So how much extra will Christmas have cost you?

ALIBOBSY

Hmm quite hard to say really. We have saved £97 on a morrisons saving card (topped up by them to £100) and that plus the £25 voucher thingy will easily cover food and treats fro the festive period.
To qualify for the voucher we have spent more than we normally would in morrisons, but we concentrated on offers and have quite a bit of stuff that will last us agggggeeessss. I also had shopped almost all year around, spreading the costs of food,pressies extras etc over many months.
Then again we have cut back on the pressies for the kids this year and I have made even more stuff from scratch as well as the usually make your own tags from old cards etc.

I suspect not many on here actually do a big go out and splurg on christmas in one lot to be honest :j keeps costs down and spreads it out.

As a guesstimate if I had to pay all in one rather than spread out, including all pressies and extra decorations, food, chocies etc around £600 ish, but there are 6 of us and will be 8 on boxing day. Plus like last year the garage already looks like a shop (kids call it mums store or mums spar lol) and so our January and feb bills willbe lower than normal as well.

ali x

sparrer

MrsRogers wrote: »

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

Thanks Mrs Rogers. I cut them off, thread them on to a safety pin as close to the end of the ribbon as possible, then when I want one I just cut it off close to the safety pin rather than having to unthread several to get to the colour I want

Penelope_Penguin

Stephen_Leak wrote: »

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

You kept that quiet - hope you have a lovely Christmas together

I won;t be telling how much we've spent but as we've had a hard working year and can afford it, I don;t think we need to be too concerned

I'll move this to the Christmas Board later

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sharloid

£0 extra, I don't celebrate Christmas. Thankfully no one expects me to buy them presents!

angelavdavis

sparrer wrote: »

Thanks Mrs Rogers. I cut them off, thread them on to a safety pin as close to the end of the ribbon as possible, then when I want one I just cut it off close to the safety pin rather than having to unthread several to get to the colour I want

Lovely idea sparrer. I actually do cut the ribbon out of clothes to use for other uses, but hadn't thought of being so organised (mine sits in a drawer which is like unravelling spaghetti) - thanks for sharing!

mrs-stressed

So far I have spent £30 - £15 each for my grown up kids. My son is buying 'the food'. I have only to stump up the gas and electricity to cook 'whatever' we are having. I have last years crackers leftovers, wrappping paper leftovers, tags, cards so no outlay there. I have used all my vouchers from Tesco, Nectar etc just keeping myself alive to now. I am hoping therefore to keep the whole thing at £100 by the time I am finished. And I will be finished I can tell you!!!!

mrs s

mrs-stressed

Oh I remember something else. Last year I had less than at any time before and I couldnt give the kids anything. I have never felt so awful as I did on Xmas day when there wasnt anything from their Mum. I felt that I will never ever do that again even if it means only £1.00 each at Poundland. I still cry when I think of how bad it was not to be able to give. The year hasnt been any kinder to me but I have had no holidays, dont smoke, dont go out, dont buy clothes and live a very very quiet life. So I reckon £15 each isnt bad all things considered....

mrs s

Boodle

We will probably be spending around £100 in pressies on the girls (4 and under 2) which will include bike/trike each. We tend to aim for a larger pressie each, about 2-3 other thing wrapped up (such as a couple of books wrapped together, pyjamas and such like) and a stocking of smaller thing (including a net of satsumas ) They get other things on Xmas morning that relatives have asked Santa to send them of course.

Me and OH don't usually buy for eachother - if we want something we get it, so I don't understand expensive gifts. But this year, due to lack of pressies for us being grown up and all we decided to fill a stocking for eachother with a £10 budget which should be fun.
Food is usually only about a tenner extra, for the things we wouldn't usually get like extra dried fruit, mince pies, stuffing + cranberry sauce, wine.

So about £250 as a guesstimate... Rather than sticking to a budget/trying to seem or not seem stingy/generous, we just go by the feel of it i.e. What will people like/seem appropriate to us?

rachbc

Not so much theat we are worried about it, but just enough to feel I have treated my loved ones and myself!

mi_jardin

I started buying presents in the sales after last Christmas, and have bought more throughout the year, so its hard to say, but they are all paid for so thats good.
I had about £40 in nectar vouchers, and another £100 from Pine Cone and Lightspeed surveys so has paid for a lot of the Christmas food/drink, though we have spent probably another £100 on that as well.
I spent £10 on a wreath for the front door, and £5 for two decorations from M&S.
The cards and paper were bought in the sales too, so all paid for.
The only things I have put on my CC are the crocs I bought online for a fiver or so and a George Forman Grill from Argos that was less than half price down to £25. They will get paid off in full next pay day.
So all in all not bad at all this year! :T