Reeling from the Reality Check

midlander81

Hi HB,


I struggled with the concept of funding Christmas this year too. We really love Christmas an in the past we have been guilty of overspending but that is simply not an option this year. We have told friends that we will spend around £5 on their children this year as we are 'cutting back'. We haven't gone into details about out 40K debt as that is our business.


Most of our friends actually seemed relieved and also agreed to spend a smaller amount. I think that sometimes we all think that we have expectations of each other that don't really exist. We stopped buying for adult family members ( except parents) a few years ago which really helps.


We are going to do a big food shop at Aldi the week before Christmas. We have budgeted £100 for this so it should see us through to the new year! You can get a lot for £100 at Aldi!! We go to my parents for Christmas dinner which obviously helps with the cost.


I really hope that you manage to have a stress free Christmas.. you deserve it .

sugarbaby125

Hi HB, I am debt free since May 2014. I am so looking forward to Christmas this year. I am doing Christmas on my budget not on my family's expectations and I really hope you will do the same. I have 4 children and 4 grandchildren to buy for before starting on the wider family and good friends. I take greatest pleasure in seeing my savings grow each month. In only 2 months I have managed to save £1,000 towards our family holiday in 2015. My priorities are finally the right way round. I do not feel guilty for keeping to a strict budget of £25 for my 4 children, 4 children and my son in law. For the wider family and good friends I intend to buy for, I have a budget of £10 per person. It means that I have to think about each persons personality and be more creative in finding good presents for each person that they will really be pleased to receive. If I get it wrong, they are at liberty to recycle their presents or donate them to a charity shop.

I have been buying presents since January 2014, so have almost completed my present list. I have cards, wrapping paper and gift tags already and I have started to add a few items for Christmas and New Year to each weekly shop, to ensure that by by 19th December 2014, I will have everything my family needs without gross overspending.

Good luck HB in having a very good family Christmas and New Year that will not derail your repayment of your debts and your new wiser spending habits.

Historybuff

Thanks all for your interest and support. Brogden, if I could escape Christmas, I would! So I think I'm with you on that one. However, it has to be faced, so onwards and upwards as you say! Galley, eager elephant, Midlander and sugar, I just can't overspend because there is no spare cash! Before Christmas as well we have a friends significant birthday I will have to budget £50 to spend on that...couple of days at a cottage (paid) just need entertainment money. Last Christmas I must have spent close on £1200, £500 on the food bill alone! Craziness! Anyhow, this year I have to shell out for the works Christmas do. The meal, including drink is £32 and I will have to buy a round of drinks...I'm the boss, so have to. I reckon total £85. I can save a couple of weeks of fuel, about £50, so that can go some way to mitigating that expense. I have 18 presents to get, £200? I normally shop in a frenzy two days before Christmas, spend a fortune and buy OTT gifts. This year I am not going to do that. DD is creative and makes stuff, so I'm thinking of tasking her with making all my gifts for no more than £10 per person. Apart from gifts for two small children, who will have to have toys etc
So to the food. I'm used to spending an obscene amount. Ive cut my normal day to day food bills an awful lot, so what can Christmas be done for? £150? Is that feasible? I'm not buying alcohol because we have loads left from OH birthday and last Christmas TBH when I way overbought. I think I'm going to try to do Christmas on a budget of £400. Any comments, ideas, etc welcome. Available cash for the whole month is £600 and that includes fuel.

Eager_Elephant

Just a few thoughts...

Presents - would the recipients appreciate DD making them their presents or would they discard them quickly. Could you instead just give them a token gift? In the past I used to spend about £20 per person at Xmas for family and in the end we could not afford it so then I started doing pots of gold https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1283835 and adding in a Xmas scratch card - everyone loved them and of course some of them won money.

Last year quite a few one here did Chocolate Sleighs as either presents with a scratch card or as table decorations http://www.jakheath.com/2012/12/make-your-own-chocolate-place.html

Is there anyone who could be struck off the present list? Are there others who may like a Xmas present amnesty?


Food - I always go over the top with food at Xmas. Each year I cut back and it is still too much, nothing goes to waste as I just cook and freeze everything.

I like this post by Frugal Queen http://www.frugalqueen.co.uk/2013/09/how-to-have-frugal-christmas.html - she did it in September 2013 when she talked about buying meat a few months before Xmas when the price goes up but the interesting bit was the amount she allowed per person for Xmas dinner -

Here is an example of what I would put on each plate - once I've worked out how much each person will need, I simply calculate this by the amount of guests. As meat shrinks when cooked, I will need 200g of raw meat per person.


100g- 150g of cooked meat
2 pigs in blankets
2 roast potatoes
1 large carrots in sticks and steamed
1 heaped tablespoon of peas
6 sprouts
Mashed swede
60g of forcemeat stuffing
1 tablespoon of sloe/damson jelly
gravy

For dessert, we would share a homemade steamed fruit pudding with cream or custard.

In the evening,we might have some cold cooked meat with pickles and salad and some mince pies.

It's just a roast dinner really but on a special day. How many meats do you normally serve? if more than 1 can you cut back to 1? Can people visiting bring some food as a contribution?

Xmas Day food in our house is kept very simple, we all have breakfast or eat chocolate and then I serve a roast about 1.30pm (we have turkey, stuffing (home-made), roast potatoes, carrots, sprouts, sweetcorn, parsnips and gravy. We are so stuffed we don't bother with dessert and then about 6pm we have dessert (either Xmas pud or something home-made) and that's us done.

Boxing Day we all pile to my mum's for bingo and we all contribute to the buffet - I take some leftovers from Xmas Day and anything else from the list. There is usually 20 of us and we do just enough food so there is no leftovers and if people are still hungry they can make a sandwich.


No body ever moans at Xmas that there is never enough food so why do I still fill the fridge and the freezers full of food? The only good thing is that we eat Xmas food all through January so it saves money in the shopping budget.


Could you start looking out for reduced meats ready for Xmas?


How many do you cater for? Could you post here what you normally cook and we might have some other suggestions?

Eager_Elephant

Forgot to say that the only alcohol we really have is Lambrini which we have with Xmas lunch (we are not wine drinkers).


I buy fizzy drinks (we don't have them at other times of the year), juices and DH will have a bottle of spiced rum plus of course we have the usual tea, coffee and squash.


I won't mention the Xmas do as that seems none negotiable.

Historybuff

Thanks, Eager Elephant. I really like the pots of gold idea. DD can make lovely jewellery, so I might use that alongside the pot of gold idea. I could probably make a good looking gift and not spend much money doing it! I don't think I will save by buying bits now and then because I only have the one payday in the run up to Christmas.

Historybuff

I've been thinking about your Christmas food post, Eager Elephant. I like the Frugal Queen idea of calculating exactly how much food to buy/cook. I will make a list and stick to it to try to make the food bill as cheap as possible. We will be six or seven at the Christmas meal and I am definitely not buying a Christmas Cake this year because no one ever wants it on the day and it lingers about for ages afterwards. Still thinking about the presents.

Historybuff

3 days to payday. 50p left, but enough food to last and fuel in the car will last till Friday. Bonus £10.35 left in the bank too!

Eager_Elephant

Historybuff wrote: »

I've been thinking about your Christmas food post, Eager Elephant. I like the Frugal Queen idea of calculating exactly how much food to buy/cook. I will make a list and stick to it to try to make the food bill as cheap as possible. We will be six or seven at the Christmas meal and I am definitely not buying a Christmas Cake this year because no one ever wants it on the day and it lingers about for ages afterwards. Still thinking about the presents.

Glad you have been thinking about what I wrote - I worry I go on a bit too much!!


I like FQ and read her blog every few days - some of the stuff she talks about can be quite over the top but other things are brilliant.


Unfortunately I love leftovers so for me the more roast potato's cooked and left over the better - it means I can have some cold with turkey before bed on Xmas Day and on Boxing Day morning:rotfl:


I agree about Xmas Cake - only DH eats that sort of thing so we never buy it, instead he has a small Xmas pud all to himself plus we buy Stollen from Lidl - we have about 5 packs of these and they last ages. We buy individual ones which are great with a cup of coffee.


We used to buy all the different tubs of chocolate and in the New Year we were still ploughing our way through them until only the horrible ones were left and DH ate them all :rotfl:. Now we just buy a couple and that usually lasts ages.

Eager_Elephant

Historybuff wrote: »

3 days to payday. 50p left, but enough food to last and fuel in the car will last till Friday. Bonus £10.35 left in the bank too!

Excellent - you have done so well this month:T:T