Selfsufficientish.com

We did that, and called them 'Dad pounds'! DH printed out a cheque-type thing with a daft picture of him and various denominations. They could be cashed in for services (over and above the usual selfless Dad stuff!) or money and worked quite well. The children even traded them between themselves!

Yesterday I had a high old time in the YMCA shop and came away with a pristine Harry Potter poster book for DD, a yellow smiley face clock for MIL (she'll love it but I was a bit disappointed when DH told me we'd got her one last year lol!!), some card blanks for me to use for Christmas cards, some scoubies for DD and on and on. It was great, all for about £7! More interesting than sending a goat to Africa (not that I'm knocking it, we gave my grandmother-in-law clean water for 100 people for her 100th birthday, along with a male and female goat so the gift would go on giving!) but it's still giving to charity.

Last year I gave my children some money and took them to the charity shops for all my presents. This year my mother is 'helping' them buy stuff and it's all new.

My son has loads of presents this year as most are off freecycle. My daughter expensive Monsoon clothes from that site for a fraction of the cost...all brand new!

A fancy wrapper does not bother me the condition does.