What's the biggest Christmas waste of money?

Skibunny40

dander said:

Joke presents - all those random aprons with boobs on, drinking games, miniature table football - all that stuff that will never never be used and only exists for that second of chuckling when the person opens it before they throw it down the back of the sofa. Also in this same category - gag books - all those Ladybirds for adults, pride and prejudice with guinea pigs, Little Book of Tequila. Charity shops must just have special bonfires for all that stuff because there and the bin are the only place they are going to go.

I'm the person that buys those novely items from charity shops, enjoys the quick laugh and then doesnt care if they get re-donated agaiin!

wild666

The Xmas and new year TV schedule. Well you pay the BBC for it and it's 75% repeats of repeats.
I haven't had a licence for 36 years and don't miss it.

Murphybear

Exodi said:

Hands down has to be christmas crackers.

How someone can combine cardboard, a paper hat, a bit of paper with a terrible joke and a plastic paperclip - then slap a £10 price tag on the box - has always blown my mind.

Yet every year we end up buying them because they're 'traditional'. 

I know what you mean.  I have bought expensive ones over the last few years when they’ve been reduced to half price.  I’ve had some fun things in the including (in no particular order) a pretty little silver plated pendant and earrings, mini pack of cards, mini tape measure, mini photo frame which put a mini picture of a cat and the most useful ever was a tiny set of screwdrivers which are brilliant to tighten up the screws of my specs

Murphybear

dancingmaster1651 said:

Decorations.
This year's fashion (not that I normally give tuppence for fashion unless it's what we wanted anyway) was fake presents: 2-3 boxes wrapped in boring silver with huge bows, which are plonked 'artistically' on the floor. The Range price: £28, & similarly elsewhere.
Twenty-eight pounds for three empty boxes! Why not get three grocery cartons from the supermarket, £3 worth of paper, £1 of shiny ribbon (Poundland or 99p Store), and make your own?
What saddens me about this is not just the money but the commercial pull towards having exactly what everyone else has, and having it instantly. I've run children's activities for many years (church, school etc) and had enormous fun with them making our own decorations: lace-doily angels, silver-card napkin rings, paper chains, etc. Every home-made decoration is unique, has a personal touch, costs very little, fosters social and creative skills, and makes long-lasting memories. Including the time you shook the glitter glue and the top came off . . . 

I bet many people get a “must have gadget” which they use for a while then it gets put into a cupboard then turns up at a charity shop or car boot sale.  This years gadget appears to be an air fryer 

Katiehound

Murphybear said:

dancingmaster1651 said:

Decorations.
This year's fashion (not that I normally give tuppence for fashion unless it's what we wanted anyway) was fake presents: 2-3 boxes wrapped in boring silver with huge bows, which are plonked 'artistically' on the floor. The Range price: £28, & similarly elsewhere.
Twenty-eight pounds for three empty boxes! Why not get three grocery cartons from the supermarket, £3 worth of paper, £1 of shiny ribbon (Poundland or 99p Store), and make your own?
What saddens me about this is not just the money but the commercial pull towards having exactly what everyone else has, and having it instantly. I've run children's activities for many years (church, school etc) and had enormous fun with them making our own decorations: lace-doily angels, silver-card napkin rings, paper chains, etc. Every home-made decoration is unique, has a personal touch, costs very little, fosters social and creative skills, and makes long-lasting memories. Including the time you shook the glitter glue and the top came off . . . 

 This years gadget appears to be an air fryer 

I guess this year an air fryer will get a lot of use with power prices still on the increase.

sarah1972

Murphybear said:

dancingmaster1651 said:

Decorations.
This year's fashion (not that I normally give tuppence for fashion unless it's what we wanted anyway) was fake presents: 2-3 boxes wrapped in boring silver with huge bows, which are plonked 'artistically' on the floor. The Range price: £28, & similarly elsewhere.
Twenty-eight pounds for three empty boxes! Why not get three grocery cartons from the supermarket, £3 worth of paper, £1 of shiny ribbon (Poundland or 99p Store), and make your own?
What saddens me about this is not just the money but the commercial pull towards having exactly what everyone else has, and having it instantly. I've run children's activities for many years (church, school etc) and had enormous fun with them making our own decorations: lace-doily angels, silver-card napkin rings, paper chains, etc. Every home-made decoration is unique, has a personal touch, costs very little, fosters social and creative skills, and makes long-lasting memories. Including the time you shook the glitter glue and the top came off . . . 

I bet many people get a “must have gadget” which they use for a while then it gets put into a cupboard then turns up at a charity shop or car boot sale.  This years gadget appears to be an air fryer 

I couldn’t agree more. My local buy & sell group always have them. Fed up of seeing Ninja this, Ninja that for sale 

Pollycat

I dropped off some stuff at my local hospice charity shop yesterday.
The manager says they've been inundated with unwanted Christmas gifts, lots of body spray/lotion/shower gel sets.

NOW is the time to have a conversation with those people who you don't know well enough to buy something you know they'll really like - and vice versa - and to agree not to waste money next year on over packaged toiletries.

Dizzycap

In addition to Pollycat's post - I always reuse wrapping paper, gift bags, bows, string, and I even recycle the gifts I don't want or need from Christmas & my birthday!

I have around 8 good friends who always buy me a birthday gift & christmas gift. And it would appear to them, that I do the same too, but I don't. I save 16 gifted gifts to me every year and then give 2 out to each of my friends each year. 1 for their birthday and 1 for Chistmas! I can't remember the last time I actually bought any gifts for my friends and come to think of it, my mother!

One of those friends inists on giving me expensive gifts like perfume & gift cards. I don't use perfume, so that's my Mothersday gift sorted and my mothers birthday gift sorted as she loves the gift cards, i.e the one I get given, which she doesn't know about! :. 

All that's left is a few small Christmas gifts or 1 medium / largish for my mother. This year my mothers cooker went at the end of November, so I gave her half towards a brand new one which I got discounted from a local retailer, so we only had to pay £75 each for a £350 cooker with FREE fitting! I consider that an absolute essential and fully worthy spend.

As for Christmas cards, I only send around 4 out by expensive post now. I also recycle all cards and use them again the following year. Birthday / Chritmas etc. I always have supplies of new card, so all I need to buy, if I haven't already got any, are envelopes. Poundland envelopes are just fine .

As for Christmas decorations, I prefer natural decorations, so I go and collect pine cones in late October / early November, clip off some small fir tree branches from the trees in my back garden, clip off holly from my neighbours over grown holly bush - a little free and welcomed gardening for them along with other bit and pieces I have come across during the year when i take the dog for a walk in the woods etc and before you know it, I've made a natural Christmas wreath for my front door, and a wreath for all my good neighbours as Christmas gifts, which they always love because each one is unique and different! The only outlay I origianlly had was for the wreath hoops and wire which I managed to blag for a bargain price on eBay a few years back, but my neighbours always return the wreath hoops in the New Year because they are now very expensive to buy that size - around £7-9 per hoop!  

By doing all this free recycling and my neighbours being made aware of what I do, with the exception of my recycled non-needed gifts, they too have realised just how much of a chuck away society we have become and how much they can save with thought!

As for christmas food, the only two exceptions from the norm for me is a nice 3-4 kilo leg of lamb and lidl's deluxe Christmas lamb legs are fabulous! Picked that up for £16.50. It fed me and my mother on Christmas Eve, which is when we have our Christmas dinner, and I was able to divide the rest into portions in freezer bags and freeze, along with a Tesco exchange points to voucher purchase of a whole salmon and 2 months supply of fresh veggies @ 15p a bag: potatoes, carrots, parsnips & brocolli which are all stored in breathable veggie bags in the shed which I bagged cheap from eBay during the summer  

I won't need to go food shopping now until March. I'm also picking up a weeks supply of fresh milk once a week, so I end up with 6 no spend days each week and therefore no need to go out with any money or bank card which has become a norm for me now and any impulse spending stopped about 5 years ago for me and I must say, it's both very liberating and rewarding, as all that non spening means I save even more money.

This year was also a good year with Sainsburys point collecting, the extra 500 points x 2 = £10 & 1000 = £10 for the Christmas challenges which I blagged by buying the items I really needed with the booster points attached i.e. 40 extra points for 4 pints of milk etc etc and then I got the double up points offer so my £40 worth of points collected through the year became £80 plus the extra £20 on the Christmas challenge, so a FREE £100 just for scanning my Sainsbury's App when shopping and taking advantage of the booster points on items I really needed! NICE

Pollycat

Dizzycap said:

In addition to Pollycat's post - I always reuse wrapping paper, gift bags, bows, string, and I even recycle the gifts I don't want or need from Christmas & my birthday!

I have around 8 good friends who always buy me a birthday gift & christmas gift. And it would appear to them, that I do the same too, but I don't. I save 16 gifted gifts to me every year and then give 2 out to each of my friends each year. 1 for their birthday and 1 for Chistmas! I can't remember the last time I actually bought any gifts for my friends and come to think of it, my mother!

One of those friends inists on giving me expensive gifts like perfume & gift cards. I don't use perfume, so that's my Mothersday gift sorted and my mothers birthday gift sorted as she loves the gift cards, i.e the one I get given, which she doesn't know about! :. 

All that's left is a few small Christmas gifts or 1 medium / largish for my mother. This year my mothers cooker went at the end of November, so I gave her half towards a brand new one which I got discounted from a local retailer, so we only had to pay £75 each for a £350 cooker with FREE fitting! I consider that an absolute essential and fully worthy spend.

As for Christmas cards, I only send around 4 out by expensive post now. I also recycle all cards and use them again the following year. Birthday / Chritmas etc. I always have supplies of new card, so all I need to buy, if I haven't already got any, are envelopes. Poundland envelopes are just fine .

As for Christmas decorations, I prefer natural decorations, so I go and collect pine cones in late October / early November, clip off some small fir tree branches from the trees in my back garden, clip off holly from my neighbours over grown holly bush - a little free and welcomed gardening for them along with other bit and pieces I have come across during the year when i take the dog for a walk in the woods etc and before you know it, I've made a natural Christmas wreath for my front door, and a wreath for all my good neighbours as Christmas gifts, which they always love because each one is unique and different! The only outlay I origianlly had was for the wreath hoops and wire which I managed to blag for a bargain price on eBay a few years back, but my neighbours always return the wreath hoops in the New Year because they are now very expensive to buy that size - around £7-9 per hoop!  

By doing all this free recycling and my neighbours being made aware of what I do, with the exception of my recycled non-needed gifts, they too have realised just how much of a chuck away society we have become and how much they can save with thought!

As for christmas food, the only two exceptions from the norm for me is a nice 3-4 kilo leg of lamb and lidl's deluxe Christmas lamb legs are fabulous! Picked that up for £16.50. It fed me and my mother on Christmas Eve, which is when we have our Christmas dinner, and I was able to divide the rest into portions in freezer bags and freeze, along with a Tesco exchange points to voucher purchase of a whole salmon and 2 months supply of fresh veggies @ 15p a bag: potatoes, carrots, parsnips & brocolli which are all stored in breathable veggie bags in the shed which I bagged cheap from eBay during the summer  

I won't need to go food shopping now until March. I'm also picking up a weeks supply of fresh milk once a week, so I end up with 6 no spend days each week and therefore no need to go out with any money or bank card which has become a norm for me now and any impulse spending stopped about 5 years ago for me and I must say, it's both very liberating and rewarding, as all that non spening means I save even more money.

This year was also a good year with Sainsburys point collecting, the extra 500 points x 2 = £10 & 1000 = £10 for the Christmas challenges which I blagged by buying the items I really needed with the booster points attached i.e. 40 extra points for 4 pints of milk etc etc and then I got the double up points offer so my £40 worth of points collected through the year became £80 plus the extra £20 on the Christmas challenge, so a FREE £100 just for scanning my Sainsbury's App when shopping and taking advantage of the booster points on items I really needed! NICE

That's impressive. 

You might find this board interesting:
Old style MoneySaving — MoneySavingExpert Forum

Happy_Kitties

I’ve  really enjoyed reading this thread. 

I have a strict budget for Christmas and for birthdays and make sure presents are thoughtful and are what the person wants. Sometimes it takes me a while to hunt down what the person wants. One of my good friends wanted a particular present. Out of my price range, went to get in the sale, couldn’t but did get it the following year in the sale. They were thrilled as they knew it wasn’t an easy task and had taken me two years to get the present affordable and I wanted to get it aswell to say thank you for everything they had done for the family. I  know it was worth it as they always talk about the present and where it is displayed everytime I see them and they always say no one would of ever bought the present if they hadn’t of mentioned it when we saw the item originally, 
i also buy them crackers as part of their present. They would only buy them themselves. I look to buy them reduced, with no plastic tat, sometimes it has been mission impossible but my friend appreciates it as it is something they would buy. They know I like a good bargain hunt, would have bought the reduced but have saved them some money, it’s something my mum also used to do with them. I refuse to buy with plastic tat. They always buy me biscuits as part of my present, which last me over Christmas, I don’t buy anything extra for myself over Christmas except for the 19p veg offers.

I am an avid bargain hunter and do  buy for several charities, if I can get the basic gift  sets and items, these are very much a necessary and nothing is wasted. I also do the Link to Hope shoeboxes that @Katiehound started several of us on. Again what goes into these boxes are basics and a necessary. I know some boxes are filled with plastic tat, I try to avoid that route  because recycling in some places where these boxes go to is extremely limited, if no recycling at all. Summer scarves that I buy to go into the boxes, I always use a particular CS that does them at a low price, so I feel like it is a double bubble win.

items I buy for a charity auction, I  look very closely at what I am buying. I try to buy items that are not plastic tat, that  will make them a few quid and would be something decent that people would want to buy, jigsaws and smellie sets are always very popular 

Christmas itself, same artificial tree (a little battered now) from when DD was young with some of her handmade school decs going on it. DD is 25 this year.
Food wise I buy very little extra.  It’s years since I hosted Christmas and wherever I go now I always offer to contribute or offer to bring something that is wanted or requested, many a time beef or a gammon which I will have saved my supermarket points for.

DD and I used to buy advent calendar’s for each other but we have stopped that now, waste of money and wasteful in general, 

Gift bags I have bought a quite a few in the sales for one charity, where I know they will be put to good use and probably reused. I am well known for reusing gift bags as much as I can,

Christmas cards I send very few and Christmas presents if I have to send I try to double up, for example enclose the birthday presents aswell, 

For me the biggest Christmas waste of money is if you do buy a gift, gifts not given with thought. I’ve just seen a neighbour scrap a £150 piece of sports equipment that their kids never used, it was taken to the tip.
Aswell food that you feel ‘pressured’ to buy bec it is Christmas when you don’t actually need it and it just goes unused or thrown out, I begrudge buying stamps at the price but the few people I send to, I always pop a letter in, I want to get my moneys worth!

Also despite buying them for a friend’s present…..crackers….esp crackers with plastic tat. 

I had some lovely presents last year, all presents I would use and need. I only had one present where no thought was put into it. Lovely item but I can’t use it. It will go to charity. I have regifted items in the past aswell. I just do not like waste in general