Doing christmas without credit

Queen.Bess

Last year OH made presents for our friends, including growing hyacinth bulbs, making biscuits and we recycled unwanted presents for friends too!

My Mum and I had agreed to do a £5 Christmas for family and whilst OH, myself and Mum stuck to it and did really well, other family members couldn't be bothered! But Mum and I may well be doing it again this year, as we enjoyed it, hopefully with as much success!

But its the sales at the moment and Woolies have some big bargains on childrens DVDs and videos, so worth a look!

Queen.Bess

Oh yes, also meant to add about using Tesco clubcard vouchers as best as possible! Maybe magazine subscriptions? They are worth 4x more than spending them in the shop off your shopping! I shall certainly be looking into that!

LJD1_2

We always give my two a stocking but it's full of things that are very very cheap. So, if their favourite biscuits are on bogof I save one for stocking, if there's a film I know we want to see we make up a voucher on the computer and put that in too, the mini England footballs were on sale in Tesco's last week for 63p, they'll get one each in their stocking. It takes a bit more thought but it's actually quite good fun.

sugaJen

Sorry for the late thanx (internet trouble at home)

Loads of good ideas from everyone, Im going to start saving and buy along the way as I see things cheap

Also never really thought about the food so I shall start looking out for special offers on the things that can be saved and also have a grocery money pot.

Jen

xx

Gonna be great on christmas morning knowing everything is paid for and I might even have money left over for the sales :j

isgman

my dear wife has started already... she gets things when she see them so it's never to early to start... (if it was down to me... Bah Humbug.. I would not bother)

linniestorm

I'm saving my pigsback vouchers for pressies too, got £10 and a £10 next voucher. This year as in years gone before I should start saving in January, but I don't!

I'm thinking alongside my pigback vouchers I'm going to spend 10 per month between now and crimbo on a high street voucher (my mum did a year long thing with love2shop or something and it worked for her) so I'll have about £60-70 overall.

And I have a very small family, so should be fairly adequate for them and a couple of friends. Next year, along with being saddled with less debt will try to be a bit more organised!! Can but hope!

Wonder_Girl

My mom always used to (and I do it now) buy vouchers through the year any time she had spare cash for places like argos and boots. That way she couldn’t spend it on anything else but come xmas she has all the money she had saved through the years for presents without cutting back on other things over xmas time

pinkfluffybabe

I save up money all year towards Christmas and also save up Pigsback points, Nectar, Clubcard and other bits from online surveys etc. Also bought some perfume gifts while on holiday as it was cheaper abroad.

frosty

I buy for christmas all year round,I only have a couple more things to buy.Matalan have a 70% off sale on at the moment,so I managed to buy alot there and saved a fortune.When my sons were small I used to buy little gifts to go in their stockings,the £1 shops are great for this,when I go food shopping I buy 1 item for my christmas hamper so by the time christmas comes we dont need to buy much,I start doing this at the beginning of June.

Broken_hearted

I'm still buying so far have my sister and brother in laws present, their youngests sons, my best friends and 1 of my sister in laws. Sorry for boreing you all but if I don't make a note of it I'll forget.