Christmas on a budget

EssexHebridean

The "Lucky Dip" style presents for kids made up of lots of little cheap items can be great - and has the advantage that some of the items can be stuff that would be "needed" at some stage anyway - pens, paper, crayons, craft stuff, felt tips - the pound shops can be a treasure trove if you shop carefully and not everything they sell is tat - the books and CD's are always worth keeping an eye on I find too. Wrap the items individually in cheap tissue paper and pop into a gift bag (and remember to save those for use from year to year as well - they only get thrown out in our house when they're utterly past it!) and it can give lots of fun and excitement as everything gets opened and shown round. (Avoid cheap yoyos though - they're ALWAYS rubbish!)

On the food side - buying the supermarket savings stamps at one a week towards the cost can be a help to save up.

For older children (and adults of a "like mind" to you) charity shop paperbacks can be a much appreciated and bargainous present. £5 will get you a nice stack in many independent charity shops and that will keep even the most determined bookwork in reading for a while!

zippygeorgeandben

Mnd wrote: »

As long as I got my pigs in blankets I'm happy

I can't believe out of all the comments on this thread it's THIS one I 'liked'...

zippygeorgeandben

My parents used to spoil me and my sisters absolutely rotten at Christmas. It would start with a pillowcase each bursting full of presents (in those days it was a TDK 60 minute blank tape, blank video cassettes, chocolate coins etc.) and then downstairs it was a room just full to the brim of three clearly marked areas for each of us. It used to last until about 2pm opening them all.
I think that my parents used to go overboard at Xmas because we never went on foreign holidays and went to the caravan site during the school holidays.
Even though, whilst typing this it brings back such happy memories (especially as Mum is no longer with us) it took my fianc!e to come one Xmas and show how staggered he was by all the presents. 'Obscene' he called it!
Being older and wiser now, I realise that we were far more fortunate on this day in monetary worth of presents than many other children (I'm talking well into our teens here...megadrives/mallory towers/papilloten pink for my sisters - look it up) however it was the time we craved with our parents really, especially Dad who worked really long hours for little pay.

I realised I've totally digressed here (it was nice though for me!) and for the OP, involve the children in what they would like Santa to bring them this year. For me, it's the added extras which make Christmas expensive. The need to bulk up what they open on this day. I love the idea of a board game each year though and you start a tradition where each Christmas the children choose one and that's the gift from Mum/Dad and you play it each year and whether you all enjoyed it or not.
Now someone get me a snowball!

GeorgianaCavendish

Last year I had a list of presents I would be buying ready by beginning of November and then took advantage of the Black Friday sales offers on many things. I don't really like the idea of Black Friday in general, but I did quite well out of it with discounts last year
There are some survey sites that offer Amazon vouchers as rewards (the ipsos i-say is one but I'm sure there are others), which could help with some presents.
I buy pretty much everything online and use a cashback site (TopCashBack) so I get some money back. Just keep a strict eye on delivery costs, some retailers have free delivery if you collect it from one of their shops which is useful if you have branches near you.
I find that buying online helps me stick to a list and budget. Being let loose in the shops just leads to overspending for me.

I love the idea of adding on an extra food or drink item to the grocery shopping each week. Sounds like a great way to spread the cost of Christmas.
Also agree with the earlier comment that big costs at Christmas are the outings and social events. I'm going to plan better for these this year because I did get caught out last year and ended up overspending. I'm looking for some MSE friendly ideas for Christmas meet ups with friends

GeorgianaCavendish

Mnd wrote: »

As long as I got my pigs in blankets I'm happy

It's roast potatoes for me Yum yum yum!

V2-Schneider

As a vegetarian, scrumptiously crispy roast potatoes are the best thing about Christmas.

foxgloves

I buy presents for people all year round & pop them away in my Presents Box. It splits the cost as it's far too much (even with no kids of our own to buy for) to come from just a couple of months' wages. So next time you're in a shop & see an item which makes you exclaim out loud 'Oh, wouldn't so & so love that?!', if it's affordable & you genuinely think they would love it, buy it. When you get home, jot down on a list that you have bought X for whoever it is & pop it away. One down & it's only July.....or February! I open up my Presents Box in October to see what I still need to buy & find I have done most of my Christmas shopping. It means you can take advantage of sale items, good bargains, without the pressure of it being December already, when you are more likely to overspend because time is running out.
F x

EssexHebridean

I'm not a vegetarian. I'll have the potatoes AND the pigs in Blankets please!

zippygeorgeandben

Come on now - let's not hijack the OP thread by talking about pigs/potateos and er.. parsnips
Mmmmm

BettyBones

We've always put £10 a month away during the year for each of our 2 boys to spread the cost. They each get given £100 on xmas day which they can spend on what they want in the January sales. For Christmas day itself they just have stockings filled with cheap useful things like stationery, smellies, socks and sweeties. Total spend on stockings is no more than £20 each. As for everyone else in the family... we don't bother. We play this ridiculous game whereby we have to wrap and give each other something we have at home that's broken. It's hilarious! Recent gifts I've received/given have been; a touch lamp that doesn't come on when you touch it, a mug that's been dropped and lost it's handle, a book with half the pages missing, second hand socks with holes in the heels, a hot water bottle that's lost it's bung and a bicycle inner tube that's got a puncture! We started doing this many Christmases ago because half of us couldn't afford the cost of a 'commercial' Christmas. So now we just buy for our own children and laugh our heads off on Christmas day at all the useless broken stuff we give and receive. Lovingly gift wrapped... but totally useless :rotfl: I have an incredibly large family but for us, Christmas is all about just spending time together and having a laugh, without the expense