£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

Kantankrus_Mare

Cherryfudge wrote: »

Another thing that went down very well was a little book of vouchers to 'cash in' - get out of a chore, have Mum you read a story, go on a scavenger hunt, chose what we're having for tea, etc.

You are working incredibly hard on everything - I hope it's a wonderful Christmas!

I think this is a fantastic idea and one that will create long term memories! I remember christmases as a child having tons of stuff to open (mostly art stuff and random stuff to make it look a lot, along with one major present chosen by us.

Can I remember any of the "stuff"? Not really except for my spirograph which i adored and new felt tips every year but actual "time" for me would have been treasured.

I can always remember asking my mother to play jacks with me when that was all the craze and she was always too busy cleaning.

Busy_Mee1

Creeps back in because I fear I might have upset you with my comment yesterday. This wasn't my intention, but rather to nudge your thinking to try and stop you spending unnecessary money at Christmas.

You are obviously a person with lovely taste who wants the best for her family and I think the trick for you will be shopping around to find what you want at the best price and within your budget.......as you did yesterday, downgrading your JL shopping to Tu/H&M. I was very impressed - not only did you keep within your budget, you got a gift towards Christmas :T

You might want to keep an eye on the Sainsbreeze site, they regularly have a 25% off clothing event. These tend to be around bank holiday weekends, but I have a feeling the next one will be around the half term holiday. You might be able to pick up Christmas PJs for the DCs.

In fact most of the chain stores have some sort of event in the run up to Christmas, M&S generally do a 20% off and Debenhams usually have various offers in the run up to Christmas. I try and identify the things I want to buy and often put them in my online basket and just wait for a sale or offer. I have a policy of never buying anything full price

I do most of my shopping for things we need in the sales, I always try and budget for January shopping in the sales. This could be an incentive for you to spend less at Christmas if you could keep a sum of money to spend in JL/Next in the January sale to buy the clothes the DCs need.
This way you get the quality you want for less money.

I am personally not a big fan of charity shops. I have never been very lucky at finding what I need - I think you need a lot of time to trawl them. I have done better on Eb@y and had some great bargains on top quality brands.

You have had some great ideas for a more frugal ( but not miserable !) Christmas. I have always bought mine things they need, as well as things they want. So things like dressing gowns, slippers, football boots, trainers and swimming costumes ... Basically things I know I will have to buy anyway through the year. If you are spending money it might as well be on things that you would have to buy anyway.

I also tried to influence the grandparents into buying things that the kids actually need/want - tricky I know, but our parents did always ask what to buy.

You are very smart and resourceful and I am sure you could challenge yourself and have a great Christmas and spend less and start 2018 without any additional debt x

missymoo81

Hey TOPM living the Christmas talk and the advent ideas! I think I May do something similar. I'm trying not to fall into the £1 trap. Some things from the £1 shop are great, but I just bought stuff and tat just to fill stockings, which broke of course and just littered up the house. So trying not to do that this year!

Busy_Mee1

Oo and on the subject of games. Our family favourite is the cornflake packet game. You basically take an empty cereal packet and place it on the floor and everyone has to pick it up with their teeth.
Once everyone has had a go you take a pair of scissors and cut an inch off from around the top and it keeps going until there is basically very little to pick up with your teeth and people drop out ( usually the adults). Lots of fun particularly if the adults have been drinking, but you do need to watch Granny's back on this one

Honeysucklelou2

Thinking about Christmas ideas that might help. You still have enough time, if you wanted to, to plant up some hyacinth bulbs and put them in a dark cupboard to bring them on to force for Christmas. If you run out of time Paperwhite narcissi can be forced from about 6 weeks before Christmas. Both make lovely fragrant living gifts which might be nice for the adults you need to buy for. Plain terracotta bowls can be bought quite cheaply at garden centres. Try somewhere online like JParkers for bulbs. The hyacinth bulbs will need to be marked as "prepared". It's a present that could involve the children too.

Honeysucklelou2

Re food savings or feeding everyone healthily on a budget, have you read Frugal Queen's blog? Lots of inspiration to be had there. I came across the blog after someone else mentioned it in a post on this site.

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 34: Day 7

Still feeling rotten - I know full well I get colds when I am rushing round not having enough downtime, must attempt to slow down a bit.

LOVING all of the Christmas chat (I love Christmas, in case that wasn't clear ). I know you all feel you are banging your heads against a brick wall, but believe it or not some of it goes in, and I feel like I've picked up lots of ideas and inspiration for a (slightly) more frugal Christmas.

Hidden I have always been impressed with the quality of the odd Sainsbury's bit I've bought before. For the price, it's really not bad.

Cherry loads of good ideas in there - I particularly like the peg dolls and card games ideas. They've all gone on the list!

Crunch thanks for the ideas. Glue sticks and sellotape would be well received here, we go through them like water!

Busy Mee it takes more than that to upset me, don't worry! I definitely think there is a compromise between my 'ideal' and 'ultimate frugality' (let's be honest, it leans more towards the former than the latter for me , but at least it's a compromise).

Missymoo I refuse to buy anything which will break quickly, I just think it's such a waste. I'd rather buy them a big roll of paper and some markers or similar if I need to bulk out stocking space. Hoping the £1 will yield some craft supplies and maybe decorations though.

Honeysucklelou I think you may have just hit upon the 'gift for adults' theme for this year! Such a good idea. Going to google it today and see whether we've got time etc. Need to source some cheap but nice pots. Harder for the people we won't see (still not sure what we'll do there, but DH's mum had a right little tantrum about not getting a decent gift one year, so I have to think of something).

Ooh, the other vaguely frugal thing I am planning is not buying DH and I full new PJs for the Christmas eve hamper this year - neither of us need any. Going to get DH a christmassy tshirt and myself a pair of new thermal leggings. I tend to buy semi-nice pyjamas for the DC (ie not just polyester christmas ones) as they wear them until they wear out rather than just at Christmas, but M&S have some lovely winter themed ones for a tenner each, which I'm not too horrified about. Might order them in the next few days, as so often I have spied lovely pjs and then they sell out and I end up ordering more expensive ones as I can't find nice ones. Doing this will pretty much halve the <cough> £120 I spent on pyjamas last year.

Can't imagine I'm going to get lots extra done on top of work today as I'm feeling so rotten, but here's what I'm hoping to get done...

To do today
1. catch up with the ironing.
2. email the other relative re visiting when we're in London.
3. create chores list as discussed with DH last night.
4. prep sourdough (second time this week, then I can have a week or more off from baking it!).
5. finish planning advent calendar.
6. plan homemade gifts - hyacinth bowls!
7. start to plan stockings

To do this week
1. social media for website launch. Done.
2. redo SOA based on DH's current salary (he is still being promised pay rise next month). Done.
3. October YNAB prep. Done.
4. start to plan advent calendars and Christmas presents so I can get a handle on spending. Ongoing
5. plan working time for October. Done.
6. check total spend for last month. This is all weird on YNAB because I moved the partnership card from a budget to a tracked account and it's sent my spending sums all screwy, so I'm not certain. Under £3,750, probably not under £3,500 is my best guess.

To do this month
1. keep the total spend for the month below £3,500.
2. work a sensible number of hours, even if it means slower progress on the work and debt front. September was rubbish. This is going well so far.
3. make any homemade Christmas gifts.

Verbatim

Gosh I'm so impressed with your determination and energy. I wish I'd grown up in your house! It sounds like a lot of fun and joy. I think you're doing splendidly getting the Christmas you want at a better price! Love all the creative ideas coming up on your thread.
Excuse my short replies/comments; I'm always on my phone and a slow one finger typist.

System

Loving all the ideas on your page TOPM , but to me I think we all stress ourselves out about Christmas far to much!

XSpender

When we still used to do adult presents I did themed hampers that look more expenive than they are so for BIL (who was recently single) I did an italian hamper with a cheap colander, pasta, pasta sauces and a couple of bottles of peroni one year, a similar indian themed one and for my step dad I have done a coffee one and a ginger themed one. I have also done bath ones and afternoon tea ones.

They were presented in a cut down box wrapped in christmas paper and covered in cellophane. Good presentatgion makes them look special.

I have also done the pots of gold with scratch cards and lottery tickets. I did Christmas cakes for a while but these work out expensive even with value ingredients.

I never spent more than £10-15 on each adult gift.

One of our favourite Christmas treats was a cardboard santa that my nana had got one year filled with small gifts. We loved it so much that she had to fill it every year and we got to dip into it before Christmas tea. It had little gifts like tights for my mum, pencils with my name on, a comb for my dad.

All this talk about christmas gifts has me thinking about the best present I had as a child and, apart from my record player, the only one I remember. It was a fabric doll my mum made by hand from a pattern in womans own with lots of individual outfits from a brownie outifit and a party dress to a nightgown and slippers. It must have taken her weeks to do when I was in bed. At 47, I still have it.