Thrifty Milton Keynes mum saves a fortune by making giant advent calendars to delight her children

A thrifty mum has delighted her children by making her own giant advent calendars out of cardboard boxes.

Dannielle Laverne is splashing out to take her son and daughter to Disneyland Paris for Christmas so the family has set a rule of only two presents apiece.

She normally does Christmas Eve boxes for the children but won’t have room to take these. So she decided to go to town on advent calendars instead.

"It is a nice countdown to going away,” she said. “But my son, who is autistic, doesn’t eat chocolates and he has never really enjoyed an advent calendar.

"My daughter wanted a beauty advent calendar.. it cost £130! I refused. My son wanted Pokémon (£19.99), which I didn’t think was worth the money.”

Danielle had some small packing boxes that she was storing for future use, and decided to use them to make her own calendars.

She created two Christmas tree-shaped structures by carefully stacking up the boxes, first wrapping each one in colourful festive paper,

She then numbered each box and set about filling them.

A member of the Facebook group Extreme Couponing and Bargains UK group, Dannielle has a savvy eye for a bargain. She focused on multibuy items, including sweets and inexpensive gifts.

Many of the boxes cost just 50p to fill. The most expensive was £3.50. On weekend dates Dannielle popped in craft items to keep the children occupied.

"I have loads left for rest of presents,” she said.

She posted photographs of her calendars on social media and has received thousands of likes and comments.