Christmas Budget

jakes-mum

Hmmm somehow managed to post twice!

lvm

jakes-mum wrote: »

I'm looking at a second year of spending nothing on Christmas presents

I have won everyone's gifts/gift cards to use to buy gifts so they have cost me nothing

I have to get for:
1 x nan
1 x uncle
1 x aunt
2 x fathers
2 x mothers
1 x sister
1 x BIL
1 x DH
1 x DS
1 x DD

Only got sister and DH to get for now and still have about £200 in gift cards left to spend

I've also got £44 in m&s vouchers to put toward the luxury food and we always have chicken for Christmas dinner so even that shouldn't cost me any more money . . . . Well along as DH, DS and DD don't sneak anything extra in my trolley :rotfl:

Wow!!! That is actually amazing!! How on earth do you manage to win them all?? I'd love to be able to do that!!

hgotsparkle

I'm actually shocked at how much a lot of you spend at christmas! Granted I don't have any children to buy for but still!

Mine is:


OH £25/70
Mum 0/40
Stepdad 0/30
Friend 0/20


Thats it!


Christmas decorations will be poundland, poundstretcher and b&m.
Dinner will be at my mums but we will probably buy about £40 of food to take over.

CupOfChai

OH - £40, + £10 stocking (and he does roughly the same for me)

My parents - either £30 jointly or £15 each.

OHs parents - either £30 jointly or £15 each.

Sisters - 2 x £10

Gran 1 - £10

Gran 2 - £10

Great Uncle - £10

Sister 1's BF - £5-£10 (or add to sister's as joint gift)

Decs and food - about £20-£30 I think, we get some things in to have a pretend Christmas a week or two before, just for us, as we spend the real one separately with our families. I don't have to cook a proper dinner or cater for any guests, and don't need decorations as I have them from last year now, but I might give in if I see something I really love.

Gifts to family are all from me and OH jointly, although I do all the sorting out, and just tell him how much he owes me at the end.

My budget is tiny compared to some of you! It's also a bit of a weird half-budget, in OHs family he and siblings are each expected now to sort out their own gifts for people, whereas in mine at the moment we get a sort of joint gift from all of us (Mum, Dad, offspring) to the person and my mum still sorts that out, so that's why most of my family aren't on my budget. I have suggested I do gifts from me to them now that I'm an adult (supposedly), or even I could do some of it for her, but she won't let me! And I love doing it!

In_Debt_Bet

Funnily enough I was thinking the other day about how much Christmas is likely to cost - I think I've got about £70 saved up so far to pay for it, it's a start but not much and there's not that long to go now :eek:

My OH doesn't really do Christmas, so we don't buy for each other and I usually go to my sister's on Christmas Day and spend the day there with her and the family.

Presents - £175 - No children and I only buy for close family.

Food & drink - £100 - I like to get a few nice bits and pieces in as although I'll be away on Christmas Day we're both on leave over the festive period.

Cards & gift wrap - £15

Looking at the figures about hopefully I should be able to do it for around £300 I haven't actually started any shopping yet so the above figures are all estimates

jakes-mum

lvm wrote: »

Wow!!! That is actually amazing!! How on earth do you manage to win them all?? I'd love to be able to do that!!

I use the competitions board on here, BUT I do start my christmas comping on boxing day and comp pretty much every single day

I enjoy doing it and its lovely when you win something someone really wanted but you couldnt afford. Two years ago I won DS an xbox 360, he had been desperate for one as all his mates had one but knew we couldnt afford it so his face was a picture when he opened it

I have done well this year, ive had over £440 in gift vouchers which has made getting things alot easier :T

DH did laugh at me a couple of weeks ago as I had so much stuff suited to DD I actually started putting it on next christmas's spreadsheet :rotfl:

*Louise*

I hate when I add it up and realise what it costs

£600 - 3 kids
£130 - hubby and I
£90 - 3 x parents
£70 - 7 nieces/nephews (this is cut down from £15 each)
£25 -2 December birthdays
£150 - approx for 10 other people, including grannies (£15) and teachers (£5)
£100 - decorations, but only because we need a new tree
£150 - food shop.


Got our Xmas money all saved up, and can get £100 of toys using vouchers when Tesco do their next exchange, which is handy

balletshoes

quidsy wrote: »

Mines starts at around 1000 but I then work on finding bargains, money off, cash back, pay with points, anything to reduce the cost. I also start early, picking things up in Jan sales and start in ernest around July.

I have estimated approx total spend of 650 this year, as have bought most everything already, so well under budget thsi year. I buy for my son, 4 other kids and 9 adults. The sales through the year are my main goto for top quality for low cost, especially the debenhams home sale.

I do it the other way around - I have a budget of say £30 per "child" I buy for (except my DD) and I buy bits and pieces in the sales/offers through the year as I see them, so I'm still spending £30 on them but the value of what they're getting (at rrp) is much more than £30.

As my DD gets older, I don't really have a set budget for her, it really depends what is on her list. Theres nothing really expensive on it this year, its mostly clothes, shoes etc, so I'll start looking out for offers on those soon and picking up as I go along.

I spend about £30 on my mum, and sometimes similar on my OH, but we dont really buy each other Christmas pressies as such, they are just little silly tokens I find and think he might like.

I don't buy for my sisters and brother, and they don't buy for me, we all have kids so we just buy for the kids instead.

I don't have a food budget for Christmas as we're never home, we're always with family. But we all put money in the pot so Christmas day dinner is covered without mum having to pay for it.

So for pressies (2 adults, 5 kids, my DD) I'm looking at probably around £350, plus another £30 or so for Christmas day food.

bagpussbear

My budget is:

Husband - £100
Son - £150 max, hoping to spend less
Friends - £40
3 godchildren - £40
In-laws - £20

My downfall is spending too much on christmas food and drink so am determined to be more realistic this year on what to spend - mind you I've accumulated about £80 worth of nectar points which I plan to spend on xmas food in sainsburys :-)

emmad5689

I haven't really written it down this year but have spreadsheet with everything I plan to get or have already got.

£150 each for 2 daughters - £300
£90 for hubbies family
£70 for my family
£80 each for me and hubby

total £540 so not as bad as I would have expected, we have xmas decs and plan on making some with the girls and we go to my parents and then his parents for meals.

Anyone got an ideas for cheap homemade gifts? x