Free present ideas

[SwaningAround]

Does anyone have any great gift ideas for adults that are free (or cost just pennies)? Many of us will be spending more than we can afford to because we want to show our love, but maybe we don't always need to spend money, just love, thought, a bit of inspiration / creativity and time.

Some reallt special cost free (or almost free) gifts I've seen given include:

A framed painting of recipients house;
A framed drawing of recipients dog;
Home made cookies made specially for recipient's dietary requirements;
Home made make-up remover pads;
Home made video for recipient with messages to them from many people they love, edited to include music;
A song sung by adult children playing musical instruments for parent, which had been well practiced for weeks and beautifully choreographed. The song was one that a famous pop star had written for her mother. There wasn't a dry eye in the room. Recipient loved it.

Some were time consuming for giver but all were beautiful, meaningful and memorable gifts cherished by recipient.

Any other ideas?

Half of these you need to buy something to make it, or am I missing something?

A genuine and followed up on offer to do something for them, eg DIY or whatever. Lots of people, especially the elderly, just can't do maintenance or heavier gardening or decorating or shifting furniture or getting in the loft. Donate a day to doing X.

I was buying the ingrediants for Santa cookies last night and it cost £3.80 in chocolate chunks alone.

I think sometimes it depends on your skill set and resources.

I had a secret Santa to buy for. I love chutney and make my own so I got a set of 4 small jars and did chutney in two. One I pickled an egg (I used an egg mould to make it look like a fish). The last one I did herb encrusted feta in oil.

But I have the skills to make chutney, I already had the fruit in the fridge and I always have vinegar and sugar in the cupboard. I also have things like egg moulds.

What the hell are you making? A packet of choc chips in Lidl is about £1.

I've asked my mum for babysitting!

None of these ideas are free, but they are low cost;

sourdough starter and hand-written instructions with little drawings for making bread and feeding the starter

homemade stocking

framed photo (free prints app and poundshop frames)

baked banana loaf or cookies as pp said

home made candles put into old cleaned candle holders

bag of seeds collected throughout the year from my garden

baby plant eg pothos or monstera made with cuttings from established plants

I don’t give any of the ones requiring effort to anyone who I don’t think would want to do gardening or baking, so don’t think it can be a blanket present for all.

Its going to depend on circumstance. This year we had leftover solid oak worktop so we cut into chopping boards, sanded it well, used a pyrography pen (and a lot of stress) to illustrate them for specific people (eg people's pets. Recognisable scenes) and then oiled them and added feet.

Cost us literally pennies and probably £1 on the electric bill but only because we had the materials anyway.

Other years we have done biscotti in favourite flavours, jams with favourite booze etc. Food you can make from what's in the cupboards and bags/jars from last year's sales are easiest

A friend I hadn’t known long, once printed out one of my favourite literary quote, with the associated illustration, and put it in a frame from a charity shop!

I love it still. It showed how much she “gets” me.

These ideas are lovely but all depend on skills, equipment and materials. Best is to work with what you have already. I have a big stash of craft materials so I could knit or sew presents if I get ahead, e.g. tote bags, book covers etc. Someone good at baking could make biscuits, a gardener plants/houseplants.

The main thing is you normally need to plan ahead. Cost/time/quality, you can have any two- if you want a great inexpensive gift you normally need time to invest.

If you're looking to save money, but don't have the time/resources/skill to make one of these lovely homemade gifts (expensive in another way) then the charity shop is your friend.

I’m taking a giant bunch of pretty silvery pussy willow branches pruned from tree I planted yrs ago in my garden; to my DM for xmas. And am going to help myself to a few of her Bay tree’s branches in return.

Yes, youre right. Good point,. In these examples the givers all had the things like paint, paper, old frames or cupboard inghredients at home already. Definately not free if they didnt. I guess I meant using what they had and skills they had. This will vary for everyone. Maybe a keen gardener could hand pick a beautiful bouquet💐A great musician could write a song; a carpenter with old wood could make a bench etc. None of which I could do!

Wow, definately not free then!

I wouldn't want any of those things but also wouldn't be rude about receiving them.

And happy to not receive anything.

I think people stress unnecessarily.

What a great idea with the personalised chopping boards. I appreciate you paid for the oak worktop initially but what a fantastic way to use of left over piece and a great example of creative thoughtful gifts. I bet the recipients loved these.

• homemade vouchers for things like babysitting, cleaning their oven, taking them out for a walk with a flask of hot chocolate
• we have a tree with mistletoe on, so I sometimes make posies tied with ribbon
• I’ve got lots of fabric scraps so sometimes make little gift bags and fill with gingerbread (not free but cheap to make) or a few chocolates (not free but can buy one box and split across a few bags)
• for children, I make pencil cases and fill with coloured pencils from the Works (cheap but not free)
• ditto, make up brush rolls using satin from the market- cost pennies but look lovely

What a lovely gift and perfect example of how things that cost so little £ to giver can mean so much to recipient.
I still have a pottery bowl an artistkc friend and colleague made me when I left the job We both worked in. Decades on I cherish it still.

Totally agree with all of that.

I would want all of them!!

I wouldn’t really want the majority of the stuff suggested here but instead I’d much prefer the offer of spending time with various friends/family members.
Come for dinner, let’s meet for a walk and a slice of cake, there’s a film on at x that I thought we’d both like to see, come round to sit on my sofa and talk crap all night (that last one is my preferred option!).
I just don’t need more ‘stuff’ in my life: everything that’s in our house is here because we wanted or needed it.
Thoughtful sentimental presents are more for the gifter than the giftee in many cases and that’s fine, if you like crafting and being handy that’s great. But I don’t want most of it!

I’m also a time person - where someone makes the effort to come to me

But agree with you @OneWorthyTiger that we can sometimes stress more than necessary 🎄

And that's the thing about presents.

They're often more about what the giver would want or what they think the recipient should want.

Which often isn't the same as what the recipient would want.

But you can't live your life fretting about it.

But generally you would only make those things if you were confident the recipient would be happy, surely. I rarely make 'things' for my dad, but I make him low sugar marmalade because he always buys it. I make chopping boards for people who like cooking, rustic and things I can draw.