How Much Do You Put Aside For Christmas?

frasersmum123

I save £50 a month from January, I also buy £3 of Morrisons Savers stamps per week from easter onwards (have a bit more this year as Easter was early!)

I start picking up pressies from September onwards.

liney

Just totted up we spend about £500 for Christmas - i spend very little on Christmas food as most of the holiday is spent with the inlaws. I start picking up pressies any time from August if there's a sale on to keep the costs down abit.

1_step_closer

I feel like a skinflint compared to some of you! some people may knwo from what I have posted but we were going away over xmas this year but had to cancel it
so we are buying for:
step daughter
my parents
his parents
nephew
my close friend and godchildren
him - couple pf his close mates
me - my close mates

It will be cheap and cheerful with most of it from online sites via quidco. I am done with the: buy everyone something/make everyone something then feel it is tat and buy something/buy close family something/spend hours in shops and £££ on cc.

so there we are! as for food and booze, we have wine, I do like my roses but may swap to quality street this year and twiglets.

1 step

Princess_Jane

I put away between £20-£50 a month all year.

This has been dipped into a few times in emergencies, but me and my OH have enough to get pressies for each other, my family, secret Santa with his lot, and a meal out for us both on Christmas Day.

I do the present shopping and start stockpiling about now, then present it all to him on Christmas Eve to wrap.

We did this for the first time last year and it was great. No money worries and we ate a lush Christmas dinner in a hotel near our house, then went home and went back to bed.

We don't have any kids, as you might have guessed.

NoreenOMS

We are currently saving £25 per week, but only as much as that as left it quite late- early august.. this will give us just over £500 for gifts for all the family, including £50 each for our presents to each other (me & my hubby).

We also save £10 a week towards birthdays!

We transfer the xmas & birthday money into another account via standing order, and keep a spreadsheet too.. i love my spreadsheet!:rotfl:

IvoryTinkler

I buy my cards and wrapping paper in the January sales. Then I start buying presents from about July onwards and putting them away. We are a lot 'tighter' this year on how much people will be having from us as we just don't have the money. I really hope the old 'it's the thought that counts' will be remembered!!!

My Christmas food shop is my biggest downfall so need to have a good think about how to tackle it this year.

Tracy :j

Penny-Pincher!!

Birthdays-I always buy the 10 cards for £1 from The Card Factory as they are excellent value and quality cards. Then I buy Anniversary cards all in one go for the year as we have alot of them each year. I sit and write them all out and put them in the drawer and write in my diary the dates etc, so I have everything done and Im never left having to buy an extortinate priced card. I pick up a few each of Sympathy, Get Well Cards, New Job, Engagement, Wedding etc too but they are only 28p.....all the cards for a year about £6.50.

HTH

PP
xx

arthur_dent_2

My DD aged 7 ran upto her dad and I in Tescos the other day and said "isn't it a little early for selection boxes we haven't even had halloween yet." I don't know whether to be pleased that she feels it is too early or sad that she marks out her life by occasions.

strawberry_laces

We save £400.00 a month into an ISA but from Oct-Dec this dosen't go into an ISA instead I put it aside for christams pressies, food, anything else I need to buy, we don't actually have that many people to buy for
1 neice
1 nephew
2 sons
daughter
Inlaws
and Partner.

I said I'd use some of the money to spend in London when I take the children to see Father Christmas in Harrods (thanks for the free tickets from MSE)

So we have around £1200.00, .

Crikey it sounds alot

BernadetteN

We don't save any money for Christmas at all and jsut have a slightly higher credit card bill in January and February.

There are 4 children to buy for and no more than about a dozen other people. On the children in the last 12 years we have spent a maximum of £300 and that was last year which included 3 DS consoles bought at £70 each about 6 months before Christmas. I don't mind admitting that we only give our children one main Christmas present and accessories such as DS games came from grandparents. I'd say in total we spend around £500 on presents and an extra £50 on food.

We try to pick up bargains throughout the year, as I'm sure most people do, but this year we haven't been so organised and so far we've only picked up a 2nd hand bike costing €25 for our eldest daughter.

Our biggest extravagence for Christmas will be our annual trip to London, staying in £29 a night Travelodge rooms, going to see the Snowman at the Peacock theatre and going ice-skating outdoors. This will set us back around £300 for the 2 nights accommodation, travel and activities.