How much for christmas?

Lucy1982_2

I managed to find a great pressie for a friend of mine, her limit was only £5 as it was more a token gift than anything else. I and know she really wanted some pink, fluffy fairy lights. I found some but they were £15 (far over budget) then walked into a shop and 'pink,fluffy fairy lights' £3.49p!!! And they are so good I am sort of tempted to keep them myself.

Best bit is I know she'll love them!

nickelodeon

My budget for Christmas is £200 and I have no idea how I'm going to get everything for that! :eek:

It should be doable though, I don't have children so that automatically makes things cheaper and I'll be going to my parents for Christmas Day so the food budget shouldn't need to change.

I have 8 family members to buy presents for, budget will be £15 each.
I have a group of 10 friends and we do secret santa each year with a budget of £20, we also do secret santa at work which will be £10 and the rest goes on OH.

I've already got cards and wrapping paper which I bought in the January sales and as long as I keep away from all the pretty sparkly decorations I shouldn't need to spend money on anything else!

The task now is to find decent presents for £15, I'll be searching the web for the cheapest deals, and of course using quidco, Boots 3 for 2 on presents is also quite good for making a tight budget go along way!

JET34

Lucy1982 wrote: »

I managed to find a great pressie for a friend of mine, her limit was only £5 as it was more a token gift than anything else. I and know she really wanted some pink, fluffy fairy lights. I found some but they were £15 (far over budget) then walked into a shop and 'pink,fluffy fairy lights' £3.49p!!! And they are so good I am sort of tempted to keep them myself.

Best bit is I know she'll love them!

They really are the best kind of pressie's, I drive everyone mad cause I never really want anything I perfer small thing's that I need. Last year I got a moneybox which I think cost £1 but to me it was one of my best gift's. The best gift's aren't alway's the dearest.... well not to me anyhow. :T

Lucy1982_2

It's the thought that counts after all.

taxi73

What a great thread....I've done christmas hampers of beauty goods for my 2 daughters....I have £30 of vouchers from pigsback ..so will use them to buy my two sons something to wear...I have another son in the navy so will put £20 in his bank account...my grandson I bought way too much in the boots 3 for 2 offers last year...so he has got a scalextric and a little computer thing and it's his birthday 3rd jan and he has a couple of big remote control cars for that...I have plenty of wrapping paper and cards left over from previous years...my SIL is getting a bottle of brandy..and I will get the office staff a bottle of vodka and a tin of roses(or similar)...my DH ...I don't know what I'm getting him....
Food shopping will just be normal as our taxi will be out 24/7 over christmas and new year....
DD is doing christmas dinner at her house for everyone and has offered to pop in and put one in the fridge for DH and myself but I told her not to bother running around after us...we can have a family meal the week after newv year and of course everything will be cheaper...very MSE...

sammiboo

A rough idea on what i spend, although i am usually rubbish at budgets when it comes to Christmas.

OH - £200ish...

Parents - £50 each

Sister and her OH I am getting them a £50 voucher between them for the house then will spend another £25 each for things for them.

Brother £50 and his girlfriend about £30 (they dont live together so they dont get combined)

I dont bother with Friends anymore, they usually just buy you stuff you dont want without any thought and agreed its a waste of time. So we usually just go out for a meal.

Goddaughter - £20 (she is only2) and we usually get her parents something between them. Another £20

So about £500 when you include the extras. I used to buy presents for everyone but tend not to bother now.

Jacks_xxx

:xmastree: Christmas?

We're still working on it!

Traditionally, we decide what to buy the kids and get all that stuff in November so that nothing has sold out yet - and then spend most of December adding "little things" that we see on impulse which generally ends up doubling what we've spent on them. :rolleyes:

But we really can't afford to do that this year - even though we do really really enjoy it!

The last couple of years my son usually says "Just give me the money" or he wants something techy that will undoubtably be much cheaper in the january sales so he gets an IOU and lots of "little" presents to open on the day. :rolleyes:

But he's got a job and money of his own now, plus he's more clued up about our family financial situation than he was - so will this year be different?

I buy books for my nephew, nieces, and god-daughters cos I am boring old Auntie Jacks and they get more than enough plastic rubbish from other people!

Except for my nephew on hubby's side who sends us a message regarding what he wants via his grandmother who makes it very clear that we are expected to buy him exactly that.

This year we have spoken to BIL and asked if perhaps we should buy our own kids pressies and just swap over so that BIL will have paid for the £60 "Meccano For Really Spoiled Children" set from "us" to his son - and we will have paid for our own kids present "from BIL" - but as far as Granny is concerned the pressies came from the Auntie and Uncles.

Weirdly... he's not that into this idea. :rolleyes:

I've just realised this is turning into a bit of a diatribe again so...

The short version is:

Last year we spent (well) over £600.

This year we have an extra couple of people to buy for (son's gf and new Niece) and ideally I'd like to do it for about half that. (£300)

But MIL's notorious voucher £50
BIL's Booze and or Chocs £45 ish
Nephews Expensive "request" £45+

Which leaves around £160 to be shared between My Mum and Dad, my grandparents, my kids, my hubby, the other nephews and nieces, the god-daughters, my son's gf and my daughter's three best friends.

So I've got two hopes really haven't I? :rolleyes:

But on the bright side Hubby has agreed that we can have Christmas Day just "us" so at least I don't have to feed and water his bl**dy family as well!

Love Jacks xxx

Softstuff

I'd been debating the great xmas spend.

Given that I never used to celebrate it, and this year is my first with the hubby, and we're having 16 for xmas dinner, I feel spending may be on the up!!

I have a couple of choices, the first is that given I'll be working every day apart from xmas day, I buy a lot of stuff predone, which will obviously cost more. The second is to prepare well, work well into xmas eve night, and DIY.

Not sure which way I'm headed yet.

Kaz2904

We spend a max of £20 per person but I shop throughout the year and try to get presents worth £20 or more for less than £20. I am more or less done now for presents so just have to get the childrens stockings. I then have to get sorted for their birthdays and will have to organize a party for them- I do a joint one as their birthdays are exactly 4 weeks apart. I hope not to spend very much on this either but it will probably cost an arm and a leg and will fall on the weekend if SIL's birthday.- Why do they all have to have birthdays so close to christmas? It's just not good!

dsljfreeman

I always budget to spend as little as possible, as long as all the children in my family have a pressie then thats fine, my family and I never agreed on it it's just a given that presents are only bought for the children, if you want to buy for the adults thats fine but no-one minds if they don't get anything.

This year we have bought my son (who's 4) a pirate ship bought in Argos sale for £4.99 and a huge electronic dragon should have been £24.99 but bought with nectar points so total we spent £4.99 on 2 presents which should have cost us approx £44.99, we've also bought him pj's £4 and Twas The Night Before Christmas book £3 for xmas eve, today I received a free cartoon dvd (thanks to those lovely survey sites) which will get put away for him and we will get him a choccy selection box approx £2. Total spend £13.99, might get him a few bits to make total spend of £20.

Step-children (who are 9 and 12) each wanted a football shirt, I've been putting little bits bought from car boots away for them too so total spend on 2 step-children £70.99

Nephew (who's 5) is getting £20

Sister (who's 12) is getting £20

I might have a look around the toy shops for nephew and sister and see if I can get them something for less.

Food wise budget £40

I buy wrapping paper and xmas cards in january sales and had plenty left over from last year so total spend £0

For the adults in my family I bulk bake loads of cookies and wrap them up in lovely little bags for each person total spend £5

My Xmas Budget £175.99 :xmassign: