get MIL'? Oh I bought myself this lovely scarf that's exactly the right colour to go with my winter coat, what did you get'?

Exactly. Martin Lewis keeps trying to get people to agree a 'No Unnecessary Presents' pact but it doesn't seem to gain much traction as there just seems to be too many people who like to buy and give 'stuff' and I think that's the issue.

It's the people who like shopping and buying that see not doing presents as denying them a shopping opportunity.

But what a lot of people forget is that, for those who don't have a lot of spare money, it drags them into an obligation and the end result is usually that they've spent money and ended up with something that they don't want/need when, if left alone, they could have spent the money on themselves, on something they do want/need.

But even taking the money aspect out of the equation, it just leads to waste, if people are buying things for the sake of it.

Cinema vouchers
Charity shop finds can be amazing
Bubble bath
Spices for kitchen
Stationary
Book vouchers (so they can pick themselves)
IOU for childcare
Clothing (primark often have good deals)
Seeds for gardening, plants etc.

Basically nothing novelty and tatty as it's a wasted everyone's money as it only sits in a drawer for the year then gets thrown away.

Happy hunting 😊

No it doesnt - people dont give to recieve.

I buy for for 17 people (5 children and 12 adults), I recieve something back from 3 of them (my DH, my mam and 1 aunt that sends money in a card)... there is zero obligation or expectation for a gift and this has been going on forever.

@BarbaraofSeville I might have got the idea from you then! I know I got it from mumsnet somewhere, it was a good few years ago. I thought it was ace, but the family didn't suggest doing it again - think we just moved into 'presents for kids only' after that.

I'm continuing in spirit though, I buy my own presents for my DP to give me under the tree. I know what I want much more than he does, it's all coming from the joint account, and he basically doesn't want presents so I also get him some (useful) token things: (garden clogs, a tongue scraper, hand cream he uses etc).

I love gift giving, it's just something I like to do without expectation of return. The idea of giving someone a little thoughtful treat or surprise, to cheer up a friend or make your partner laugh with a "saw this and thought of you"

I do hate the transactional nature of modern Christmas gift giving though - the measuring up of spending amounts and the buying for the sake of it. The purposefully rubbish presents as a passive aggressive act and the embarrassment and wastefulness that can be work secret Santa. I think we could all just collectively agree to pack all that in for the sake of the planet and our finances.

I stopped doing Secret Santa at work after one year when I bought someone's favourite chocolates and some nice handcream (she liked to keep some in her desk and I thought a posher version would be a treat) and I got a horrible joke thing. I felt really hurt as everyone sat round oohing and aahing at the nice gifts and two of us got laughed at, well it was the presents that were laughed at but that wasn't how it felt. Never again, I was asked the following year by the office organiser, I said nothing and just gave her a look. She got the message.

I don't really like getting random presents. It definitely doesn't fill me with joy. My co-workers often buy each other little gifts but when I didn't reciprocate, they soon stopped buying for me, so now they just buy for each other and that just suits us all perfectly.

We only buy presents for each other, the kids, my PiLs and my nieces and nephews. And I think a token thing for my BiL and SiL. That's pretty much it. Neither DH nor I is very good at 'treating' ourselves so we save that up for Christmas and usually get things for each other that we love and are a treat. As I said upthread, the kids buy from charity shops - and so do we, if we see the right thing.

Obviously that's not 100% it as there end up being teacher presents, Secret Santa stuff, but we really try to get 'real' things however low the budget. I always feel depressed in Sainsburys at the aisles of discounted 'gift sets' destined to thrill no one, and I would hate it if we were locked in some tradition of having to buy stuff like that to tick a box for lots of family members (and hate getting it even more).

Thank you so much for this I went and spent £50 with them and have now started my Christmas shopping!

If I only bought for dh, the kids, Pil (and parents) nieces and nephews - I'd have 22 people to buy proper presents for and 12 token gifts.😲This is why I gave up!

I wish my in laws would go for this! We said we were cutting down this year buying for ourselves and they replied that they hoped we weren't going to be cutting down on everyone else's gifts 🙄 I would appreciate nice biscuits, loose leaf tea, a classic novel, bubble bath or a bath bomb.. and lots more. Such a good idea in this economic climate.

My OH is giving me a fab gift this year! Its a bracelet which felt too expensive to just buy. So I bought it and gave it to him to give me on Xmas day. We share all our finances. It feels no less exciting! I'd also rather no gifts gifts a load of 5 pound gifts. Perhaps you can compromise and have a secret santa so you get and give one £10 gift each. I'd go for books if they are readers. If you give a gift receipt they can swop them if they've already read them.

For everyone who keeps commenting that they hope no one buys them the things people are suggesting, I thought the point of this thread is for everyone to suggest things that they might like/know someone else would like that cost up to £5 but then it is up to the OP, or anyone else who wants to use the suggestions, to pick the ones most appropriate for the people they are buying for? So presumably for some it may be a leather bound copy of obscure 19th century Scottish poems found in a charity shop and for others it might be a £5 Costa voucher.

I would be happy with a single bar of very nice chocolate, a lovely bar of soap, a book, a bowl of hyacinths, or a small bottle of homemade fruit gin.

If I had a £5 limit I'd go for either a) something that shows some love for the person I am buying for, or b) an item that you don't normally buy at that price for yourself (hard given the low budget).

a)

• a book of the genre the recipient has an interest in. I always handwrite a message on the 2nd/3d page.
• a special photo framed (it can be a photo of us together, current or from the past. You can now print one for pennies and pick a frame from Poundland or TkMaxx)

b)

• some nice biscuits, chocolate, tea, coffee. I like to pick things from nice brands or with a cute box (i.e. Montj Bojangles truffles or Harrods tea bags, both under that price on Ocado).
• a silver bracelet on Etsy

I'd make sure to wrap them nicely, even with very cheap paper (lots of ideas on Pinterest, sometimes even at no cost).

Quite. The number of people who seem to think "I wouldn't like X" means "X is a bad idea" is making me chuckle. No one is suggesting OP just picks something at random off the thread 😂