THE....sell everything to pay for chritmas thread

Tiddlywinks

Kim - Good idea to be planning this far ahead... have you thought about some DIY (as in 'make your own') presents?

How old are the family members you're buying for? We might be able to suggest some cheap / free ideas.

springdreams

I'd suggest you tell extended family and friends who you would usually buy for NOW that you will not be buying for them this year. If they are MSE orientated they may already be sniffing out bargains to put away for Christmas, so waiting until October / November to tell them that you will not be exchanging gifts with them this year might be leaving it too late.

kimplus8

Prinzessilein wrote: »

KimPlus8...well done on starting now to get your Christmas-on-a-budget sorted!

Make sure you have a separate 'pot' for the money you are getting from selling bits and bobs...it is all too easy to sell something and then the proceeds get absorbed into the family funds and come Christmas you are not as well prepared as you had hoped!

Another tip....make a list of what you want to buy and add notes as to when you are likely to get a good bargain....

School accessories? Be patient, during the summer holidays the stationers put out their 'specials' then when the kids go back to school they start to reduce them...hang on in! I usually find that just before Halloween is the time to pounce! The shops need to clear the shelves for Halloween and Bonfire stuff and they slash the stationery prices. (I fill OCC shoeboxes and have managed to get really nice 'double' pencil cases in past years...filled with maths set, pen, crayons, rubber, sharpener et.c...with Disney Character design...for £3)

Flannels, Nice Soap, Tooth Brushes?...get them now - from a pound shop....I have picked up lovely pink flannels and Fruity-scented soap...Colgate tooth brushes and paste ...you'd never know I grabbed them in the pound shop.

Don't forget the stocking-fillers...Pound shops are terrific for these too (I have picked up some lovely sticker sets at 2 sets for £1....I found some doll-dressing ones and took all the shop had!)

On a more selfish note...I regularly update my wish-list for books...many titles are only available 2nd hand....I make sure relatives have regular updates so they can buy now for Christmas if they find a hard-to-get title!

That's what I was thinking, for my tiny son I am going to make a treasure basket, with bits and pieces from the pound shop and just wrap that up for his first birthday.
Ill be doing similar (what can I make/do on the cheap that's still nice) type stuff.
the ages are 13, 10,9,8,6,4,3,1 at Christmas.
my 13 yr old really wants to get a train to see my mum on her own (she wants some independence) so I may buy her her own ticket so she can be dropped at the station and have a day or so with my parents on her own. ill get her some nice snacks and a book for the journey, all in her stocking.
my others will probably be happy with some coloured paper, craft stuff that will get used throughout the year, some seeds for the garden. and I was thinking of getting a national trust membership for us as a family so we can do lots of 'free' days out with that throughout the year. plus they really want a national geographic subscription so I am going to ask family members to buy that for the kids which is also a year-long gift.

Tiddlywinks

The Works shop near me has got some lovely strong cardboard suitcases that are two sets for £10.

Link

I used them last Christmas as gift boxes and wrapped lots of small pressies to put inside.

They also have loads of great craft stuff to make some really lovely things.

[Deleted User]

One of the best Christmas's we had as a family was 1985 .My OH was home from Sudan where his contract had finished and he had been unemployed for 6 months.We decided with the agreement of our two DDs aged 14 & 16 that we would have a Christmas where because of the money situation (basically broke ) that Christmas would be different .We decided that we would each have a £5.00 and that was all we could spend each on presents .My eldest was very ingenious and said she was going to buy as many small things to wrap and put under the tree,so thats what we did.The pile grew and grew and we all had a pretty good pile of small gifts , I had a new coffee mug that she had found in a CS with 'I love my magic Mum' written on it I also had bath cubes individually wrapped and all sorts of tiny gifts One was a cake skewer which I use still 32 years later :) the stuff I still have is used and reminds me that Christmas is really about being with your family and all pulling together and not about large expensive things The girls were brilliant and put a lot of thought into it My other half found a tiny handbag mirror which lit up,goodness knows where he found it but I still have it to this day and take it away on holiday with me.We didn't lose out ,but gained from the experience as the following year he was back in work and things became easier. The kids said it was the best Christmas they had had and I think it was fantastic because we still had a good time .Eldest DD bought her Dad a pack of cards with a animal motif on them.I still have them.
Lots of the gifts didn't cost very much but the though that went into them was the important bit and it didn't deter us from enjoying Christmas, and we didn't have that large pile of bills to find the cash for in January.Even now all those years later my two dds will buy apart from a main gift lots of tiny things for me to open up.a calendar,diary address book note books etc or a book that I really want to read I insist that its bought second hand though of a CS or ebay. I love small personal things that my girls find as present ,a tin of talc that I like, or a jar of jam or honey.These are things I find more pleasure from because they know what I like.I buy every year for my youngest DD an amaryllis as she loves to see the bulb come up and know that spring is on its way.The secret is to buy something that person would like or need or want it makes it more personal than just a lot of junk that gets thanked and put away never to see the light of day

Spendless

Me and my husband once did very similar to JackieO's post above. We had 2 mortgages, only one of us working and going through a tough time, financially, emotionally and healthwise. We had a few gifts for our family as for years I've bought throughout the year. What we didn't have was much money to spend on each other. We were able to come up with spending £20 on each, which seems a fortune now, but it was before the days of budget shops and £1 stores. We also remember the things bought a lot more than we remember items bought in later days when we became a lot better off financially.

Looking forward to reading your journey kim. Have you signed up to any freebie sites? You may find that they are giving away items you could put in stockings. Also sometimes a good make up brand is given away with a mag and that might be worth picking up for your eldest. It depends on the cost of the mag though, some can be pricey.

lessonlearned

Great thread, Kim. Well done for thinking ahead. I agree with the others, you don't need to spend a fortune to have a wonderful time and if you use some of the money you have made from selling unwanted stuff then all the better.

Last year we decided on a much simpler version of Christmas, setting a budget of £10 per person for gifts and not buying for every Tom, Dickand Harriet. Just immediate family. SAme with food and decorations. It was lovely, especially as I drew the line and decided no more turkey (not that fussed) And no Brussel sprouts (I loathe them).

I cooked a brace of pheasants for a change and they went down a treat.

Jackie - I used to buy amaryllis for my mum, my sister and myself. We loved watching them grow. They cost very little and give a lot of pleasure, checking them every day to see how much they have grown...:rotfl: and then they flower for weeks. I am going to continue the tradition with my DILs this year.

I am getting lots of ideas from you guys.....,thanks for sharing.

esmy

I did a slimmed down version of this last year, so my ebay sales paid for about half of my Christmas spend. I started late in the year so this year my aim is to have a 'cash neutral' Christmas ie no additional spending.

A tip is to leave your ebay proceeds in your Paypal account and buy from ebay where possible (or other retailers that accept Paypal) so you never get your hands on real cash.

Good Luck Kim, hope you reach your target!

kimplus8

lessonlearned wrote: »

Jackie - I used to buy amaryllis for my mum, my sister and myself. We loved watching them grow. They cost very little and give a lot of pleasure, checking them every day to see how much they have grown...:rotfl: and then they flower for weeks. I am going to continue the tradition with my DILs this year.

I am getting lots of ideas from you guys.....,thanks for sharing.

this Christmas just gone I gave our lovely elderly neighbour one as a thankyou for being so kind to me and the kids, it was really cheap from Tesco and then I received one as a gift for Christmas. We grew it in a glass jar on the kitchen window and the kids loved trickling water over it and watching it grow.

kimplus8

esmy wrote: »

I did a slimmed down version of this last year, so my ebay sales paid for about half of my Christmas spend. I started late in the year so this year my aim is to have a 'cash neutral' Christmas ie no additional spending.

A tip is to leave your ebay proceeds in your Paypal account and buy from ebay where possible (or other retailers that accept Paypal) so you never get your hands on real cash.

Good Luck Kim, hope you reach your target!

thants a fantastic idea, thankyou.