Homemade Hampers

I have been giving hampers for presents for years now. They are ideal for people who are hard to buy for or for those that appear to have everything. I can start collecting for my Christmas hampers as early as January. This helps spread the costs and I don't have to leave everything to buy on the run up to Christmas itself. I tend to pick up items at craft fairs and markets. If I go on a trip or short break, I look for things that are unusual or personal but they must be useful. For the hamper container I usually decorate cardboard boxes or reuse baskets from previous hampers sent to me. THIS YEAR SO FAR I had a short break to Padstow in ...  Read the complete review

Over the years I have made her an assortment of various hampers; all of them can be made relatively cheaply with a little effort and planning. I have a drawer that I have set aside for goodies to go into hampers – all year long I pick up small items that catch my fancy; either because they are cheap, or pretty, or they make me think of a particular person and these all go into the famous goodie drawer! Then when Christmas or a birthday comes around I have the main ingredients I need to create a personalised hamper One year when my sister was with a new boyfriend I was stuck for ideas of what to get him so I created a hamper called ‘the ultimate night in’ for ...  Read the complete review

We love christmas don't we?? The music (same old every year), the rubbish movies on tv, the food, the presents. The In-Laws forced on you for christmas dinner, the leftover turkey. The broken presents after a day, the kids choking on peanuts, crakers that don't bang, jokes that are sometimes so bad you can't even read them out. Yep, christmas time is the time of year we all look forward too, right?? We love spending hundreds of pounds on food and presents! Well, it doesn't bother me because i learn't a long time ago to budget for christamas. I don't collect food all year round, and i don't put money away either. I ...  Read the complete review

These days Christmas shopping can be very stressful and I think we'd all agree far too expensive. So I budget hard all year round, collecting items here and there and squirrel them away to a separate cupboard (or cupboards in my case) in order to lessen the stress and strain on my purse of the last minute rush before the shops shut. I'm also very forgetful and shopping in this way certainly helps me ensure that we have everything we want to enjoy ourselves. You may enjoy the hustle and bustle of over-crowded shops at this time of year and if you do, then all well and good. Personally I hate it and do whatever I can to avoid it and save a few bob ...  Read the complete review

Christmas is expensive right? When you tally everything up the cost can run into hundreds of pounds. What with presents, food, drinks and all those other unexpected costs. Christmas can leave you in debt. We all love Christmas don't we? Especially the kids, and you want to be able to buy them the latest toy or game, but for some folk they simply can't afford it, and that's when the problems start. You take out a loan or maybe buy something out of the catalogue, and you spend the rest of the year trying to pay it back, and the same thing happens again the following Christmas. It's a vicious circle. When I was younger, it was the same for ...  Read the complete review