Savvy Shopper Shares 8 Tricks For FREE Stocking Fillers
- Buying presents for friends and family is more difficult than ever this year
- YouTuber Freya Farrington reveals her top picks for budget-friendly stocking fillers
- Consumer Expert Tom Church adds his tricks for saving even more
- Tips include where to get free samples and how to use an Etsy hack to save on personalised gifts
Whether it’s Secret Santa, stocking fillers for family members or gift sets for a group of friends, finding the money for presents is trickier than ever this year. Fortunately, YouTuber Freya Farrington and Consumer Expert Tom Church have teamed up to provide their top tips for budget gifts which will still make people smile.
Tom, who is Co-Founder of money-saving community LatestDeals.co.uk, said: ‘With a little creativity and research, buying presents doesn’t have to break the bank. Here are the top tips Freya and I have come up with - I’ve used quite a few of them myself!’
Buy Scratch Cards - Exciting Gifts From Just £1
Freya Farrington, 30 from Greater Manchester who is a YouTuber and social media influencer, said: ‘The number one thing that I would always recommend in some kind of stocking, table place setting or even Christmas card is a scratch card, I absolutely love them. It’s just that little bit of excitement for an affordable price point. You can get them from £1 up to £10 or even £20 I believe. You can get Christmassy ones at the moment to celebrate the festive season.’
Tom added: ‘Scratch cards are an exciting way to feel the thrill of being in with a chance to win a huge prize, and you can share this with friends and family on Christmas Day. Freya is right, they can cost as little as £1 and you can get festive ones which will fit in well with your stocking.
‘Alternatively, you can put these scratch cards at the table so that each person has a fun activity at dinner time that’s a little change from the classic crackers. These are also a good option to pop in the post for those who are living abroad or who can’t make it to yours for Christmas.’
Personalise Your Sweets - Quality Street For A Fiver
‘John Lewis did bespoke Quality Street last year. They’re doing it again, but a bit of a change up this year. Last year I went for the luxury large tin that you could have personalised, so I did that for my partner and put his name on it. You could put whichever of the Quality Street you want on the inside, as well as a new flavour exclusive to John Lewis.
‘This year they offer a cheaper cracker version at £5 rather than having to buy the tin. I think the personalised one was around about the £15 mark. I decided to fill ours with our favourite flavour which is the orange crunch! Plus the new flavour for John Lewis which has honeycomb in it.’
Tom added: ‘If you don’t want to shell out for this Quality Street cracker multiple times, why not buy one large tin, use the Supermarket Comparison Tool to find the best price, and then divide the sweets up? You can then give each friend or family member their own little gift bag of their favourite sweet. That way, you can fill multiple stockings from just one tin of sweets!’
Save On Sentimental Gifts By Going DIY
‘This book is a very affordable but very sentimental gift idea. I actually got it for my partner one year for a Valentine’s gift. It’s a book called What I Love About You, and you can personalise it for your other half. It’s only four or five pounds. I found it online from Amazon.’
Tom added: ‘If you don’t want to shell out for a book like this, or you don’t think it would arrive in time for Christmas, why not make your own at home for free? With a little research, you can get inspiration for what to put on each page by clicking on similar items online and checking out the page previews. Plus, you can look up ideas on Google Images. Then you could either design your own pages in Canva and print them off, or use a notebook to handwrite the pages.’
Save On Personalised Gifts With Etsy Sticker Hack
‘You may have been tempted by the personalised food and drink available online and in many high street stores. However, they can cost upwards of £10 on average. Instead, why not browse through Etsy and find some personalised stickers you can put on ketchup, tins of beans and so on? You won’t be paying out for expensive chocolates and alcohol, and it’ll give your loved ones a laugh on Christmas Day!’
Tom added: ‘With the price of groceries going up, these stickers are a great way to personalise gifts for just a couple of pounds. Plus, you don’t even have to buy the branded beans or ketchup as the stickers will cover the original label! If you’ve got a friend or family member who always seems to be eating beans on toast or loves a dollop of ketchup with every meal, these stickers enable you to give a highly thoughtful gift while barely spending any money. Genius!’
Gift The Gardeners For Half The Price - Save Up To £10
‘I found this adorable seeds container for a fiver, reduced in the sale from £14 at Home Bargains. It’s great for one of my family members who is a gardener, as they can keep all their packeted seeds in one place. They’re always losing track of which seeds they have as the packets end up scattered all over the house, so this is a good gift to prevent them from buying multiple lots of seeds by accident.’
Tom added: ‘If you go on Amazon and look up special labelled seeds containers, where the word ‘seeds’ has been printed on, they will cost upwards of £15 to £20 on average. However, if you get a generic tin, it’s about half the price! When you’ve got your blank tin, why not get the kids to write a special message if the gift is for a family member, or if you’ve got a Cricut, you can print your own professional-looking stickers for a fraction of the price.’
Get Creative With Gift Cards - Quick & Easy From Just £5
‘If the person you’re gifting is always in Starbucks or Costa, why not get them a mug from that coffee shop and put a gift card in there? They’ll buy a drink and think of you, plus they’ve got a mug they will use over and over again. You can also send a gift card in the post or online to those who live further away. Amazon does good gift cards as well, and you can spend as little as £5 per person.’
Tom added: ‘If you’ve forgotten someone the night before Christmas, the joy of online gift cards is that they’ll be sent instantly. You can personalise them with your own message, they come with festive images and best of all, they stay in people’s inboxes so they won’t be lost. Plus, they won’t forget which person the gift came from - I know I am always forgetting who gave me what when I get around to thank you cards!’
Create The Ultimate Car Lover’s Gift Set On The Cheap
‘If your giftee loves their car, consider putting together the ultimate gift set for them. Supermarkets do a wide range of own-brand products at decent prices, so you can pick up all sorts - an ice scraper, air freshener, wipes and so on. You can easily put together a nice little bag wrapped up with a bow for £5 or less, and the best thing is these are items they will definitely make use of.’
Tom added: ‘Demister pads, own-brand air fresheners..these are all £1 or less depending on which supermarket you shop at. You could even get general reusable cloths for much less than dedicated car pads. A similar premise applies if your giftee is a cleaner, for example - if they’re the kind of person who seems to have everything, get them something they will use by filling a bucket with cleaning supplies.’
Make Cheap Beauty Hampers With Sheet Masks and Perfume Samples
‘You can get plenty of supplies for beauty hampers on the cheap if you’re worried about being able to afford presents for all of your friends and family. For example, you can get individually wrapped face masks from supermarkets for 99p each. Alternatively, you can get them wholesale and include a selection in each gift pack.’
Tom added: ‘Another nice gift to add to beauty hampers is perfume - but these can be expensive, so why not go for a selection of perfume samples instead? You can’t guarantee your giftee will like the perfume you get or that they’ll use it all, so why not introduce them to some new scents which will easily fit in their bags? By going into department stores and simply asking, staff will often give out samples of their latest or bestselling perfumes for free!’
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