How much do you spend at Christmas - even being careful it seems like a horrendous amount?!

[Anitee]

Just present wise I just totted it all up, both from big families and brought each of our siblings families a gift rather than individual presents at around £25 per family X 6 = 150, both sets of parents the same = £50, plus grandparents = £50. Spent £70ish on each of our boys = £140 (£40 of that has been on the bits on a present we've made from scratch as well to try and save money!), stockings £30 each = £60 and I spent £50 on DH. £500 gone and we still have 8 to cook for and feed on christmas day - easily anouther £100+. I thought I was being careful and quite modest in comparison to others I know but even now it seems a huge amount. How has Christmas become so expensive?!

I hate Christmas due to ridiculous costs adding up. This is the same as DH.
It is may be the first year coming up when if things work out we will not have a time when we are not struggling to find money for food. We tried a not exchange gifts with adults policy (shot down by MIL). The cost of meals out is ridiculous (DM has asked for one so that will mean we will pay for her -and obviously ourselves so that is easily circa 100 pound plus). DH and myself have very seldomly exchanged gifts (birthdays or Christmas) since we married 10+ years ago (if we see people on Christmas day we say we exchanged them earlier). DC want books for Christmas (Own 3 DC=50/child, nieces/nephews=10/child, Aunt/Uncle=25/adult, DM/DMIL=100). Each other=0 (normal).
This is silly. All I ever want to do at Christmas is curl up and wait for it to be over.

Three of us (and DMIL on Christmas Day). Presents add up to about £350 all in, food and alcohol another £60 (approx). I know it sounds a bit mad but I've bought something on Amazon (a dvd, book, game, GoT tat) every pay day since April. Food, I've added one Christmas item weekly to my shopping since September, so jar of goose fat, bottle of Baileys, 3 bottles of vino, bottle of sherry (for DMIL), Christmas crackers, large pack of stuffing and even in the freezer I've put some pigs in blankets, extra bacon, the turkey crown thing, some other nibbles etc. I don't notice the cost so much that way.
I got this from my DMum who used to (back in the 70's), start getting our presents from the Marshall Ward catalogue very early in the year.
I really only need fresh veggies, cream etc now for Christmas Day.

I'm quite frugal in general but I find it near impossible not to spend at Christmas. It must be nightmare for people who just don't have the money. I suppose it's so ingrained in our shopping mad culture now. It's a shame people out there are dreading it

I'm seriously at these amounts. I'm not judging at all, just jealous!

this year i have spent
£10 on two secret santas work and bike club
£35 on work colleagues and four friends presents
£40 on giving grandchildren money
£61 on my grown up kids and partners presents
£150ish for the food for the fortnight of christmas
£0 on tree and tinsel thats from last year
so total £200 ish for everything

oops £290 ish not £200

We spend just over 1k.

This year
ds - £150. Bike from us then a stocking with bits like transformers in
Dd - £30 she's only 2 and has a second hand bike seat off eBay for £10 plus bits and pieces

£100 for dh - tickets for a show plus one or two little books
£50 x 2 for my mum and dh's Mum. They babysit for free a lot throughout the year
£40 x 2 for our dads
£20 x 3 for godchildren
£20 x 2 for nieces and nephews
£20 x 2 for friends kids (friend is like a sister to me)
£30 x 4 for siblings without children
£20 x 2 for my grandparents

Then £150 ish on special food - we're hosting Xmas day for 6 adults and 2 kids. That doesn't include the turkey which mil provides worth about £80

Then £150 ish on booze - mainly wine but also prosecco to start plus diet cokes and nice soft drinks.

£100 ish on extra charity donations - mainly via church or to charities for kids without gifts.

We save £100 pm to cover it

Maybe too late now, but next year buy a turkey a while in advance and freeze it. Supermarkets put the price up for Christmas.

I spend about 20 quid on kid.
10 quid per gift on close family members. So 60 quid.
3 quid on chocolates for members of team at work (x15 =45) and 10 quid on teacher.
Nothing for DH!
This all comes at less that 150 quid.
I don't get the fuss nor extravagance.

I only get godchildren/cousins etc... stuff for their birthday and that is a book. What are others buying?

I find xmas exhausting. I am also trying to have fewer things in my life and hate the £5-10 gift exchanges. I would rather that money be donated to charity.
Luckily we live overseas so don't get sucked into all the Xmas stuff. We usually send the dps/ dils gift certificates for nice restaurants for when they come to visit.
I do tend to go overboard on stockings for the dds though. I easily spend £80 ( I would rather they have quality stuff than breakable junk) and then buy them a Santa gift and something from us. Dh and each get a token gift so we have something to open on Xmas day. I always spend more than I think I will, but I am sure that is true for most of us.

Tried to cut down a little this year. The children are getting to the age where they don't need and want a lot of tech this year !! I have spent £90 each on the two children. £40 on dh but will try and spend another £35 on him next week. Parents and parents in law. £50 in total. I have reused some old presents that we were given last year from people. £5 in work for secret santa.

I will probably spend £50 on food for christmas day. We aren't drinking this year and have already some win put by for the relatives that we had given to us in the summer or won in the raffle.

And that is it for us.

What can you get for £15 for an adult?

From various 'wishlists' from my extended family this year......

books
dvds
CDs
jewelery
cover for tablet / iPad thingee
scarf (indoor / fashion)
scarf (warm)
drinks bottle
boxed game (well, OK, that was more, but it was a couple that wanted it)
music book
cinema voucher
perfume
a top (fancy t-shirt)
a fleece blanket
a make up brush set
a mirror
socks - ordinary, walking, skiing, bed-socks
things to eat
things to drink
some writing paper
photocalendar
Often - with the teens particularly, but also one SiL - I give "money towards...." when there is something they are after they can get if 3 or 4 of us give them cash
dressing gown
slippers
PJs
Things for hobbies - think a music stand and all sorts in the past

DD1: £70
DD2: £70
3xnieces: £30 (£10 each)
Nephew £10
MIL and FIL £30 (joint present)
DM and DF £30 (joint present)
Me to DP £30
DP to me £30
We are spending xmas at MILs so I've done a hamper of nice food and drink to take totalling £30
That's everything

About £200 on DS.
£50 on DH.
£20 each Dnieces and Dnephews
£25 on PIL
£5 Secret Santa at work
Approx £150 on food including xmas dinner, alcohol and normal weekly shop.

Thanks all, I don't seem to be ridiculously over board reading people's responses. We're OK financially, not super rich but not struggling too much either. I just thought I was being quite controlled with it and it still adds up. We opted for family gifts rather than children as we've 14 nieces and nephews between us! And we tried to buy different things, personalised ideas, family cookery lesson etc. My dcs always seem to have 'less' than others we know but we do try to really focus on experiences and family time. I do love Christmas, not for the presents but for the extra effort everyone goes to see each other and spend time together.

Christmas is the one time of year that I will spend more than normal. We have a very strict budget for birthdays and everything else but Christmas is that one time of year when we are all home together and I don't mind spending a bit more but only if we have it!

We don't buy for the adults in extended family - far too many and it would leave us all bankrupt.

Four DD's between us aged between 21 and 11 - Varying amounts between £150 and £250 on each of them
DP - Around 200
Nephew - £25
Alcohol - about £30
Food - Around £150 but we will be getting a huge ham and turkey and lots of friends dropping in over the holidays so will be plenty to go round.

I've been buying bits each week and putting it all in a box. Apart from the butchers (which I pick up Xmas eve) I finished everything a week ago.

Try places like Lidls for nuts/chocs/crisps etc. So much cheaper than the big brand stores.

About £1000. We don't go mad on gifts, just our grown up DDs, our mums and small gifts for 3 niece/nephews so about £500 on those, but we have about 10 for Xmas dinner and 2 free range turkey crowns is £60, plus we like champagne so if we include food and drink from Christmas Day to New Year it probably adds another £500.

What can you get for £15 for an adult?

Adding to BackForGood's list and off past wishlists/shopping lists from my family:

umbrella
theatre tickets
nice notebook
orchid
pot plant
candles
mug
cookery book
address book
wallet

Since we are all into gift giving, we tend not to rush out and buy things for ourselves that can wait until Christmas: much more fun to get something nicely wrapped up and knowing that someone else spent time choosing it for you.

We don't have a set budget for specific things but presents for kids (one 8 year old and one 6 year old) usually costs around £800, Christmas all in (including tree, family presents, food, Christmas eve party, kids activities etc) I usually try not to go north of £2k

We generally don't put a price limit on things for the kids because sometimes they do genuinely need something that might cost £700 (as was the case with DS1 when he needed a new snowboard the Christmas before a big competition.)

This year DS1 doesn't want a lot so probably about £100 for him. DS2 needs a new tablet, so probably in the £150 range. Whatever we spend on DS2's main present we'll put the difference in DS1's savings account.

We have a huge extended family but luckily someone came up with a secret santa system, so we only have to buy one gift with a limit of £10.

Couple of 1000 I suppose - but i don't mind. I really love Christmas and I like buying something that I think the recipient will love! We have 4 DCs - main gifts (around 15 gifts each) are laptop each for Dtwins, IPAD for DS3, Cursed Child tickets for DD

I think Secret Santa is a great idea by the way, I just like buying gifts for people and really look forward to giving them

Oh and I forgot presents for all three sets of grandparents (my parents, DP's parents, DC's birth grandparents) which usually comes to £200ish all in, and we pay for DC's birth grandparents' flights to come see us.

Yeah personally I wouldn't mind buying presents but when there's about 40 cousins between us on just one side of the family, I can see why we adopted the Secret Santa system.

It's not too bad on DP's side where there's only his brother and sister who have two kids each. It's my Irish catholic side that has broods of 5/6/7 kids