price of Christmas

C_J

I really, really love Christmas. I don't have many to buy for (my husband, two grown up daughters and their long term partners, and one grumpy ungrateful father in law) and very much enjoy spoiling them all at Christmas, although I shop carefully and am never wasteful.

For example last year my elder daughter really wanted a Le Creuset casserole dish, and I managed to get the one she wanted from the Bicester Village outlet store at half RRP. My younger daughter asked for a second hand silver watch as she likes vintage things, and I bought the most beautiful solid silver 1950s cocktail watch in perfect working order from an online auction site for just £25. It's gorgeous and she loves it.

I still make advent calendars and Christmas stockings for everyone, but I shop for little bargains all year long for those so they don't break the bank (and it gives me enormous pleasure to do it). Even the dogs get a Christmas stocking each, but these are small felt stockings which I made many years ago, and I just fill them with either home-baked dog biscuits or a couple of packs of doggie chews from the pound shop.

I don't send Christmas cards, but do whip up a batch of Christmas spiced star-shaped iced biscuits which I put into cellophane bags to hand out to my work colleagues. Sharing is nice.

I do the whole nine yards for Christmas lunch, but the leftovers will feed us for several days afterwards so I don't consider it to be hugely expensive, and I enjoy the cooking experience very much.

I guess my total outlay is somewhere in the region of £1000.

mrs_Badger

I'm another who doesn't spend much so don't bother saving. I see my nieces on Christmas Eve, and buy their gifts throughout the year, and then on Christmas day I only see my husband and my mum, so they get something. These, with extra food, cards, and donations to dog shelter come in under £100.

Pollycat

C_J wrote: »

For example last year my elder daughter really wanted a Le Creuset casserole dish, and I managed to get the one she wanted from the Bicester Village outlet store at half RRP. My younger daughter asked for a second hand silver watch as she likes vintage things, and I bought the most beautiful solid silver 1950s cocktail watch in perfect working order from an online auction site for just £25. It's gorgeous and she loves it.

You sound like my kind of shopper.

The watch sounds lovely, I'd love it too.

maman

Pollycat wrote: »

The watch sounds lovely, I'd love it too.

So would I. For that I'd make an exception and let DH buy me a Christmas gift.:D

C_J

Thank you It really is quite special, and a great find. My daughter has very dainty little wrists and I had to take the watch to a jewellers to have a couple of the links removed so that it would fit her - the jeweller said it was a stunning watch. He said that if he were to grade watches on a scale of one to ten, with one being the sort of thing you would buy from, say, Argos then this one would be a nine.

What I think I love most is the fact that my 23 year old daughter wanted something pre-loved and with a bit of history to it rather than something off the shelf from the High Street that everyone else might have. She loves trawling charity shops for vintage clothes which she alters too, and her friends are all quite jealous of her very individual style She often says that if she weren't a primary school teacher she would be a personal style adviser!

Living_proof

C_J wrote: »

I guess my total outlay is somewhere in the region of £1000.

EEEEK! I am amazed you think you have a low-key Christmas for as much as this.....

suki1964

Living_proof wrote: »

EEEEK! I am amazed you think you have a low-key Christmas for as much as this.....

Everyone is on a different budget

I personally think it doesn't matter what's spent, as long as it's paid for without having a to pay the credit card off 6 weeks later

Islandmaid

This year I have been saving £100 pm - this is to pay for all birthdays and Christmas.

This year was my youngest's 18th, I was able to give him a generous amount and a nice watch and a small party without worrying. I will have a good amount for Christmas, too much really, but I will use the excess to buy my home insurance as a one off, then the monthly amount I would have paid will go into my savings account next year. It's my DD 21st next year, so I will have some saving to get her something memorable, and so on.

I worried about saving so much a month (a lot for me) but I cut back elsewhere and it has been fine and knowing there is a little pot of money is very reassuring

Pollycat

C_J wrote: »

She often says that if she weren't a primary school teacher she would be a personal style adviser!

Lordy! Lordy!
Me too.
I can think of nothing better than spending someone else's money.
And I agree with Suki.
I don't think your budget is high at all. It's yours and it is what you are comfortable with.

C_J

Living_proof wrote: »

EEEEK! I am amazed you think you have a low-key Christmas for as much as this.....

I'm not sure I ever said it was low key

A few years ago I started saving £100 a month to pay for Christmas, but as I saw the savings mounting up I couldn't bring myself to dip into them! It was actually that (plus encouragement from the savings/investment/banking boards on this forum) which kick-started my savings habit.

I'm fortunate that I work full time and am not badly paid, so I can afford this sort of Christmas. I know many others can't, but I am sure just as many (though perhaps not on the OS board!) spend more. I could have a brilliant Christmas for a tenth of this amount if I needed to, but I'm very lucky not to have the sort of financial pressure in my life at the moment to make this is a necessity. What's important to me is that I don't ever go into debt - and I don't. The amount spent is therefore all relative I guess.

I tend to spend around £200 each on Mister CJ and our two daughters - that will be one or maybe two 'main' presents, a couple of smaller under-the-tree gifts and maybe £50 on stocking fillers and advent calendars. I'll spend around £75 each on my daughters' partners (they've been together several years and are part of the family), and about £50 on grumpy ungrateful father in law. The rest will go on food and drink all over the Christmas/New Year period, and other festive incidentals.

I shop all year for Christmas, taking advantage of Groupon offers, clearance bargains, sales and charity shops. I've had lots of bargains from the Grabbit board on this forum. I make a lot of the house decorations myself from holly/ivy/mistletoe growing in the garden, and home sewn bunting or scandinavian felt bird decorations etc.

What I spend doesn't seem excessive to me, though I am sure it must horrify plenty of people. I love this board and have learned a lot and shared a lot on it, but there can sometimes be a bit of a Monty Python Four Yorkshiremen sketch going on with people vying to prove they can do everything for just tuppence. Everyone's circumstances are different, and these are mine.