Daft question about budgeting for Christmas

[ThisCoolBean]

This year I've decided to be more in control of what I spend on Christmas, have set a budget and am trying to stick to it. But what is driving me crazy is trying to keep track of what exactly I've spent on Christmas.

In previous years I would just keep an eye on overall spending and balances and make sure I didn't go overdrawn. But always failed and spent too much.

This year I've been saving up a 'Christmas pot' all year. Now it's coming to spending it, I'm really struggling to know what's what.

I will do a shop and buy a mixture of normal groceries plus some
Christmas stuff, and then find myself poring over receipts trying to work out what has been a normal spend and what is from the 'Christmas pot'. I'm trying to keep a spreadsheet of what I've spend on Christmas, and entering things from shop receipts and online (but again Amazon deliveries can be a mixture).

It's all very time consuming and DH thinks I've lost the plot and am being completely anal. He refuses to hand over receipts to me, just throws them away so I have no idea what he's spending, when the Christmas pot is meant to be for the whole of our family Christmas.

How do you deal with it? Just be strict about not mixing normal and Christmas shopping? Use a separate credit card? Just cash? I've seen a cash envelope system (which is what gave me the idea), but it doesn't work if I buy online.
Does anyone have a good system?

Hi OP I've tried to do similar in previous years and agree that when it comes to spending "the pot" it starts to become a monster to manage .

How about with a supermarket shop you pay in two separate transactions? So put your Christmas bits through after your normal grocery shop that way you'll have two separate receipts? It won't actually take much longer.

Watching other replies with interest!

Do you know how much you would normally spend on a food shop?
Can you not just say everything over your usual amount comes out of your Christmas pot?

I have a separate bank account for birthdays and Xmas, put a set amount in each month throughout the year
And yes just put Xmas bits through the till separately

The trouble is my normal spending can vary quite a bit depending on what household/clothing/kids stuff I buy. I buy mainly from Ocado/Sainsbury’s/Amazon/Aldi/Home Bargains - they seem to have everything I need and it ends up a right jumble.
Good idea about putting things through separately though, I could quickly get the Xmas stuff to the back to the conveyer queue and whack a toblerone down. Bit worried about tutting from the next customer but I’d rather put up with that than with eyerolling from DH.

Ignore the tutters, I do! If your stuffs organised it's literally a couple of extra minutes. Then look out on MN for "AIBU to get really annoyed at people who split their shopping up at the checkout?"!