Great "How to have a cheap Xmas if you've kids" Hunt

jilltoon

I have 2 sons age 6 and 11 and I always worry at christmas they will be disapointed. I do my best I look in charity shops ,and only this morning I got a remote control roboreptile for £3.00 that will be wrapped up for my youngest it looks new and he wont care if its not in a box(its better without the box anyway they take so long to get into) I also visit as many carboots as I can,as you often find toys like new still with original box at a fraction of the price I save tesco stamps and I,m glad I did as my eldest wanted a ps3 which I managed to get with my stamps. I save all year round and usually have some money left over for the sales . Any presents I recieve that I dont like I usually give to someone else next year (terrible I know) Also I would really recommend your local freecycle site as people often give toys away,
good luck:beer:
hope you all have an stress free happy christmas

dmasih

my son is three years old in Feb but as Christians we never try to focus too much on the pressie side of things. Since his birth we have had the same budget for his Christmas pressies as we know we can cope with this even if finances take a turn for the worse...so it's not been solely about what he wants but about what he can have within budget. We try to buy good toys that will last and grow with him and we always sit with him and look at toys together to see what he likes eg. for his first Christmas we bought him a rocking horse which he still uses, last year he got a drum kit as he loves music and again this will last him for some time. He doesn't go without and always has lovely pressies at Christmas but I believe it's healthy to try and instill the message that Christmas is not all about 'getting.' What we have done this year is purchase our sons pressies earlier so that we haven't major expenditure in one month and we have also explained to family that we want to get through Christmas without using our credit cards and so family has agreed a smaller budget for gift giving to eachother, in some cases just buying for the younger members. What we are emphasising is the fact that we will be having a fab time spending Christmas with family and that it's Jesus's birthday so we have encouraged my son to give on the approach to Christmas through shoe-box appeals etc.
I think it's terrible that we are bombarded with images of things we 'must have' for our kids and ourselves. I know as my son gets older his desires are going to be different and he will certainly have more of an awareness of things he would like but hopefully by starting young and teaching him good Biblical principles, encouraging him to give to others and to save for things he wants we will have instilled an appreciation for things of REAL value and an attitude of responsibly in handling his money. Remeber that the best thing you can give anyone is your time and that no matter how hard up you are there is always a way through.
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL. XXXX:A

jenna.nostyle

When I was small and money was tight all year round my mum would alawys make sure that I had a huge sack of gifts at Christmas and that there was plenty of food to go around.

But to be honest I can't remember any of those gifts with the exception of small pocket money toys all induvidually wrapped (like you can pick up in Hawkin's Bazaar). I do however remember the silly afternoons playing whatever game we'd got that year and learning how to play card games with the grown ups.

johdu

A couple of years ago we realised that the buying power of our money was always far greater in January than it was before Christmas (due to sales and late offers)...

As a result, we just moved Christmas! We celebrate in a very low key way on Dec 25th - one small gift from Father Christmas and the usual family entertainment. The 'real' Christmas treats arrive on January 25th. I am 100% certain that retailers will launch heavy sales in Jan... so this year's "Christmas" may well be our best yet!

J.:rolleyes:

hazel_dewhurst

my cheap ideas are ebay ,freecycle ,charity shops asking friends with older children if they are interested in selling toys

the national childbirth trust do nearly new sales countrywide great bargains to be had

we have always told our children who are now 5 and 6 that santa brings the fun of xmas and a small gift and that the big gifts are bought from the shops by relations so its easy to explain that they cant have everything they see

we have always done inexpensive but fun xmas's with ours
school xmas fairs are great fun just looking at street all lit up with decorations xmas markets are very entertaining for kids

we havent bought presents for adults for a few years now and dont buy friends children presents.. its a huge relief for everyone
instead we have open house on xmas eve do a massive jacobs join supper and its ace!

before we got sensible about xmas a few years ago i wrote a list of all the food i had to throw away after xmas... it made sobering reading i used it as a template for my xmas food shop the year after

a friend told me that she goes to the pound shop and fills a jazzy box with all the tat that kids love for about £20 individually wraps the items and it keep them entertained for hours .. might try that myself

happy xmas everyone

kprice580

This chrimbo will defo be about cutting back, My DH wage has droped by more than half! Trying to tell my 5 year old that we dont have enough money to buy what she would like breaks my heart.
I have two children DD 5 & DS 2, they have everything any anything! this year it was going to be TV/DVD combo for the playroom but we just can't afford it. As another post says buy lots from the pound shop, I think this we will have to do.
I'm fine with buying from charity shop & second hand but my DH on the other hand isn't. I grew up in a family with not much, my DH a single family, so he knows what it's like not to have things. Since we got together & had children of our own he has said whatever they want they can have! Each year we have had a room full of presents for them both, spending around £300+ on each of them.
But now we just cannot do it anymore.

My DD is very bright but does not have any understanding of money or the value!
How do I tell her we cannot afford christmas like we used to have??

Katy x x

thewizard

eBay, things go cheap. Me and gf are buying most of our christmas presents from their this year, although I would say you could end up spending more if you are not careful. We both got huge presents last year but this year she has been told her mum and dad can't afford big presents and I said I didn't want anything expensive. I got asked for my birthday present (which is usually smaller than christmas) to be my biggest present this year.

I wanted a Samsung Omnia on contract, my Dad doesn't mind because yes hes paying around £500 for the phone, but he's paying for it over 18 months so he can spread the cost of the present over a year and a half.

I know its a bit late, but for future years, open a high interest regular saver and pay a regular amount in from early December this year, Halifax have one for 12 months at 7% fixed, this means to get the high rate of interest you need to set one up now, if you do it after christmas you won't get the money until after Christmas which is pretty pointless. Pay in from £25 to £500 a month, great way to save up for Christmas.

Use price comparison sites to find the cheapest deals, go to bargain shops such as B&M Bargains and Home Bargains and buy the reduced gifts, I went to Liverpool on Saturday and bought an £8 bath gift set for about £3 or £4. BARGAIN. Not only does it save you money but it makes you look better because it makes it look like your spending more money

Use credit cards, wisely to spread the cost to before and after christmas, but pay them off in full, don't make the minimum payments otherwise you'll still be paying for it next year.

Save money on food, Iceland is cheap and so is Aldi. Come to Iceland in Chester jsut before Christmas and say hello to me, I might be packing your bags (tips welcome ). Seriously though, Iceland is very cheap for christmas present, but I do have to say, after seeing what people buy on 22nd-24th of December to survive 2 days is absolutely stupid.

To feed four people you need:

• A turkey
• One reasonable bag of potatoes
• Some sausages with bacon wrapped around them
• Veg
• A christmas pudding
• One or two bottles of wine or no more than around 10 cans of beer
• Canberry sauce
• Some pulling Crackers
• Maybe some ice cream

And there you go, Christmas Dinner sorted, the amount of food people buy over christmas is absolutely stupid. Yes you need food for another meal, but no you don't need to spend what you spend on a weekly shop for 2 days, its a complete waste of money, I bet most of what people buy goes in the bin.

As for explaining to kids, there won't really be a one size fits all answer because every parent tells their kids a different story, so you'll have to come up with that yourself.

JimmyTheWig

hazel_dewhurst wrote: »

my cheap ideas are ebay ,freecycle ,charity shops asking friends with older children if they are interested in selling toys

the national childbirth trust do nearly new sales countrywide great bargains to be had

Couldn't agree with this more (though I'm not into eBay at the moment - too expensive for me!). Freecycle is wonderful.
Our kids will probably be getting more than ever this year, with us having spent less than ever!

jellyhead

I don't remember many christmas gifts - the ones I do remember involve other people - the board games etc.

We're poor this year, but it's not necessarily the reason why santa isn't bringing much. My children have far too much stuff already, and the house just isn't big enough for more!

My eldest in particular doesn't like quantity. He gets stressed by all the little cheap things, and there's no where to put them. He still has one large bag of presents from last year that's in front of his bookshelf and hasn't been looked at since the gifts were opened on christmas day. I reckon I could give them back to him this year and he wouldn't notice!

I think that fewer presents, and being able to find a space for what he does have will make him happier than a huge pile of gifts will. He can't think of anything to ask for anyhow!

A board game will be the favourite present I think, because there are visitors at christmas, lots of people to play with. as jenna.nostyle says, it's learning different card games with the grownups that everyone remembers about their own christmases.

Sue_E_L

A few years ago, when our kids were 8, 10 and 12, money was very tight. We sat down with them and talked about how sometimes we have more money than others, and that this particular year things were tight. We said the only way to have extravegant gifts would be to buy them on credit and pay it off over the coming year - something we were not prepared to do. They really did not want us to do that as a family either. We bought each of them something for £10 (would be worth about £20 today) which they chose and had a great stress-free Christmas. We really encouraged them to think more about what they were planning to give other people rather than what they were going to get.

A money-saving tip from a friend years ago was, plan what you need to buy and make sure you don't have to go near the shops the week running up to Christmas. That's when we can get most tempted to buy extras we really don't need!