Christmas Presents On A Budget

With Christmas fast approaching,  I'm sure most of you have made plans or bought a few presents.  For those who struggle to find the money to spend on presents,  here are a few frugal ideas

*  Biscuits ( cookies ) in a jar made a delightful teacher's gift,  Kris Kringle,  office party present or a present for a friend.  If you have elderly family and friends this would be ideal.  Many elderly can't or wouldn't bake for themselves.  You could give the biscuits ( or other baking ) in a cellophane bag bought from the discount stores.  Tie the top up with recycled ribbon and add a gift tags.  For a larger batch of biscuits,  use a glass coffee jar ( Moccona comes to mind ),  decorated baby formula tin or an icecream container with a ribbon tied around for presentation.  Here are two suggested biscuit recipes on my blog

Peanut Butter Choc Chip Biscuits

Cranberry Hootycreek Biscuits

Biscuits in a jar

*  Teenage boys can be hard to buy for.  They want expensive branded gadgets / clothes and shoes.  A budget gift could be deodorant and shower gel bought at half price.  Lynx toiletries come on sale quite a few times during the year and cost about $3 each at half price.  Team this up with a couple of giant biscuits wrapped in cellophane bags tied with a tartan ribbon.  They'll devour those biscuits before you know it.

Always buy on sale

*  Make a set of handmade cards.  Kmart sells packs of white blank cards 25 per pack for $3.  Using a glue stick,  recycled ribbon and bits and pieces from around the house you could make an elegant set of card that are unique.  Present them in a handmade box,  a decorated recycled one or maybe buy a suitable size from the $2 shops.  Add a few postage stamps and a novelty pen for the receiver to use.

Using scraps of wrapping paper

*  Not crafty ?  Then maybe the garden is where you'll find a few presents.  Take cuttings from your plants and re pot them into saved garden pots,  containers,  planter boxes or fruit boxes.  Clean the outside of the pot and add a ribbon or saved colored plastic from bunches of flowers etc.

A raspberry cutting we grew

*  Now is the time to plant a mix of lettuce seeds in a pot for a beautiful display to give at Christmas. Both useful and very frugal.

Grow different varieties of lettuce

*  Make handmade soap.  If you make the soap in the next week or so you'll have just enough time for it to cure ready for Christmas giving.  The ingredients only cost a few dollars but produces $30 - $40 worth of presents.  You might even have some of the ingredients in your pantry.  Soap making is not as hard as it seems.  Just follow the instructions carefully and you'll be fine.  Wrap the bars of soap in cellophane and add a ribbon.  This soap could be added to a decorated hand towel or set of face washers.  Here's one of the recipes I use Soap making
  

Handmade soap

Gift wrapped ready to give

*  Men can be hard to buy for.  If they have a bbq then make up a few jars of spice rubs for meat.  Save your baby food or mustard jars to use and add a hand made or printed label.  If you'd like to bulk up the present,  make it into a gift pack buy adding paper towel,  tongs,  canola spray,  foil and cling wrap.  Men who bbq always need these items and it's saves them digging around in the kitchen. I know from first hand experience.  Darren has a tub of his " own " things next to the bbq.


* Google,  Pinterest and Youtube could be your best friend when searching for frugal or free gift ideas.  With a little planning now,  you don't need to spend a fortune on gifts.  Remember,  it's your budget.  You know what you can afford.