my bargain christmas 2009

moneysavingmumofone

I think all of your sons things sound lovely, who cares if they're second hand? My 4 year old son has asked for some videos from the video shop! (charity shop! )

craftygranny

My grandaughter is 4 and when we ask her what she wants she says i'd like a clipboard please like my teachers at nursery and it's the only thing she's asked for. Cost £1 from poundland bless but if it makes her happy who cares .

sarahf191979

Well done on all your bargins, and I agree with everyone, it doesn't matter where it comes from if your little ones are going to play with it. As for the packaging I always take mine off any new toys we get so the kids can play with things straight away and saves on bags and bags of rubbish over christmas. This year I have bought loads from the charity shops for my eldest who is into DR Who and Videoing, have got him loads of jackets and dressing up stuff so he can dress up like the Doctor and do his videos, also got some dr who books for 50p each rather than full price.

esmf73

Have to agree with SarahF. Despite the fact that I get most of my childrens toys from ebay or charity shop, those few that are bought new I ALWAYS unwrap from packaging and load with batteries. Mainly because the children get frustrated, but also because a lot of toys (cars etc - can you tell I have boys!!) are secured with a piece of plastic and a tiny screw.

The screwdriver would get lost between wrapping paper and toy boxes. This is the one use that I have found for the tiny screwdriver set you get in crackers!!!

Plus I tend to go through things just after they've opened them and squirrel away various toys to magically appear over the next few days / months!

dazzle21

legio11 at the end of the day as soon as they are out of the packet they are 'second hand'! Last year we got ds everything 'new' but most of it came out the packet and was never played with... This year he is obsessed with Little People and Thomas.. i managed to get a couple of Thomas bits at 75% off but the rest of the little people are carboot/ebay! He won't know! His 'new' Christmas outfit is from the bargain bin in the charity shop, but washed and ironed it is like new! I love being able to 'spoil' my son and it cost under £40 - the price of one or two toys in toy shops... plus i will 'recycle' some of his other toys back to the charity shops so someone else benefits to

Trow

My biggest bargain is my mum's main present. I knitted her a shawl with wool that cost 50p from a charity shop. I was getting worried towards the end that I would run out, but thankfully I didn't!

DianneB

Well done Legio11, you got some great bargains there be proud!! Christmas is what you make it, not what you spend!! Have a great christmas.

jackie_w

legio11 wrote: »

this year we have very little extra money that is not already signposted to bills etc so decided we would do christmas as cheap as possible starting with my 2.5 year old son, he has become obssesed with ben 10 and scooby doo but as many of you probably know they are not cheap items lol i have spent £35 on him and the list includes

27 ben 10 figures £10 ebay (these retail at £5 each)
selection of scooby doo monsters £5 ebay
action sportacus from lazy town 50p carboot sale
10 books from carboot sale £1
£80 worth of boden clothes for nothing thanks to there refer a friend scheme recently
a stretchy scooby doo (won in comp)
couple of dvds from carboot sale

there are other little bits as well from carboot sales and charity shops.

Now a couple of my friends think im mean not spending a fortune on him for christmas but the only thing missing from his gifts are the packaging he is having far more than what i would normally have been able to afford by doing it this way. Should i be ashamed to tell people we are doing a second hand xmas??? when ever they come to our house they are always saying what lovely things we have but none of it is bought new i just bargain hunt lol

For family they are all having body shop items from the recent glitch we have got £170 worth of items for £26 couple of these items are being put back for DP's daughters birthdays next year

I have even started on his birthday presents for next year thanks to charity shop bargains.


What has been your best bargain christmas present this year???

xxx

and what would these friends say if you got yourself into loads of debt and next year couldnt afford anything at all for your LO?

You have done amazingly well what what you have got and what you have spent well done. Dont worry about what these other people say.
Anyway, think of things this way, the people from ebay whom you have bought things from could be another MSE'er trying to pay their debt off and you are helping them :money:.

Have a merry christmas, and enjoy the moment of watching your sons face light up on Christmas morning.

Jackie

cyclingyorkie

you have done amazingly well - well done!

this is my first year on this site and I've got a lot of presents in sales - and I've done surveys (valued opinions and lightspeed) and earned £70 of Amazon vouchers.

Any vouchers I earn next year will be saved - the Amazon ones have long dates on - to help make my next Christmas money neutral!

lola34

I've bought DS1 and DS2 preowned playstation games this year and have bought them toys off Ebay etc in the past year, by doing this it gives us extra money for family days out and holidays throughout the rest of the year, I don't see the point in forking out loads for stuff they might not play with for long -Well done I say!!!