over organised

[KlickKlackknobsac]

Just read about a pal on fb who has wrapped all her presents and written her cards.
We just cannot afford to get started this year.
AIBU in thinking I can do it all in the final week before Christmas? Any experience of such last minute ness please??

yes i know could not believe it when they said keys be ready on 19th brought forward from 25th January .But im all for it fed up of no heating and no hotwater .And no bathroom i can get into due to me ending up permelty in wheelchair this year .

So the move is the ultimate Christmas present

I was worried about telling people I'm not buying for adults this year too.
But when I did I found they were relieved or not bothered. Everyone seems to be counting the pennies now, times are tough.

There is a thread in chat somewhere with loads if bargains and ideas for Christmas-sorry I can't do links on my phone.

I don't understand the shiny thing. I buy presents in the months leading up to Christmas to spread the cost as it's too much for me to spend in one month. I bought things in the august sales that have saved me a lot of money. I also keep an eye out for the things I know they will want, like I got 25% off the spaceship DS has been going on about for ages, if I left it till the last minute I'd run the risk of not being able to get one and paying full whack. I think that's why most people get organised in advance to spread the cost, otherwise December is a very very expensive month.

Sorry replace shiny with skint!

Blimey Nikon!

Op - i understand the skint thing - it is not always something you can plan!

Glad to hear the organised smug others though.

I think that doing it last minute is ok, as long as you know what you are going to buy in advance (that is what I'm going to do anyway).

I don't understand the skint thing

ha ha lucky you

what if you didn't have any left over in August to go half price sale shopping

jeez the summer holidays the kids eat more, want to go out more etc etc
in summer holidays never have any spare money

Sorry didn't mean that like it came out . what I meant was that mist people spread the cost because they are skint!!

And to answer the OP properly. Poundland is where I am getting all the stocking fillers. The kids are also getting pjs from eBay BNIP. Home Bargains often has good cheap stuff and TK Maxx you can get some good bargains. If you have any clubcard vouchers you can double them up at the moment. There's a shop called Replay near us that does ridiculously cheap DVDs.

I'm sorry you're skint this year, the point I was extremely clumsily trying to get across is that people are probably super organised because they are skint too and can't afford to buy it all in December. I think everyone is feeling the pinch this year.

SIL starts buying in the January sales.

We knew we were going to be skinter than usual this year, so told everyone in April that we would not be buying for adults until further notice.

I've got DS (3) a few bits, not cheap, but that I know he'll love, and I'm going to make some huge balls of playdough in different colours for him. Depending on age, there's lots of things like that you could do.

Also, if you can get yourself invited somewhere for dinner, though I realise that's not always possible.

I never buy cards I dont send any, to be fair if money is that tight cards should be the last thing you buy.

2 years ago DS was due on 26th December so had all Christmas presents and cards sorted before start of December as didn't know what date things would all happen.

As I managed to get it all done one year, I thought I'd be able to do it every year - NOT!!!!!

I have made a list of what to do though

I am one of the organised people aswell. It's dd's birthday next week then mine the week after. I like to spread the cost and want to spend December enjoying doing nice Christmassy things with dd.

Jenski

I will extend my smugness organisation by telling you all that I have bought a bnirthday present .......................... for the end of May. It was just the right thing so had to be bought.

I can't be arsed with Xmas this year and I'm going to do the bare minimum. I'm going to have a newborn so that's my excuse if anyone gets annoyed that for one year I haven't trawled the country looking for their present in July or haven't spend hundreds like I usually do.

Be kind to yourself, you may find others are relieved you're not Santa this year as they don't have the money to reciprocate or that they're sick of taking bags of stuff to the charity shop in January, not that I'm saying your presents aren't good, just that they might not want more stuff. Bah humbug :)

I deeply envy people who can just wait until early December to plan Xmas. Every year I swear that's what I'm going to do next time, but I am too much of a control freak. By the time Xmas actually arrives I have been thinking about it for months & am bored to tears with the whole thing. Not very festive at all!

Well, we have cards, but not actually written them yet - we need to get a wriggle on - DH's old housemate lives in Singapore and last postal date is v early December (we have a bit more time with other overseas friends). I was chatting to his DW at a wedding the summer after their move out there. She made a point of thanking us for the card we'd sent that christmas, she said it made her really sad that they didn't have many cards at Christmas, although lots arrived in early January - it just reinforced how far away from all their friends and family they were.

I've We've made an extra effort with (our rather long list) of overseas friends ever since, I guess if you're not seeing friends and family over the Christmas period and it's so far removed from your childhood Christmas' then these little things do make a difference.