Cheap but not tacky Christmas presents?

[jessicajaine01]

Just as it says... currently on mat leave and struggling slightly! Cheap but meaningful Christmas gifts ideas? Or any advice in general... not looking to go back to work until at least after Christmas, the thought of leaving my baby is killing me!!!

For grandparents of baby, nice photo of the baby in a nice frame, plus maybe a hand made hand print ornament or similar "from the baby"?

@squishysquirmy Thank you x

Word cloud image - lots of websites do this for free - you type in words that remind you of that person. It creates a word cloud picture that you can then frame. I did once for my Grandad and it was lovely to talk through why i’d picked certain words.

Make a photo album for someone.

Get an eBay account as you can often get nice brands such as The Body Shop gift sets for half the price.

You can get oil burners for like £2 from wilkos or b&m and then buy some scented wax melts and gift wrap it all in cellophane with a ribbon.

I like handmade gifts but I know not everyone does. We're doing chutney, jam, limoncello, sloe gin etc. I might even sew some simple things if I have the time and energy.

Also second the idea of photo frames with pictures of the baby for grandparents, or hand prints etc.
Also do something like homemade calendar and use photos of the baby in different outfits etc. So December in a xmas outfit, October with a Halloween outfit etc.

THese apps give you a “free” (£5.99) photo book per month and free (£2.99?) 40 prints.
Maybe you could do an album with the 80 prints and a few photo books too?

Bugger. Photo would have helped...

I like home made gifts, but you have to match the gift to the person receiving it - eg most people may not be thrilled at a photo of someone else's child, but most grandparents will love it.
Search "baby handprint christmas cards" or similar on pinterest for ideas - some of them are very easy.

If someone would like food gifts, make a hamper by wrapping up a cardboard box in gift wrap and fill with home made bscuits etc.

Chocolate truffles are amazing and so easy to make; Melt double cream, chocolate and a little butter together. Add a splash of whisky or rum to make them even more awesome (optional), chill, then shape.
Divide them up into small cardboard boxes (home bargains, pound shop etc often do them cheaply, or you could even make an origami box out of thick paper) then tie a bit of ribbon round each box.
They don't keep very well, so you can't make them too far in advance.

Don't bother spending a lot of money on the baby's presents this year - they will enjoy the overall atmosphere of Christmas but wont understand the concept of presents enough yet to enjoy it. Babies love tacky anyway!

Things that vanish - food, chocs.

Home made soap? Very cheap to make.

It's artisan

I'm actually happy with the simple things like a bottle of wine, nice chocolates, biscuits, toiletries or a candle.

If you can bake make some cookies put in a nice box. Add a cup or mug from poundland and buy some hot choc decant into a little clear bag add a ribbon with a few marshmallows. Hot choc and cookie present.

I love candles/reed diffusers etc. Im abit tight and wouldn't normally spend alot on such things so love receiving candles etc.

In fact, next are selling lovely smelling reed diffusers for £6.50. I picked some up for auntys/cousins for xmas.

There is a candle making thread on here somewhere, you can make lovely scented candles in jars, teacups etc. Posh home made gin?

I'd be pleased with useful stuff from the supermarket home departments, e.g. a throw, cushions, plain mugs, pillowcases, stationery, oven gloves etc. Instead of chocolate (trying to lose weight!) I would love a home-made cardboard box of fruit (not a pricey commercially made one!)

Xmas hamper - I made one for a relative before and it was literally just filled with stuff I knew they liked. For example, favourite chocolate bar, biscuits, face cream etc.

My go to cheap present is xmas socks. They are £2.50 ish each and normally 3 for 2 in Tesco. They are just a fun gift that can be worn at xmas.

I'm looking to save money at the end of the money to buy presents for Christmas.

I always fine I'm left with next to nothing despite having, at least what I think is a reasonable salary.
After mortgage, car, food and bills - do people put away money to savings or is that just the my richer sisters

struggler the trick is to put the savings away at the beginning of the month rather than the end, to stop them evaporating...

How much should you put away, 10% 50%
I can't understand if life is actually more expensive or Iv just never saved

Do your budget and then see how much you can put by. I doubt it will be 50% unless you are a teenager with a Saturday job and no living expenses!

@struggler I put away £10 a week in one account for presents and £5 a week in another one for food. I do struggle sometimes and I’ve just had to take £80 of it back to stop me going overdrawn but that still leaves me with £320 in my account for presents which is going to be enough.

It just goes out as a direct debit each week so I don’t have to think about it or talk myself out of transferring it.

Not sure if I'll get shot-down for this but for those relatives you don't see until late December/January, I'd just wait until the sales. (That, or don't buy them anything...!)

buy stuff in the sales just because you won't see peeps before Christmas? Shocking behaviour, how could you?

Totally do what Vanilla suggested if you can, or tell people things are tight this year due to new arrival and time off work, so please don't buy us presents because we can't repricate etc, and then do something baby centred for grandparents. Calendar with baby pics sounds lovely.

TK maxx is good. Last year I got all the women in the family a moschino umbrella each for 12 quid each. Took it out of the dented tins