Im stressed about the cost of xmas

kbl

lilly81 wrote: »

Its my sons 6th birthday in october and i am doing him a pirate themed party at home. When the 4 kids (i have had to limit the numbers) arrive i will give them each an empty party bag, which they have to fill up with prizes that they get from the games!

This may sound really tight, but I have never given prizes for party games at any of my kids dos. I guess I'm really lucky, it's not the done thing here, one parent tried to start it (she's English, thought it was what everyone did) but no one else continued the tradition. We generally have the kids over, make them some hot food (nuggets, sausages, chips and beans usually) have plenty of buns, sweets, cake (a lot of it home made, rest from Lidl/Aldi) and pop (dilute), loads of games with maybe a home 'disco', and party bags that we fill with a bag of crisps, balloons/party blowers and some of the party food. It's worth a thought, my kid's parties never come to more than €50 (and that includes €20 for shop bought cake, not bad considering it's Ireland I'm living in!!).

kbl

Depending on how many photos you have, you could start off photo albums with hand written personal messages on some of the pages. My daughter did this for Father's Day, 1st page was a pic of him as a child "In the beginning, you were a cute lil boy" then 2nd page was a pic of him as a teenager "still looking good - not sure about the hair tho!!" (he was a rocker) "then you met THIS strange doll" (pic of me), then wedding day, "then you had this little angel" (pic of her) and so on . She filled about 20 pages some with pics, others with pics and comments, some with a funny poem about family, then she left the rest of the album blank with a note saying "What's next???". It was a really cute idea, he absolutely loved it because so much thought had gone into it, and it was tailored to suit his sense of humour. I've recently bought 3 albums from the pound shop to do the same thing for my sisters, if you're doing it, best to buy the sticky page ones. hth (and makes sense!!)

lilly81

Im feeling much better about xmas now, I have filled my sons stocking already with freebies from this site!
I am also starting work so that will help loads!

savingholmes

melissa75 wrote: »

I wondered whether anyone else thinks its a good idea to have a separate xmas bargain thread on this board, where people can write details of any bargains they have found on products that could be put away for xmas. I know there's the grabbit board but nowadays I don't really look on there I just come straight to the special occasions board.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=13746691&posted=1#post13746691

Here's a few ideas .... Asda, Wilkos and others have a sale on currently and some of the bargains are fab! We went camping last weekend and bought little camping pan sets and gas etc for half price ie about £2.50 for a set of pans that in millets is £15! I got a one man dome tent for £4 reduced from 8! There are bargains out there if you look!:j

I also am trying for a cost neutral christmas.... doing very well so far. Go to the finished basket thread for ideas. I and other have posted quite a few low cost baskets that look fab. In my case they are usually boxes not baskets but they put up with me;) !