Small Steps Out Of Massive Debt!

EssexHebridean

Hope you had a fab and MSE friendly day with your pals GC! 

Naomim

Wow! that is some Christmas organising!  I've not bought a thing yet but have a nice healthy pot to help with the spends.  Now the kids are getting older they don't want lots of little presents that cost next to nothing but them seem disappointed when they get 1 present and a pair of pyjamas 🤦‍♀️

GeorgianaCavendish

EssexHebridean said:

Hope you had a fab and MSE friendly day with your pals GC! 

I did thank you! 😊 It was really nice to catch up and the MSE element was the icing on the cake! 

GeorgianaCavendish

Naomim said:

Wow! that is some Christmas organising!  I've not bought a thing yet but have a nice healthy pot to help with the spends.  Now the kids are getting older they don't want lots of little presents that cost next to nothing but them seem disappointed when they get 1 present and a pair of pyjamas 🤦‍♀️

I’m now biding my time for extra discount codes for a couple of places and slowly finishing up the rest of my list. Christmas is one of those times when I normally overspend due to trying to “even up” the presents, so it is good to have a spreadsheet now to track exactly what I’ve already spent so I don’t panic buy! 

Naomim

I have Christmas spreadsheets too but mine are usually a record of what I've bought for whom and how much to keep me in budget. 

badmemory

I think I must have become some sort of Scrooge.  After reading on here many many years ago about not buying presents for adults etc etc,   The only presents I buy now are for my son, I have no young relatives or I would buy for them.  All the adults I might now buy presents for are like me, sufficiently unstrapped for cash, that if they want something they just buy it, which means that you land up buying something just to say you have bought something, which seems a waste of money & also pointless.  Don't get me wrong if I had a friend who wanted something & now couldn't get it for themselves then I would be more than happy to buy them.  Although I do have a friend that I think is going to be in this situation with a very small income & expenses she has never had as she never left home & hasn't worked since her late 20s & now 30 years later her parents have both died.  At least she owns the roof over her head!

Naomim

@badmemory I only buy for my two kids age 11 & 16, my 12yo Goddaughter and my in-laws but that's usually a token gift as they host Christmas.  We stopped for my nieces & nephew as my SiL is a single parent and struggling for cash so it made sense to agree to stop.

badmemory

I got so fed up with the - I'll spend £20 on you & you'll spend £20 on me thing.  I must say the charity shop I give to did quite well out of it.  The number of people that buy you cosmetic products that you know you have told you are allergic too.  My sister & I even stopped giving birthday presents last year.  We neither of us wanted to go out shopping at the beginning of covid, it was her 70th & my 74th only 12 days apart.  I said buy yourself something that you would really like & I will do the same.  A nice card with the right words written in can be worth more.

GeorgianaCavendish

I’ve cut the list of gift recipients down an awful lot since starting this diary, but I can’t see ever cutting gifts completely. It is very liberating when you can mutually agree with friends or family not to give presents though - the saving on stress is like a gift in itself! 

enthusiasticsaver

We have cut out gifting at Christmas to all except immediate family.  So I buy for my DH, DDs and SIL and DGDs. So 6 people rather than about 20.