❄❄ Let It Snow ❄❄ :: Christmas 2012 Chatter Thread

chirpychick

I'm watching the holiday in bed lol! It's on itv2 +1 and I thought I have to or I'd be letting the team down

hamish222

Boots 3 for 2 is online. I am now officially on xmas countdown

doodygirl

hamish222 wrote: »

Boots 3 for 2 is online. I am now officially on xmas countdown

Thanks for the heads up just ordered all my little boys presents for £105 bargain :beer:

Possession

Ooh just looked - the Star Wars lego advent calendar is on 3 for 2, and lots of monster high stuff.

Snugglebunny8

thanks for Boots heads up!

I love The Holiday, one of my favourites

The presents I remember as a kid are that I had a sweet shop each year, it was a cardboard counter with little paper bags, a tiny till, little scoops and little jars of sweets to measure out, I had one each year and absolutely loved it! I remember the rustle and the weight of the full stocking hung on my door (we used pillowcase) but I don't really remember any other actual presents, so you are right that it is the thoughts, memories, smells and sounds of Christmas that we really remember I guess!

ReformedShopaholic

chirpychick wrote: »

My little boy isn't here yet but I know what we will spend on him next year due to our IVA we have to have this stuff planned and it will be £75 Birthday (inc day out/tea party with family) and £40 for Christmas. Obviously a 1 year old is cheaper to buy for than older children. But our spend came down to what we can sensibly budget/ afford - which is where I am going here....

Spend what you can afford to spend, not what you feel you should or what your friends spend or what your kids guilt you into spending at the end of the day how many presents do we remember from childhood? I remember 2 - a Barbie Caravan because my Dad & Grandad spent all day building it :rotfl: and a Guitar because it wasn't what I wanted :eek: that sounds awful (I was 7!) but what I do remember is the memories!! And I have very fond memories that my family created.

I hope this helps x

This is exactly what we are doing this year. The last 2 years we felt the pressure with everyone. Setting an amount all the same for adults then a smaller amount for the younger ones (13 adults and 4 kids) We actually struggled sometimes in finding presents for the adults, in that we would buy something then say right they have x amount left we need to find something else as well (:eek: madness I know).
This year due to me not being able to work full-time any more and only being able to just about cope physically working 16hrs means a massive drop in money coming in.
That and the fact that I am appalled at how much we spent the last 2 years on people- and that was before we had bought each other and we don't have any kids of our own- means this year we have thrown out the budgets for people and just decided that if we see something to get them we buy that and that's it. There is no "wait we have x more to spend on them"
Seeing all the links to bargins and craft ideas on here has really helped cut our cost down by half what it was before :j
Next year I'm determined to plan even better than this year people might think I'm being alittle greedy at that but to be honest I'd rather get them something either personal or know they want than some tat they will just throw out or never look at again.

Apologies for the long post!!

Opee92

My DD will be 2 by Christmas and so far this year I've probably spent around £80 and am pretty much done....Last year I spent closer to £200/250 simply because my friend had told me that she'd spent around that on her little girl and had bought in excess of 50 presents :eek: (her little girl was only 9 months) so I felt I must keep up and that I'd be depriving my daughter by NOT spending so much on her. So that's what I did...£200+ spent meaning around 50 presents - What a mistake!!! 3 DAYS it took to open all her presents...she was only 1 and got bored after opening a couple so we had to keep going back to them. What a waste of money. Infact come mid February there was still 6/7 presents still boxed that she wasn't even interested in (I sneaked them into my present cupboard and she will either receive them again this year or they've been put aside for my younger nieces) So this year I've got her around 12 presents that I know she'll really enjoy and will probably just go to morrisons/tesco Christmas eve when they reduce all their toys and get her a few cheap bits to bulk it up abit but it was definitely a lesson learnt for me!!!

What does everyone do regarding presents with your other half? Do you have a budget? Not do presents? Give money? I'm interested as last year I ran up over £700 in debt on just my OH's present - he has a relatively well paid job and as I was on maternity leave and getting pittance in benefits (due to being screwed over by my old boss - but that's another story) he was having to pay everything - mortgage, bills, visas, gas, elec - I mean EVERYTHING!!! So I said I'd buy all the Christmas presents for family by budgeting and buying throughout the year which was fine but come December I'd finished the family but had only around £80 to get him something. My BF then let slip that my OH had bought me some genuine uggs, a new netbook and lots of other stuff....I felt horrible at the thought of me having all this and him having perhaps just one present come Christmas day so I ventured to my local Argos with my Argos card in hand and bought him a new camera (£379) tomtom (£120) Blackberry (160) and some other small bits.

I'm STILL paying this back now but this year my OH and I have decided not to buy presents. We're going to do each other a stocking with a set budget of £20 each and Since March I've been putting £10 a week away in a sealed pot and will open it on Christmas day to see what I've saved. My OH is also saving and we've decided we will just go out and do some sale shopping (as last year my OH bought me a new coat 2 days before Christmas for £80 and then when we went shopping on December 27th it was on sale for £15 :eek:) and get some bits we both really want - I'm gonna give him the option of either new clothes, aftershave, gifty bits etc or he can buy himself a new desktop computer as his desperately needs replacing.

Sorry about the rambling post......

Possession

My main memories of christmas presents as a child are: the cadburys mini chocolate bar dispenser, a cassette recorder (guess that shows my age!), a science kit (potassium permanaganate anyone?), a bike ( a folding one - NOT what I wanted!) and a family present my sister and I were really excited about because we thought it was a microwave (which also shows my age!) but turned out to be encyclopedia britannica. Another massive disappointment. I'm afraid my parents, lovely as they are, just aren't very good at presents unless they receive precise instructions.
I fully agree you need to stick to your budget, which can be hard if your budget is low and all your children's friends are getting high-price tech. We naturally don't want to disappoint our children but it's also important to show them that you don't get into debt just because you want something.
For DH, we usually don't spend much on each other. And I'm afraid he is REALLY rubbish at presents. He always wants books so I expect I'll get him a few of those.

ReformedShopaholic

Keep trying to convince O/H we need to set budgets for each other but he doesn't listen. Last year it was like yours opee92 in that he spends loads of money on lots of presents for me and I had only got him a few little things and some expensive t-shirts that he likes(in the sale), so I ended up going out to try and find some other things for him.

Last night asked him if we should just not bother getting a lot and just get each other something really small as I start to worry about what he will spend and get me and what I could possibly get him in return.

He said since we will prob be buying the xbox games he wants anyway i could always wrap them up so he has something to open. Told him if its just about opening something i will just wrap up stuff already in the house and he can open them haha.

msgigglewick

ooo that means xmas is on its way!!! regards the boots offers lol
I don't really know how much i've spent, i do know that what i have spent has just come out of the housekeeping each week and the main xmas presents came out of the tax rebate. Nothing has been put on credit, second year running for us... i love it! ITs such a nice feeling to get to december with no panic, no scared thoughts of how to pay it all back.. wish i had done the same when the older girls were little, times were different then though! We have just one full year to get through next year and our income should increase by about £400 a month better off with things being paid off at last! i really can't wait for this troublesome time to be over!
Really fighting the urge to start watching xmas movies! its a good job its a lovely sunny day here or i could quite easily sit down with hot chocolate and get all festive lol