Do you panic whenever a birthday or holiday is coming up? Do you fret about how you will be able to get your friends and family nice presents without breaking the bank? In this post I am going to discuss a few cheap and easy gift ideas that will be well received, even by the pickiest of receivers! They do take a little more effort than just buying something, but these ideas will save you money and give you a real sense of achievement that you just don’t get from handing your money over.
Preserves
Preserves.
If you haven’t yet discovered the joy of making your own jellies, jams and preserves, now is the time! It is a fairly time consuming process; what with the picking and preparing, but it’s worth the effort. Making jam is not difficult – here is a simple blackberry jam recipe you can try.
You will need:
6lb blackberries
6lb sugar
¼ pint of water
Juice and rind of 2 lemons
Wash the blackberries, and place in a pan with the water, lemon juice and lemon rind. Simmer gently until the fruit is soft, before adding the sugar and stirring well. Boil it quickly, still stirring, until you reach the setting point. Once it is ready, pour into pretty jars and allow it to cool before sealing.
Alcoholic Treats
vodka
For your friends and family that enjoy a little tipple every now and then, you can make treats such as sloe gin or blackberry vodka. These make excellent Christmas gifts, because the blackberries and sloes will be out in plenty of time for you to pick and make the drinks. Blackberry vodka is so easy to make, and here’s how! If you want to try sloe gin, all you have to do is substitute the vodka for gin, and the blackberries for sloes.
You will need:
A pint in volume of blackberries, picked when ripe
A 70cl bottle of vodka (no need to use expensive stuff, cheap vodka will do fine)
2lbs caster sugar
Prick the washed blackberries with a fork, before placing them into a large bottle. Glass is best, as plastic can sometimes impart an unpleasant flavor. However, I have made blackberry vodka with great success in a plastic bottle. Pour in the sugar, followed by the vodka. Place the lid on before giving it a good shake, and leaving it somewhere dark and cool to let nature do her work. Take it out once a day to shake it for the first week, and then leave it alone for about 3 months. You should take it out and invert the bottle once or twice, gently, once every week or two. When Christmas rolls around, simply strain your beautiful home-made liqueur through a paper coffee filter into an attractive bottle, tie a ribbon around the neck and stick a home-made label on the front.
Home-Baked Bread
Home baked bread
Few people can resist the temptation of a loaf of bread baked by hand. You can do a simple white or wholegrain loaf, and plait the dough before baking in order to make it more attractive as a gift. You could even go a bit more adventurous with fruit loaves such as banana or raisin bread. Here is a simple banana bread recipe that always goes down well!
You will need:
3 or 4 ripe bananas (mashed)
1/3rd cup butter (melted)
1 egg (beaten)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 & ½ cups of all-purpose flour
Preheat the oven to 350f (175c). Mix up the mashed bananas with the butter in a big bowl with a wooden spoon. Then mix in the sugar, vanilla and the egg, followed by the baking soda and salt. Then, finally, add in the flour. Pour the mixture into a loaf pan and bake for an hour. Once cooled, you can tie a ribbon around it and wrap in some florist’s cellophane to give as a gift.
Gift-Wrapping on a Budget
Once you have sorted out your cut-price gifts, you will need to wrap them. Gift-wrapping can cost more than the gift itself, in some cases! Here are some savvy ways to save.
• Use florists cellophane instead of wrapping paper. It comes in a myriad of colors and designs, and it’s a lot cheaper than gift wrapping paper. Of course, you will be able to see your gift through it, so if you want it to be a surprise until the last moment you can wrap the gift first in some inexpensive tissue paper, before wrapping in cellophane and finishing off with a ribbon.
• Tissue paper on its own makes wonderful wrapping, also. You could wrap your gift in several layers of tissue paper and finish off with one or two ribbons.
• Don’t bother with expensive name-labels. Simply cut out shapes from funky greeting cards you have received and use those instead!
• Buy seasonal gift wrap in advance. Christmas wrapping paper is always a total bargain when bought in January – if you can find somewhere to store it for the following year, it’s worth buying plenty of bits and pieces in advance.