How are you coping with Christmas finances?

missindecisive

Last year I was well into my overdraft facility and really feeling down about it. I have got a large family with winter birthdays so that doesn't help. I decided for this year to start saving each month so I would be in a better position this Christmas. Its not quite gone to plan as I had to replace washing machine and had a very very expensive car bill . however, I'm in a better place this year and hoping to be clear of any outstanding bills by end of January. I've set a budget for the spends and tried to stick to it, I've recycled some unwanted presents, and I've bought some toys on my Argos card which I'll pay off in 3 chunks before I start paying interest on it. All in all, better than last year but next year I aim to do better!

CRANKY40

I hate the culture that sees people getting themselves into debt and miserable spending lots of money buying things that other people don't want in order to receive a pile of stuff that they don't want either from the same people.

To your adult family I'd say don't bother and you won't buy them apart from small sibling gifts and their children, your parents and grandparents. I'd set a limit for them and tell them not to spend more on you. As for friends how about suggesting that you do birthdays only in future. This will spread the cost out, they will get a better present and you'll take some of the strain off too.

Even my sister and I only do birthdays for each other and our respective children. They get enough plastic tat at Christmas and they enjoy their extra birthday money. My cousins and I don't do presents for birthdays or Christmas for us or the children and the little ones only get a present of they have a party and one of our children is invited. It may sound mean to some people, but a few years back when we were all strapped for cash, this arrangement saved the sanity of more than one of us.

My dear old dad (known as Ebeneezer to the family) has embraced this buying pattern with gusto and no longer buys anything for me or my sister or any of his grandchildren over the age of 21 :rotfl:I send him a Christmas shopping delivery from a supermarket as he lives a couple of hundred miles away, you get shedloads more stuff than you would in a hamper and it stops me worrying about his food shopping while the weather is bad. I save monthly for birthdays and Christmas. I have a separate account so I don't spend the money by accident or mix it up with anything else.

dingdongsaving

We save each month & have a £200 present fund & £200 additional food fund to draw from for Christmas gifts & treats. We also put leftover money from our Grocery Challenge into our treats pot as we go & this year it's really mounted up. We've been meal-planning & have cut down on eating out & we're hoping to get everything (food/drink wise) from our Nov & Dec standard grocery budgets (bar the bird as we get a local 1 from a farmer & it's by no means a cheap option but it lasts for 6-10 meals/soups & we like helping our local farm & knowing it's free range & well cared for).

I'd def. find a way to give gifts & not have to panic about how to pay for them. No gift is worth that...to anyone! Plus, I'd say put something in place for next year. Even a small saving of £40 a month from Feb-Oct. would mean you have £400 to enjoy spending on treats next Nov/Dec.

Possible ideas for this year: find something "universal" that you can put together for each adult...maybe finding things that are buy 2 get 1 free or buy 2 for £20 etc etc. Some more frugal ideas we've used before are: home made truffles/fudge/coconut ice etc. with a good book or book voucher, home made Christmas-pudding-vodka or sloe gin with some nice glasses, a Christmas morning hamper (home made cranberry/coconut granola, a spiced apple loaf, home made jam/marmalade, a nice pack of tea/coffee...etc. etc.)
Then do the same thing for any children...a Christmas DVD with some popcorn & pic n mix sweets, a gingerbread house kit & appropriate decorating sweets, ingredients for gingerbread with gingerbread men/lady cutters & sweets for buttons/eyes etc.

The year our son was born was our tightest Christmas so far as I was on maternity leave & we weren't earning much money back then. We got a multi-pack of tree decorations that you put your own special photos/messages in & everyone got 1 of those (a family photo on 1 side & a special message the other) in a little bag with a handful of sweets. Remember it's the thought & time taken that counts.

You may well find that if you suggest just going out for a meal together, going to the cinema or having people over for a nice meal instead of exchanging gifts at all goes down well with anyone too! My circle of friends used to all exchange gifts (7 of us all buying 6 gifts of about £10 or under!!!) & it was such a relied when 1 of us finally piped up & said why didn't we all just meet for a Christmas drink & some cake in rotation at our homes & do a Secret Santa with only 1 gift to buy each. We draw for the following year AT the event to let us all look all year long too.

I hope you find a way to have a present stress-less & merry Christmas! xx

mumps

I try to get the Morrisons £25 voucher I have £80 in nectar points and will use them in the double up to get £160 worth of presents. That covers the extra food and alot of the presents. Top up with a bit of cash but don't go mad.

meanmarie

I just buy for my 5 grandchildren these days, my daughters born on 22nd and 23rd of December and my grand- nephew.....everyone else gets a chocolate orange amd a meal over Christmas. This started a few years ago I realised that I never knew what to buy, this saves me going mad in the weeks before Christmas and I honestly think that they are happier too.

Marie

NewShadow

If it helps, sainsbobs are selling choc oranges for £1 each. Was really tempted...

suki1964

Me and hubby spend £10 on each other I spend around £30 on mum as its birthday on Xmas eve

Hubby gives his daughter £50. I buy her a few Nik naks that I think she would like. Her partner I get a small pressie for. The two grandchildren we tend to treat, new coats and shoes, Jim jams, a personal pressie and sweeties
Then I buy all the grandchildrens extended step families a pressie each in their name. However they are all around the five quid mark. I also have to do secret Santa in work which is around a fiver as well

I re gift and buy in the 70% boots sale. I also look for bargains all year and tuck them away. I also save for the love to shop vouchers. This year I've managed to save for £300 and I'm aiming for at least £150 left over to go towards birthday gifts during the year

Food shopping comes to no more then it does any other time of year. We don't go mad. A bottle of baileys is the only extra drink , we usually have wine and beer in anyway. Special treats I start buying as soon as they hit the shops. Easy enough to find reduced bargains on party food and I just shove in the freezer for when needed

I used to spend a fortune each year just on the turkey. However the poultry plant has a factory shop and I pick up the same bird I'd have to pay £45 for in m&s for a tenner

Butterfly_Brain

I do the 'sistercas fund' which is to put £1 a day in a pot so by Christmas I have £365 :j I will actually have some left over this year because I have got everything now :jincluding presents, meats, booze and sweets, just fresh stuff to get

I will use that in the January sales and get the paper, cards, gift tags, crackers and some pressies for next Christmas, then I just keep my eyes out for gifts throughout the year.

I also have a pot that I put all my coupon money and lotto wins for the year into, I counted it yesterday and had £295, I won £5 on a lotto card today so I have a nice round £300, so I will just carry on and see just how much I can save because I need a new fold up mobility scooter and that will help with the cost.:eek:

So if you use coupons just treat them as an extra and put the money you have saved into a seperate pot, as you can see it really mounts up

kboss2010

Citygirl1 wrote: »

Thanks for your replies. Looks like saving over the year is the best option, but I do struggle with that. I try to put something into my own savings if I can so other savings can be tricky. I come out with approx. £1.200 per month and £700 or so of that goes on rent and bills and monthly bus pass, I live alone so have no help with the bills and of course I need to buy clothes and things and like to socialise, I am not extravagant though by any means. The only beauty pamper I have is having my hair coloured at the hairdressers, and having my eyebrows waxed, everything else I do myself.

If you're anything like me, a colour costs around £60-80 from the hairdresser, eyebrow wax around £10?

See whether you have a college nearby that does health and beauty treatments. I switched to my local college and am now paying £12 for a colour, £6 for a cut and eyebrow waxes are around £5. Beats the £70-odd I'd spend at a local salon and the quality is the same as they're supervised throughout. Put the money you save towards Xmas in a pot you have to smash open and, assuming you get your hair done every 2 months, you'll have over £200 within a year.

nursemaggie

I don't have a big family to buy for my parents have been dead 20 years. I have knitted something for everyone and not little tiny things. Making presents is not free but you get much better value than the yarn. I started planning in July. Bought most of the yarn by September and began knitting in August. Each present has at least 30 hours of work in it.

I posted the first parcel today it cost more than the value of the contents. I am now wondering if it is all going to cost me more than I can afford to post. No one lives any where near me. I will have to find some other way of getting them there.

It is ridiculous to spend more than you can afford on a lot of things people do not want. I have never got into debt to buy things for Christmas. We will have a small chicken for Christmas. I buy that regularly anyway as it is the cheapest way to eat. I can buy a 2 KG chicken for £3 and stretch it to feed us 5 meals each. I cannot buy anything any cheaper that my son would eat. The extra is a couple of small boxes of chocolates, a Christmas Pudding very small as only I eat it, I make a trifle which is actually a really cheap pudding if you look at the cost per person, there is nothing else extra so about £5 for a few treats over Christmas. You can make it as cheap or expensive as you like.

Spending lots of extras would only result in us having to cut out eating for the rest of December just to throw it out. It makes no sense.