9 Budget Ideas for Christmas Stocking Fillers

For me, Christmas is more about the little touches and small details. I love buying thoughtful little gifts for friends and family. My favourite part of present buying is putting a Christmas stocking together for the boys. I fill them with little things I know they will enjoy and use over the year.

Our Christmas stockings tend to be a mixture of fun stuff and practical stuff. I’m not beyond padding out a stocking with a new toothbrush (because Santa really  cares about dental hygiene) and some new toiletries; but my Christmas stockings always have lots of fun stuff, chocolate and the obligatory satsuma in them.

Nine Great Budget Ideas for Christmas Stocking Fillers

Here’s what’s in his Christmas stocking this year –

Chocolate Coins – it’s the law to have a bag of chocolate coins in your stocking. We’ve gone for these colourful emoji coins (£1). They make a bit of a change (pun intended) from your standard gold or silver coins.

Marvel Avengers Assemble Collectible Capsules – these little figures come in a surprise egg (not really an egg, more of a capsule). Kids love the surprise egg thing, so I know this will be very popular. I’ve seen them in other shops for £3.99, but these are a bargain £1.99 and I’m wishing I’d picked up a couple more now.

Hot Wheels Cars – toy cars are a regular feature in our Christmas stockings, they’re small, easy to wrap and popular. They’re also a pocket friendly £1.49 each, so I got two new ones for his collection.

Mini Block Tech Figures – These are Lego style mini figures, but they’re much cheaper than Lego. These figures come in a “blind bag” and there are three in the bag. At £1 per pack, these three mini figures come with their own accessories and they’re much cheaper than the brand leader!

Marvel Avengers Bath & Shower Gel – this pack of four shower gels (£3.99) is ripe for breaking up and wrapping individually. Each bottle is shaped and styled like one of your favourite Avengers heroes – Captain America, the Incredible Hulk, Thor and Iron Man. I know these might even encourage him to spend a bit more time in the bathroom (maybe).

Marvel Comics Stationery Set – you can never have too much stationery and this five piece stationery set featuring his favourite Marvel characters will be a winner. The ruler, pen and pencil are all covered in comic book versions of Spider-Man; Iron Man; Thor; the Incredible Hulk and Captain America. At just £1.29 this set contains everything he will need to write a superhero story of his own!

Voice Changer – this is a silly little stocking filler. Speak into the microphone and it will change your voice so you sound like a boy, a girl or a robot. I know he will love this (and the dog will hate it, probably). At £2.99 this is a bit of silliness you need in a Christmas stocking.

Swizzels Mini Candy Canes – this giant box of mini candy canes (£1.99 for 240g) will be put to good use. I’ll slip a few into presents for other people, use a handful in some festive bakes and tip the rest into his stocking. The box contains four iconic Swizzels flavours – Drumstick lolly flavour; blue Refreshers; pink Refreshers and of course Parma Violet (I’ll be keeping those just for me).

Socks –  Christmas tradition dictates that every stocking must contain a pair of Christmas socks to be worn that day. I need to pop back to B&M and see what they’ve got in store.

That’s my Christmas stocking shopping almost finished and it’s only cost me £18.72, a bit of a bargain yes? All I need to do now is wrap everything up and throw a satsuma in the night before. I’m feeling uncommonly organised and that’s a great feeling!

What are you stuffing your Christmas stockings with this year?

What’s in our Christmas Stocking?

Father Christmas is a terribly busy chap, so we like to help him out by easing the burden of lugging a Christmas stocking about. We like to buy on a budget, but NOT tat, or minimal tat at least. So here’s what’s in the small boy’s stocking this year (shhh, don’t tell him).

Three diecast emergency vehicles from B&M £1 each = £3
Magic, touchable bubbles = £1.50
Mickey & Goofy Pez dispensers £1.50 each = £3
Center Parcs Squirrel = £8
Thomas & Friends Porter engine = £6.99
Glow Sticks 3 for = £2
Mister Maker door hanger kit = £1.99
Mister Maker mini bugs kit = £1.99
Bigjigs carriage = £2.25
Smarties Penguin = 75p
Packet of pirate pencils = £2
Chocolate coins = £1
Satsuma = free from the fruit bowl

Meaning we’ve spent a grand total of £34.97 which when you look at it like that is either a lot of money spent on a bag of little presents, or a tremendous bargain considering all that is in there. I’m going to go for the latter. I think we’ve got a fairly good spread of stocking fillers there, with things that he will play with immediately, a few sweet treats and some craft items we can make together over the Christmas break.

Christmas stocking

What’s in your Christmas stocking this year?

Novelty Key Bottle Opener Review

Hodge, bless his cotton Christmas socks, at the grand old age of 38 still (yes still) gets a Christmas stocking from Santa (aka me, Santa only gives good children presents, not grown ups, no matter how well behaved they are). So I’m always on the look out for handy little bits and pieces. Practical, useful little stocking fillers that won’t break the bank.

I was rummaging round the I Want One Of Those website when I spotted the key bottle opener, it was priced at just £7.99, or 3 for £20, which seems a good deal, especially if you’ve adult stockings to fill, or secret Santa’s to shop for.

key

The key bottle opener is a handy key shaped, erm, key which is also a bottle opener which can be added to a keyring, meaning you’ll always have a bottle opener handy. It’s small, neatly designed, sturdy and makes a great stocking filler or secret Santa present.

In the interests of science I had to check if it did the job, so for you (yes you, because you’re worth it) I cracked open a cold one using the key bottle opener. It worked, success! The beer wasn’t too bad either.

Disclaimer – We were sent a key bottler opener free of charge for review purposes.