* Step into Christmas * & 2020 - It's the 2020 Christmas Chatter Thread

Skibunny40

Rachsecret - I was in Asda today & they had the funpacks of mini white Toblerones, didn't notice the price though, sorry. THey looked like the bags you normally see at airports, so perhaps the supermarkets have bought their stock?

mandco

rachsecret said:

DS wants a white chocolate toblerone so if anyone knows where these are stocked too, please let me know! 
I am really interested to know what a 'suitable' amount of money to spend on my son is. He's 23 and lives at home and an only child. Money is OK in our household, but I don't like the idea of indulging him too much and I think, unlike my childhood, that he has grown up never knowing hardship. We do insist he pays 'rent' and just put it away in a bank account for when he is older as I feel it is a principle thing, I know this is a really difficult question. 

most of the big supermarkets do the larger one usually around £5 but on offer at the moment. I got smaller ones 100g from the poundshop -ds prefers those as they are easier to eat. They also had the bags of single wrapped triangles but the bb date was oct 20 so def worth checking if your buying for xmas.

How much to spend is a tough one as it depends on so many things. I would look at what you can afford to spend and what he would like 
We have our kids to buy for plus the grandchildren so we don't spend massives amount on each as the spends soon add up.
Our adult kids who have moved out and are in relationships with kids get £100 cash per couple as they prefer money to shop the sales plus I budget £30 per couple for gifts so they have something to open on the day. The grandkids I budget £100 each though I base that on full price and can usually get my actual spend down to about 1/2 by finding deals/offers for example DD has asked me to get dgd an inno tab this year normally £80ish if I can find it cheaper I won't spend the difference on extra gifts.
The others who are younger/still at home get more and that figure depends on what they would like/need the same as we did for the others when they were younger. This years our spend is quite a bit higher than usual but our holiday was cancelled so I've put money aside from that to treat the kids to things they wouldn't have normally gotten and it means we're spending a lot more than we would normally. The boys are after a ps5 so realistically that is around £600 by time you add on some games/extras and we brought dd a car as she's learning to drive which was a joint birthday/xmas present.

Boots have 1/2 price on selected FCUK including a few of the xmas gift sets 

Redredrobin

Anyone within distance of the Yorkshire wildlife park they are still doing their Christmas event , it’s over 3 weekends instead of 2 and will be a ticketed event to control numbers . 

girlinayellowdress

Happy Birthday Free , good job you have your alexa to remind me 🙂

Peppapig

Happy Birthday FREE, hope you’ve had a fabulous day. 🎉🥳💐🎂

Still here PRINCESSKITTY, reading but not posting - not helped by the forum keep logging me out😡.

RACHSECRET B&M have white Toblerone for £3. Personally I’d say that with a 23 year old you could have a conversation and agree an amount to spend on each other - presumably he buys for you too? It really depends on your own circumstances, what you can afford and what you’ve done in the past. Also, how many children you have to buy for. We have five grown up children to buy for, all with partners plus an honorary daughter, also with partner and all have children. Obviously the pot we have to spend from is spread much more thinly than if we only had one or two children to buy for. I’d say do what feels right for your family because your circumstances won’t be the same as anyone else’s. We only spend £30 on the young grandchildren and have a £10 limit token gift for all adults whether children or grandchildren. They know that we love them the same whether we spend £10 or £1000.

I’ve made great progress with the Christmas pressie list today following a very successful shopping trip to B&M and TKMaxx - a big relief because I was feeling a bit left behind. I’m trying not to buy anything too heavy as I think I might be posting quite a few of them this year rather than giving them in person. 

Apologies for not responding to all the recent posts, the forum keeps signing me out and I can never remember my sign in details and with the new layout I can’t go back and look at older posts while I’m typing. Glad everyone is ok though.

vulpix

Happy Birthday Free xxxx

RACHSECRET We have 3 grown up children.When they were under 18 they had £100 each and they liked me to buy presents as a surprise.Now they still want surprise gifts which I pick up all year round as I see them. When / if they have partners they also get gifts up to £30 each.Our Mothers have £30 each and we buy for each other with £30 each too. It is very individual how much different families spend on each other for Christmas.Initially budget was because I was a hard  up single parent with no financial  support.Nowadays it's because none of us actually needs anything.Did suggest a secret Santa for us this year but they like things as they are.I do too ,was just thinking of the youngest who doesn't earn much.The kids seem to spend about £10 - £20 on each other and more on us.If we had grandchildren I think we would review it all. Oh they all get a chocolate orange too andd I make fancy chocolate to give to people like DS GF Mum n Dad .I also make chilli jam which they all like to get too.

I had my Christmas stash out yesterday.I just need to buy for dd1,a bit more for the Mothers and some more for Mr V and for his selfish week before Christmas Birthday.I will save wrapping for a couple of weeks time.I am scheduled to have an operation at the end of this month and will have to isolate for 2 weeks before hand,wrapping will be a nice time filler.

PK I would like to join in with Christmas card exchange please.
Take care all Vx

mandco

Happy Birthday Free 

freespirit66

Aww Thankyou everyone for the birthday wishes, I have had a lovely day, made even more special with an early video call from Thumper to say happy birthday ❤️ and he gave me my present from him tonight, he’d chosen a crystal necklace from my wish list, god I couldn’t love him anymore ❤️ I’ve got mainly money, a pandora Christmas hot chocolate with a candy cane charm and some YC wax melts. We all got together for a lovely Chinese tonight. I got my poundshop order after about 11 days, but I did see on website they said they were over run on orders, I have to say though I was really impressed with everything 

PEPPA I find this new layout confusing too, and one min I’m signed in the next minute I’m not! But I am a complete Luddite when it comes to technology. Wow I didn’t realise you had such a big family!

VULPIX I was going to suggest secret santa for my lot, but it means DD2 and OH will have to spend two lots from the same household. It doesn’t work out fair?? I hope your op goes smoothly and recuperating while wrapping is a fab idea!

MANDCO glad you got the PS5 on pre-order!

GIAYD Ha DD1 set it up, I sat down and Happy Birthday started playing. I get so amazed by the things you can do now, it really tickled me

Beshki

Hobbycraft have some lovely Christmas crafts in, and so well priced. Going to have a go at one of their tiny cross stitch projects - haven’t tried it before so we will see how that goes! Also bought a few bits to do with my Grandma so that will be lovely  

I’m thinking of buying a Chimenea for OH as it’s something I know he’ll love & that we plan on purchasing anyway. Found a really reasonably priced one but I would rather wait until the end of the month to buy just before I next get paid, but it’s in and out of stock like nobodies business so I may just have to bite the bullet

Peppapig

Lol FREE, the result of a blended family. Although DH and I have been married 23 years now, we both had children from a previous marriage and although his two youngest are the same age as my two and honorary DD (all now in their thirties) his eldest daughter who lives in New Zealand is a bit older and had her children young so we have grandchildren ranging from 25 to 1 and a great grandchild, born a few months ago, from the one who’s 25. Obviously I’m barely old enough to be a nan let alone a great nan🤫