Gift it like a grinch

A fine foods representative at Smith & Caughey's said people came in every day to buy pre-packaged hampers. Photo / Thinkstock

Save money this Christmas by creating your own hampers.

A DIY approach to gift baskets will save you money this Christmas.

Hampers of food and wine are a popular gift option, but when they come pre-packaged a generous margin is usually added.

Supermarkets offer some of the most affordable gift baskets but they are also available online, in specialty food shops and department stores.

At New World we found a selection with a range of prices, from $15 sweet hampers to deli food hampers for more than $50.

The $55 hamper, with nine ingredients, would have cost $40.90 if the items had been bought individually from the shop. That gives the store almost $15 for putting the ingredients in a basket (that can be bought for $1.20), filling it with shredded paper and wrapping it in cellophane.

A fine foods representative at Smith & Caughey's said people came in every day to buy pre-packaged hampers, ranging from $105 to $250, or to choose ingredients for a custom-made one.

Shopping around would save money there, too: champagne and chocolates sell for $120 as a Smith & Caughey hamper; bought from Countdown, the Tattinger Champagne is $69.99 and, purchased from the manufacturer online, Butlers Chocolate Truffles and Pralines Selection are $19.99 - meaning shoppers are paying just over $30 extra for the packaging.

Frank Newman, who writes money-saving advice column Oily Rag, said many people did not realise how much extra they would have to pay for the convenience of a prepackaged gift hamper. "Given there's a market for them, I guess enough people don't realise to justify it."

He said people would be much better to buy a selection of items when they saw them on special at the supermarket in the lead-up to Christmas and then make their own hampers.