So how much extra will Christmas have cost you?

~moneysavingnovice~

Compared to if December was just a 'normal' month, how much extra will Christmas have cost you (including food, alcohol, gifts, decorations etc)?

If we stick to budget it will have cost us an extra £280 which I don't think is tooooo bad. And if I can just put aside £25 a month next year then we'll be sorted!

Linda32

Every year I aim to keep a note and every year I forget.

I've spent about £23 on OH and I guess he has spent around the same on me.
Presents to family/friends, between £2.-£10.00 each, £10.00 is the most to OH's nephews, they have £10.00 cheque each.

No children of our own here.

Food, extras etc, Its a guess but about £50.00-£60.00 So far. It dosn't look alot but as I say these only the two of us.

I was fortunate enough to have £12.50 in Tesco vouchers and £6.00 co-op divvy towards that :T

I shall buy some extra wine to drink at xmas lunch and tea times over the three days. OH hasn't decided yet wether he wants Rum or not, he usually does, but will no doubt ask me if I've bought any on Xmas Eve I will have done.

MrsRogers

Gosh what a scary question :eek:

We save each month all year to cover all Xmas gifts for family, god children etc. We have £103 Tesco club vouchers saved and £30 Sainsburys vouchers so food wont cost anything additional.

We have no children of our own to buy for and have a budget of £50 each on each other.

This year we have bought a new Xmas tree and decorations as in our own first home this yr which has cost us £120 all in.. but these will now last yrs

~moneysavingnovice~

Im definitely going to be saving up my Nectar points for next year!

I listen to my friends and hear them saying Christmas will cost them an extra £500-£1,000 and it makes my eyes water. Thank goodness there are like-minded people to talk to here

alec_eiffel

Hmmm, it's kind of hard to answer as we haven't paid for Christmas in December. The food budget is no different to any other month. We'd done all the gift shopping by December 1st, wrapping paper and cards we bought last year in the sales. Decorations are the same as last year, other than a few things I've made so it's just like any other month except there are a few days when it's ok to have fizzy wine and chocolates for breakfast!

Dawning

I reckon it will be an extra £300 :eek: which is very scary because I live alone, so I dont have a house full to feed, and I dont have a lot of gifts to buy.
I worked it out last night and it's shocked me into definitely being much more OS next year.

gailey_2

Hard to say as did foodshop today but lot was what we buy in usual month and few xmas bits but only done lidls got sainsburys to go.

still not finished xmas shopping yet.

been working out kids today and

12years stepson -spent 100quid on x box
4half year old-still some bits to complete , spent nearly 40quid on new partyoutfit for school disco plus pressies about 100quid too.
15month old-as shes small and unaware 50pounds.

hubby approx 30-50-not done yet
he spends about 30on me.

family/freinds - I guess at least 50-80pounds thats for

my mam
her hubby
may dad
his girlfreind
mil
cousins twin boys age 7
nan and grandad.
aunt as we always go round hers xmas night.
Just 2 close freinds buy for these days even then its only small token gift plus we go out for cheap meal.

Some of pressies last year and this year are hoemmade so cost very little to produce sometimes my mad foraging exploits pay off.

we always have real tree getting that tonight 40pounds.

went to see santa and had family day out cost us 35quid for family of 4other day.

school related -3quid collection for teachers
2quid nativity photo
2quid for disco
1.65 for xmas dinner
made nativity outfit so cost 0.
package for homeless 3quid.
xmas tea party approx cost 10-15quid.

cards for all her school freinds 1pound.

Brought cheapy 1quid wrapping paper in asda.
managed to get cards in sale in cheap shop

normally try to buy lots of reduced in decemember too and freeze so spend less on food in jan.

Scary i guess but may well come to 500quid do hope not only half done trying to keep as cheap as possible and spend just 250 on groceries.

will try do better next year and save up points but thsi year been so skint we spent them.

Stephen_Leak

I shudder to think how much I'm going to spend on my new lady friend. But the alternative is ... ?

sparrer

Extra food will be zero for me as I'm going to DD for the day (but I will give her something towards the extra she has to pay out), but all presents bought through the year using gift tokens earned from surveys, paypal rewards, amazon vouchers, nectar points etc probably would have cost about £300. Cards were bought in M@t@l@n last Jan for £1 for 20 'posh' ones, wrapping paper ironed and reused, gift bags reused, tags home made from old cards, ribbon for tags cut from the ones they put on clothing to keep them on hangers, stamps bought in Superdrug as they sell them at a discount...so total cash spend was probably £40-£50 altogether for DD, DS, their partners, 6 grandchildren, DM, DB and DSiL, two nieces. Partly the 'joys' of living on a pension, but more likely to be the joy of :money:

MrsRogers

sparrer wrote: »

Extra food will be zero for me as I'm going to DD for the day (but I will give her something towards the extra she has to pay out), but all presents bought through the year using gift tokens earned from surveys, paypal rewards, amazon vouchers, nectar points etc probably would have cost about £300. Cards were bought in M@t@l@n last Jan for £1 for 20 'posh' ones, wrapping paper ironed and reused, gift bags reused, tags home made from old cards, ribbon for tags cut from the ones they put on clothing to keep them on hangers, stamps bought in Superdrug as they sell them at a discount...so total cash spend was probably £40-£50 altogether for DD, DS, their partners, 6 grandchildren, DM, DB and DSiL, two nieces. Partly the 'joys' of living on a pension, but more likely to be the joy of :money:

Love this idea of homemade tags using ribbon out of clothes... Ill be doing that next year... Thank you for the tip :T

meanmarie

Probably about €1000....that is my budget and its saved for all year....I deduct items I buy during the year from monthly savings....I do have 7 offspring, their partners, 5 grandchildren, an 'adopted' Japanese friend and her 3 year old, and of course OH...one brother and 2 nephews, so I think that is not too bad, it includes all extra food, OH pays for booze.

Hopefully will be able to cut down a bit next year....didn't start making stuff in time this year.

Marie