A selection of festive gifts to suit a range of different budgets
Christmas is of course, a time for gifting, yes of course it's a time for spending time with friends and family, but at the end of the day, its very likely you'll need give some presents, and I know I struggle with inspiration on what to buy, and simply scrolling through page after page of Amazon listings, doesnt really work for me and so I inevitably end of looking at Christmas gift guides online, and so it seems fitting that The Penny Pincher also gives some festive gift ideas as well!
We've had a look about found some nice gifting ideas. Some gifts will be on the budget side of the tracks, others a little more expensive! We've included a few gift ideas with a money-saving theme as well, plus we've given you an indication on if its likley you can save money on the product via cashback too! So, scroll and see if anything takes your eye!
Tech Gifts
Tapo Energy Smartplug - Tapo P110
This useful smart plug allows you to use an app to turn off your appliances from anywhere. It also has a scheduling function which allows you to set the plug to turn on or off a device at a certain time. I use something similar to turn on/off my Christmas tree lights automatically and also for turning off my tumble dryer after a set amount of time if I've left the dryer on when going to bed or nipping out, which is a good safety procedure and means I'm using less standby power.
Remote Control – Instantly turn connected devices on/off wherever you are through the Tapo app
Schedule – Preset a schedule to automatically manage devices
Timer - Create countdown timer lists for connected electronics
Voice Control – Manage your smart plug with voice commands via Amazon Alexa or the Google Assistant
Away Mode – Automatically turns devices on and off at different times to give the appearance that someone is home
Available from stores including Currys, from around £10 for one, or a set of 4 for around £25.
Use cashback services such as Quidco, Checkoutsmart or JamDoughnut to maximise your savings.
Ninja Foodi MAX Dual Zone AF400UK 9.5L Air Fryer - Black
We all know that air fryers are a cheaper way to cook at home, but there are just so many out there to choose from!
I've got this Ninja air fryer, and it's ace! It cooks food really fast, has easy-to-use controls and, most importantly, I chose this model because it has a larger 9.5-litre capacity, so I can fit much more into the two draws, which means I'm less likely to be short of space. I've managed to get a whole chicken into one drawer and roast veggies in the other, and our roast dinner was done in one hour, which was so useful!
It's on the pricier side of air fryers at around £149; I got mine from Argos, but it's worth spending that bit more for this large model.
If you're looking to spend less, or get a smaller airfryer, this Philips 2000 Series NA230/09 Air Fryer is a recommened by Which? model and so well worth cosidering. It's a 6.2 litre model, so ideal for a small family or if you smaller cooking requirements.
You can find this around the £70 mark at Currys.
Both these products are available from retailers where you can use cashback services such as Quidco, Checkoutsmart or JamDoughnut to maximise your savings.
Amazon Fire HD 10
This is a great entry-level tablet for both kids and adults. The 1080p Full HD display brings brilliant colour to all your series and games. Binge watch longer with up to 13-hour battery life, 32/64 GB of storage, and up to 1 TB expandable storage with a microSD card (sold separately).
The tablet comes with a camera and is kid-friendly with decent parental controls; plus is lightweight.
You'll pick this up on Amazon for around £120, but likely much cheaper in the lead-up to Christmas.
Sadly, there are no cashback opportunities for Amazon.
Readly
Readly is a fantastic gift idea! If you have come across this app/site before, let me explain what it does.
This service allows you to read the latest copies of magazines and newspapers from all over the world. Not only that, but you can also read all the back issues on your desktop computer or on the go on your tablet or phone.
There are some 8,000 titles to choose from, and I've saved a fortune since I started using Readly, as I haven't bought a single magazine or newspaper since! I used to spend £30 a month easily on Magazines, but now I just pay my £12.99 a month subscription and read as many magazines and papers as I want! It's great as there are kids' magazines as well, so my son can read what he likes, and it won't cost me a penny more!
You can give a 3, 6, or 12-month subscription and buy the gift cards directly from Readly with up to 30% discount until 312/12/24. A 3-month gift card is discounted down to £31, a 6-month to £58, and a 12-month to £109.
Food Gifts
Where do you start when it comes to food gifts? There are just so many different types of food and drink to choose from! Here's a selection of some of my favourite food inspired gift choices.
Panettone
It's traditional in my family that I get bought a panettone! I get positively moody without getting one!
I usually get a 1kg tinned version from Costco, which is lovely. The tins come in handy for storing things! They are around the £15 mark. If you can't get the Costco one, you can get the same thing on Amazon for the same price as well.
M&S offer this impressive-looking 1kg Panetonne for £20. You can buy it in stores or via Ocado. Use voucher code VOU4435047 on Ocado, and you'll get 25% off your first order, up to the value of £20 discount.
If you don't want to spend that much on a cake, then maybe a £4 (500g) Panetonne from ASDA will do the trick! Most supermarkets offer their own brand, Panetonne, every year, and they do make excellent gifts! A slice, toasted like bread, with butter is fantastic!
If you buy from a supermarket then use cashback services such as Quidco, Checkoutsmart or JamDoughnut to maximise your savings.
Jaffa Cake Dispenser - Home Bargains
I couldn't not add this Jaffa Cake dispenser! £5.99 in Home Bargains, this dispenses mini packs of Jaffa cakes and makes fab stocking filler, or a fab, yet relatively inexpensive gift for a friend or family member!
Sadly, no cashback is available for Home Bargains.
Contact Coffee Bags
If you are buying for a coffee fiend who loves no-nonsense, caffeine-fuelled coffee, then these Contact Coffee bags may hit the spot! Each box contains 10 coffee bags (like tea bags, only with coffee inside), which are full of flavour and not lacking in caffeine either! These will definitely wake you up!
These are available for £4.99 a box from Contact Coffee. No cashback options for this retailer.
My guilty pleasure these days for my food shop is M&S. They have some fab food and some fab gift ideas as well!
Push along car with Christmas tree on top
This adorable push-a-long tin is filled with fruit-flavoured jellies and makes the perfect Christmas decoration or toy, and it's just £5.00
Letters For Santa Chocolate Chip Cookie Tin
This little post box is filled with all butter chocolate chip cookie envelopes and is just £5.00
Very Merry/Very Jolly Munch Tins
These tins, both £9, are packed with delicious goodies. They contain a mix of sweet and salty sweets and snacks, which are fab for Christmas snacking!
Both types are so delicious you’ll have to keep all the small hands away! They do a version of this in bags during the rest of the year, to refill your tins with!
M&S Peppermint Bark/Caramel & Almond Clusters
I love these tins as they have a real retro Americana feel to them!
Both of these amazing giftable tins contain delicious treats inspired by the States. Peppermint bark – Swiss flavoured dark and white chocolate topped with candy cane pieces. Almond muddles - Swiss dark chocolate with almonds and salted caramel. They are pricey for the size tin, at £10 each, but they do look amazing!
All M&S products can earn you cashback in-store by using a gift card cashback app, such as JamDoughnut.
World Of Whisky Advent Calendar
I'm a lucky guy, as I've been given one of these super impressive whisky Advent calendars to open every day in the build-up to Christmas, which will be amazing! It may be too late to get this if you're looking for gifts in December, but if you have a whisky lover to buy for, or perhaps a gin lover, then Master Of Malt would be well worth checking out, as they do all sorts of unusual alcoholic gift ideas! My calendar was £129.99, which seems a lot for a calendar, but it contains 25 different 30ml samples from 12 whisk(e)y-producing nations. Featuring exceptional drams from both traditional regions like Scotland and exciting emerging markets such as India and New Zealand, this calendar is a journey in a glass. On average, it's 40% cheaper to buy the advent calendar than all the drams separately, so that's good enough for me!
Kids & Family Fun
Yonex GR303 Badmington Racket & Net Set
FThis badminton racket and net set from Badmington HQ, priced under £50, includes four rackets, a shuttlecock, a net, and a case—everything you need to step outside and have some enjoyable family fun.
Babolat Boost Aero Rafa 2nd Generation Tennis Racket
If youre buying for a tennis player, this Babolat racket has the perfect blend of power, lightness, and maneuverability, the Boost Aero Rafa allows you to perfect all of your shots as you develop your game. Directly inspired by Rafael Nadal's second-generation racket, the Rafa Boost allows you to hit smashes, drop shots, and aces with the grace of a champion.
RRP £100, likley less on the Tennis HQ website!
Logo Board Game- 2nd Edition
A popular game in my house, this game is played in teams, an opponent takes a card: Picture, Theme and Pot-Luck cards, and shows the playing team, he then asks the team four colour coded questions - With each right answer the team moves to the next board space that matches the question's colour. Skip around the board and win. You'll find this for around £30 in many retailers, including Argos, and so can use cashback services such as Quidco, Checkoutsmart or JamDoughnut to maximise your savings.
Uno!
UNO is the timeless card game where you match colours and numbers. It’s simple to learn, but hard to stop playing! its a game that as a fmaly we play a lot, and we took it on holiday with us this summer, and spent many a happy evening , playing this by the pool with a drink in our hands!
Players take turns racing to get rid of all their cards by matching a card in their hand with the top card on the deck. You'll pick this up for about £8 in retailers such as Argos.
Nitro Circus Ryan Williams Junior Replica Complete Stunt Scooter - Gold / Black
This ones for the kids and big kids! We've got this one for our sons Christmas present as it looks impressive and the Junior Stunt Scooter is perfect for any up-and-coming rider wanting to get into stunt scootering. Please get a helmet as well, though! We're lucky to have a skate park really close by, so we'll be able to make full use of this! The RRP's for about £100, we got it for £77.95 from Skates.co.uk. No cashback option sadly.
Also from the same retailer Skates.co.uk, we nearly got my son a pair of these retro-looking roller SFR Brighton Figure Skate boots! I had a lot of fun as a kid shooting up and down the road on my roller boots, and these ones look fab, but in the end we decided on the scooter as we think he'll prefer them, but I'm recommending them as a gift idea, purely as they bring back to great childhood memories! These are under £50, no cashback option.
Air Toobz
Let the kids unleash their creativity with this fun air-powered toy! They can freely arrange the tubes and connectors, creating all sorts of loops and swirls. Imagine weaving them under tables and over desks. Then, the excitement begins when you switch on the turbine and let the kids experiment by blowing balls through the machine! This toy will keep them entertained for hours on end.
You'll find this for around £140 in stores such as Argos, where you can use cashback services such as Quidco, Checkoutsmart or JamDoughnut to maximise your savings.
Other gift ideas
B Box Insulated Food Jar
This is one of those useful gifts! We have this insulated food container, which my son uses for his school lunch. These don't look huge and are marketed for toddlers, but they hold more than enough for my 7-year-old son. I suspect that for smaller adult eaters, it would be ideal too! It keeps food hot for about 5 hours or cold for 7, and it has been really useful, as it's far cheaper for us to make pasta in the morning and send my son to school with it in this food container, and he loves it, and we save money on hot school meals, so it's a win-win! He also has the matching insulated water bottle.
You can get this on Amazon for around £20, often less! No cashback though
Scandi Christmas Tin Candle
There are so many candle offerings out there these days, and so it's hard to recommend them when there are so many options, but we did get this Christmas candle in a tin recently; it not only looks nice but smells, of vanilla and held together with the warm and woody notes of sandalwood and cedar, and it's lush!
I think it would make a fab gift; it's made by the Copenhagen Company and retails for £10
100 Ways You Can Help Save The Planet book
An interesting and thought-provoking book to help teach the recipient about the little things they can do that make a huge difference to our planet.
Things like: - Ditching fast fashion, Making your school plastic-free, Learning to fix your belongings, Getting involved in political change nnd . . . bamboo-ing your poo?!
Available from bookshops, and is £10.79 on Amazon
That's My Money!
That’s My Money is a fun and engaging book by one of my friends, money coach and founder of the Mad About Money App, Maddy Alexander-Grout, and mental health children’s book author, Chris Dixon.
This one-of-a-kind book teaches children the fundamentals of finances, from tax to cash, using colourful creatures and clear, engaging explanations that make learning about money exciting and easy to understand.
In a world where financial futures can be uncertain, it’s crucial to equip the next generation with the skills and confidence they need to be money smart.
The book is available on Amazon for £9.99 or £6.99 on Kindle, (Free with a 30 day Kindle Unlimited trial)
Gift cards as gifts
Gift cards are a fantastic way to give gifts to those tricky people to buy for! Many of us buy those plastic gift cards you see hanging up in supermarkets and other stores.
They’re useful, but if you want to keep your spending in check, you can buy most of the same gift cards on gift card cashback apps like JamDoughnut. And guess what? You’ll earn cashback on them too! It’s like getting a little bonus back on your gift. The amount of money you give to the recipient stays the same, but you’ll get cashback into your wallet!
You can usually email the gift card to the recipient or print it out and stick it on the card, making it just as simple to give the recipient their gift card, as those plastic ones!