Ten Pound Christmas

MascaraMinx

Hi - I'm quite new round here so I don't know if anyone has ever posted a similar idea to this one, but I thought I'd share with you all something me and my family have been doing for the last few years to cut costs at Christmas.

We all agreed a set figure of £10 per xmas present. The only rule is that you must spend exactly £10 - so you may not spend a single penny over £10 and if your present comes to £9.99 you will find something to the value of 1p to make the whole present. Kind of makes it more fun and a bit silly!

Before we started this, I found that I was spending in the region of £30 per person. £30 x 8 significant family members = a lot of money. Last Christmas with the ten pound rule, it came to just £80, a much more healthy figure (and I managed to not spend ANY using credit woo hoo!). The other appealing thing about it is that it made xmas shopping much more interesting. Me and my mum would hunt and hunt for great bargains and try and find quality things on ebay/ in sales/ in bargain shops (such as TK Maxx, pound shops, Primark etc) then phone eachother and compare notes! It really made us think about what would really appeal to the person we were buying for, rather than just grabbing a £30 bottle of perfume off the shelf.

Anyway, we really enjoyed doing it and have stuck to it ever since. I wondered if any of you guys liked the idea, and if so perhaps we could share bargain present findings with each other?!

donteatthat

Thats a really good idea. My OH is really good at getting great presents that mean more to the recipient than their value, but I'm a bit rubbish in that respect. I'm going to suggest it this xmas and hopefully I will have enough time to get some inspiration on great gifts!!

Bambywamby

Fab idea...I will keep you posted to my bargain finds.

Bams x.x :T

freebird65

Haaahaa...love it! I did this years ago whilst travelling in India....a bunch of us made the same rule but with a grand total of 10 rupees (about 18pence at the time!).......it really made you get creative to get an interesting present within budget, but meant everyone had a present to open on Christmas Day, and everyone could afford it.

nice one.:D

LittleL_4

That's a fab idea but I think I might drop it to a FIVER! :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Little L
x

MascaraMinx

freebird65 wrote:

Haaahaa...love it! I did this years ago whilst travelling in India....a bunch of us made the same rule but with a grand total of 10 rupees (about 18pence at the time!).......it really made you get creative to get an interesting present within budget, but meant everyone had a present to open on Christmas Day, and everyone could afford it.

nice one.:D

Bet you could get loads in India for 18p!

MascaraMinx

LittleL wrote:

That's a fab idea but I think I might drop it to a FIVER! :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Little L
x

Whatever works for you! It's the concept rather than the value that makes it work so well!

beanielou

Cool idea
Main prob would be if I only spent £10 on my Mum she would be a tad upset!
Fine apart from that though!

plymouth_janner_boy

I do like this Idea as I am rubbish for buying presents.For some reason (not snobbery!:rolleyes: ) I have to spend over a certain amount otherwise I feel a bit ... you know...scabby! anyway I have known for a long time I Don't buy anything of real "value" i.e really appreciated by the recipient. I'm the same with holiday gifts!! ahhhh

The only thing is I can't imagine my family members would want to stick to a ten pound present. how did you start this idea?

MascaraMinx

plymouth_janner_boy wrote:

The only thing is I can't imagine my family members would want to stick to a ten pound present. how did you start this idea?

That's the problem - everyone has to be on board or it doesn't work. For me, there's my husband, parents, sister and her partner, niece, nephew and sister-in-law involved. We all were complaining one year about how rubbish January is because we're all so skint. I had had a particularly bad xmas for spending (think I spent over £500 purely on pressies, food and other seasonal activities!). Anyway, my husband and I had started saving to get married, and I commented on how much easier it would be if xmas was cheaper. So between us we all came up with these great ideas to make it cheaper (other ones we tried included everyone is allocated an item/s of equal value to bring to the table for xmas dinner to spread teh cost evenly between us all).

The Ten Pound Christmas idea is the only one that has stood the test of time though! I think if you have family who expect a certain amount spent on them then you will either have to convince them (show them your debts maybe??!!) or leave them out of it. Although it may seem a little "scabby" you'd be amazed what you can get for a tenner if you really look!

plymouth_janner_boy

I do think it's a good idea.I shall drop it into conversation and see what they say. Our problem is:

a 16 yr old sister, 13 yr old brother, 9 yr old brother, 10 yr old nephew, 7 month old nephew, @ £20 each

sister in law (32!) brother (30!!!!!! biggest spoilt git of them all!! lol) my parents, wife's parents-mum, step mum, dad, step dad!! @ £15

and of course ourselves, anything between £100 and £150 each. Not this year though.

But one little boy we won't be scrimping on is our darling 6 month old baby