'Are you cutting back on Christmas?' poll discussion

Fivenations

I'm now a lone parent so dont have as much to spend as last year, though as I've never gone crazy the only ones who will notice will be my boys. Foodwise, I've been putting vouchers and non perishables aside for months but to be honest we eat well all year so it wont be too hard.

DKLS

I will be spending more this year, mainly as my fiance has a significant birthday 3 days after xmas.
And despite the current climate, I have had a very good year.

pennyless_the_clown

Christmas Is canceled for 3 reasons:-

No money left in account for presents and family understand thankfully.

Far too commercalised nowdays hate that

and working by choice Christmas day, New years day, Boxing day pretty much all of christmas need some money in bank.

im not a scrooge just cant be bothered with it.

tessie_bear

we are cutting back but not having nowt....moderation iyswim

ksh123

Sadly yes, but not by choice. I have become estranged from the majority of my small family. So allthough I shall try to get pressies to the kids (knowing they could just be binned) I won't be buying for the "responsible adults"

kerri_gt

The kids we buy for have all got to the age where we now prefer to give them money to put towards something they really want (riding lessons or a computer game etc) so that has put the cost up a little (as normally I have been able to shop for CDs, Toys etc on offer or online) but we're not buying for the in-laws this year (they have specifically said they are not giving or receiving and giving money to charity instead). I have put a little £ away each month so xmas won't be too hard on the Nov/Dec wages. I bought cards and gift wrap in the sales (Tesco selling the same wrap again this year!) - we're trying to be careful and not spend out on stuff we don't need for xmas rather than making big cut backs.

Navvie

My wife and I have very strict spending limits which we adhere to every year.

Our christmas shopping is almost all done - we've spread the cost over nearly 4 months. We only have each other left to buy for.

Christmas is about family and loved ones, not about how much money you spend.

chrissiewants2save

No drastic changes this year as;-

1. We only get what we can afford
2. We don't buy the 'gift' items that stores put together just for christmas...which are usually twice as expensive for the actuall product..even if it is '3 for 2'
3. Never go in debt
4. Save little bits throughout the year.
5. hunt to Get the best prices
6. As for my Husband and I, our pressies to each other are maybe what we woud buy anyway..books, socks, underwear, cd and dvd. Just wrapped as a surprise
7. For my son...whilst extravagant...he wants a laptop. I think good value because it'll be well used, he's saved half the price (giving him a sense of the value of money). Whilst we could push to afford to pay it all we are not so he gets that sense.
8. Again...never buy for the sake of it
9. We stopped buying for Adults when children came along to the family. Now we don't even buy for those (except our son). Those without children who buy for our son we buy a bottle of wine...around £4 or 3 for a tenner.

Hope that helps.
p.s. sent the e-mail re unecessary presents to in-laws as..well...they never get it right. I've done my usual photo calendars which they will receive of the grandson.

Keeley_p_2

I'm probably going to be spending a bit more overall this year, but thats just because its the first Christmas for me and OH in our new flat!! So obviously, we dont have a tree or decs at the moment, but hopefully it won't set us back too much, and we'll still be able to use them next year!

I've tried to cut down on pressies, got most of OH's stuff online, via cashback sites or eBay, so its actually not looking too shabby at the moment.

rubixc

We tried something new last year and it worked well. Our close family (10 of us) decided to spend no more than £10 on each other - which tested our ingenuity. Also we agreed to give a day's help to each other during the year eg - gardening/decorating/DIY/throwing out day, etc. It's usually worked out to be more than one day - but who's counting! We kept the children out of the equation, but didn't go mad. I also have four v good friends and we meet for a drink at Christmas and have to spend no more than £1. It's quite amazing what you can find and usually very funny. (Last year I got a pair of very risque pants; a shocking pink sparkly diary and two egg custard tarts!) As I have about 32 people to buy presents for, these schemes helped alot.