Giving gifts is a lovely thing to do, but right now for a lot of us, it’s becoming something which we’re almost resenting because of the cost involved. It’s not that we don’t want to give people nice things for birthdays etc. it’s just that the cost is rather high when you’re struggling.

I’ve found that one way to keep the costs low, and at the same time make the gift – well even more special if you like – is to make it yourself. This can sound a bit difficult, but actually some gifts are really quite easy to make, and they look pretty impressive too. Bath bombs can cost anything from £1 up to £5 each for really nice ones, but if you make your own, you can bring them in for just a few pence each – the ingredients can easily be bought online, as can the moulds to make them with. This is an old peanut butter jar I kept and used when I made some last year as gifts for friends birthdays. I even made up a tag saying what scent each one was, and popped it on a ribbon round the neck of the jar before I did the lid up. Impressive when you think that the ingredients cost me about £20 for enough to make a good dozen gifts like this!

A jar of finished bath bombs

Another sort of home made gift I’ve found which goes down well is gift baskets. These can be made up of all sorts of things from beauty products for someone who’s a makeup fan (saveonmakeup.com is a good site to keep an eye on for bits for this), to seeds and gardening bits and bobs for someone who’s an avid gardener. We did some last year that were chilli based, and included things like chilli chocolate, chillied nuts (just regular nuts which we roasted with chilli seasoning), a chilli plant which we grew from seed, and so on.

If you don’t think you could manage a home made gift, take a look at sites like underfivepounds.com, and shops like Poundstretcher and Wilkinson’s they may not always have what you’re looking for, but sometimes you’ll spot something really nice that you can put away as a gift for someone.

Tags: cheap gifts, cosmetics, crafts, gifts, home made, home made gifts, presents