To use the kids Christmas money to get me through January?

[darkmorning]

In a way I don’t know why I’m asking as I don’t have a choice really, but if the overall consensus is absolutely not I suppose I can use a credit card or something.

PIL gave both children £50 for their savings accounts. I’d have to put the cash in my bank account and transfer to their savings accounts: plan is to do this after I’ve been paid in January. Should I? Or is this just horrible?

No never

Yes, I’ll use the credit card then. I just don’t really like using them as it’s so easy to spend large amounts once you start, while when I’ve got £100 in my account that’s it, but with the credit card I could potentially spend hundreds!

Well, in fairness it won’t be Christmas then. But I’ve also had slightly less pay this month: that has been £100 less so that’s affected things.

I don’t see an issue IF you can definitely pay it back. December is an expensive month for most. If you have a frugal January and can definitely pay it into their accounts when you get paid I don’t see the issue.

what does your husband think?

They absolutely would to be honest. I don’t want to sound awful here but if that’s what you would do, all I can say is you’re not me.

Use the credit card and consider how you will budget better for Jan next year. You say you are paid well, so in theory you should be able to pay the credit card off immediately if you calm down spending.
I try to keep an amount aside for things that crop up early in the year, such as house insurance and car insurance which are annoying to have right after Christmas but must be paid. Add this to your monthly budget and then Jan won't seem so bad. Also look at your spending, why is it so bad this year? Admittedly prices have gone up a lot in supermarkets but have you gone overboard anywhere else that you could cut?

What were the high costs?

Do you have any savings?

Use the credit card. You won't have to pay any interest if it's just for a few weeks and it will remove any temptation to keep the children's money.

Just don't take the credit card out with you if you are worried you can't control your spending.
We put everything on our credit card but only what we know we will pay off the next month. Just because it's on a credit card doesn't mean you have to go wild! Do you or your husband have issues previously with spending?

Christmas largely - I don’t go all out but we were hosting this year and couldn’t really give people beans on toast! Then my pay was lower than normal: only slightly but I wasn’t anticipating that. We don’t have any savings in cash but the children do.

I’m not great with credit cards and am trying to avoid / pay off rather than add to it!

So scrap the trip on NYE.

You can't afford to spend £70 on socialising if you're struggling to feed your dcs. Do a video call instead.

Priorities !!!

You can schedule a bank transfer for the future. So do it now, schedule it to go out of your account. Then you won't forget

As you're bad with money that a reason why you definitely should NOT use your children's money.

I couldn't do this
Why haven't you budgeted for January? Did you overdo December/Christmas?
What about your partner?
Surely this is just setting up a cycle of being too short and paying back every month?
Do you have anything you don't use but could sell (clothes, books, toys)?

Who were you hosting? When was this decided? Did you not anticipate this perhaps costing a bit more in your budget? In future could you ask for help if you want to host, friend X could you please bring dessert to contribute to lunch, friend y would be lovely if you could bring a bottle of wine to share?

Sorry I feel it's a bit mean that the kids might lose their money as you didn't plan ahead a bit more, and who's to stop this happening again.

There is no way I would go to PIL for New Year's Eve if I was having to think about borrowing money for petrol.

Exactly. Most obvious solution : Don't visit PILs.

If you cannot afford it, don't go. Simple. Give them a call instead.

I am absolutely 100% confident I’d pay it ‘back’ @AhBiscuits It would have to go into my account first anyway for me to transfer it. I am still undecided but I do know there is no way at all they wouldn’t have it. I pay religiously into their savings account every month anyway even though it leaves me short.

I wonder why people can't prioritise things like this....

I haven't seen family over Christmas due to logistics, so I just texted or phoned etc. Not a big deal. People understand if you explain your reasons.