Is this a good amount, barely anything or what?

[Fridaynightjustisntthesame]

£746 for the next three weeks leading up to Christmas.
Presents have been bought

This money is for food, petrol and hoping 🙏 a couple of Christmas things-lunch out, cinema maybe.
This will have to include on the third week all the Christmas food shop-Christmas eve & day (at home)

Two adults, one dc and pet

Why does it matter if it’s a good amount or barely anything? It’s what you’ve got and you’ll have to work with it. I personally think that’s fine provided you don’t eat out constantly.

That's £250 a week!
Usual shop for the 1st 2 weeks, I'm sure can be done for under £75 a week, then a huge blow out on Christmas week with £600!

Easy really, if it's just the 3 of you for Christmas day.

Do you do any kind of budgeting/planning month by month? There are loads of good apps or even bank accounts for this, where you allocate money to different categories and then you know that everything's covered. I used to look at money like this as well (seeing what I had left and hoping it would last), but consistent budgeting has transformed my attitude and made money much less stressful to manage.

Because i’m v worried about not being able to afford everything

That’s plenty for christmas food and 3 weeks of normal life IMO. Plus a few Christmas event expenses.

Petrol too and sorry forgot to include dh’s cigarettes 😡 doesn’t drink really though and I don’t, so cigarettes only vice, but it adds up sadly

What is ‘everything’ though? Cut your cloth accordingly - £700 is a good amount.

What do you normally spend ?

would a lunch out be 50 or 150?
would the cinema be 20 or expensive cinema and loads of snacks ?
if your ordinary weekly shop is say 150 - then 450 plus say 100 extra for loads of treat makes 550 then 100 for petrol makes 650 leaving 100 for the treats / so easily possible with some quite generous bits there

Oh well cigarettes changes the picture - you may as well be burning money.

The food mainly on that Christmas week, has always been really expensive in the past

Yep, I know

Do you end up throwing food away?
do you end up spending less the next week because you have so much left overs ?

Well, work out a budget.

Well i have 400 so you are good. 2 adults, 2dc (one baby thoug) one pet

Christmas is just a day it’s not worth stretching yourself to cover it. Whatever you can comfortably afford goes on Christmas and save what you can for a rainy day.
Most people who don’t worry about money don’t go crazy and spend loads on one day.

How far do you travel and what do you spend on petrol?

Are all bills covered already? Rent/mortgage, utilities, council tax etc?
If so, then seriously I can't see an issue.

How much would you spend on food in that period if it wasn't Xmas? I would start with that, then add on the Xmas day food (we love the leftovers, so boxing day wouldn't be catered separately if just us), petrol and fags. How much is left after that?
It is impossible to say if you have enough for what you want without knowing how much petrol (£10 a week? £100?) and the extent of DP's smoking habit. Equally if you normally spend £150/wk just on food, then you're probably going to find it tight.

To me - that's loads

However, I dont fill the house full of "treats" that will be binned, taken to the work place, dropped into the food bank, I buy what I know we will eat and not through out. And let's be honest, it's a flipping roast dinner. Do we on any other roast dinner day, eat a huge dinner, have dessert then spend the rest of the day grazing?

With the cost of veg usually only 9p Christmas week, ( I buy loads and prep and freeze ) with lamb, beef and Pork at half price - my " Christmas shop " is no more then an ordinary shop

And we do eat the turkey and ham till its gone - maybe takes a week but we tend to go with two roast dinners , ham egg and chips , cold meats and bubble , leek and turkey pie and a quiche or omelettes

We spend relatively little for Christmas, I grew up in the 60/70's when Christmas was an all out affair - side boards loaded with fruit, dates and nut. The big Tin of quality street, kids stockings and selection boxes full of chocolate bars, Newberry fruits, candied fruits, sugar almonds - the list goes on, and they were the Christmases I spent my early adult life trying to emulate

Then it dawned on me, we didnt actually eat it all. Because chocolates and sweets became available every day, we didnt have the pig fest that was Christmas. Plus back then, everything closed on Christmas Eve mid morning and most didnt open till Jan 1st ( used to get a paper and milk on Christmas morning mind )

So now the shop is the same, treats are gifts. DH and mother like chocolate, so I have bought them their favs as part of their Christmas box - dont need tubs of cheap chocolate around the house

It sounds like a lot, but it really isn't if you are including christmas meal out and cinema etc. Could be tight.

I’ve got less than £300 and have fuel food and gifts to buy. And a friend and her DD coming from overseas for ten days. So yeah… you’ll be fine

We have allocated £300 for Christmas Eve, day and Boxing Days food. I would see if you can get a delivery or click and collect so you know how much your Christmas shop is going to cost and then budget with the rest of the money.

I'm still baffled by all this.
We have done the bulk of our shopping for Xmas, bar fresh veg, and everyday staples like bread and milk.
For lunch for 4 adults, snacks such as chocolate, nuts crisps etc, drinks, leftovers for boxing day and lunch for 6 adults on 27th, we have spent about £175.
I'd estimate we have another £50 or so to spend.
So even adding a trip to the cinema thrown in, (what £50 for 3 people including snacks?) and petrol and a meal out I can't see it costing more than £400.
Leaving another 300 for the other 2 normal weeks. Normal weekly shop for 3 adults is £50, so still got £200 left for even more treats.

For food and fuel yes maybe…if you want it to include a cinema trip and lunches out plus cigarettes then no…so I guess the cigarettes will take priority?

Oh, I forgot about the cigarettes.

How much do they cost?

OP, in order to know the answer to this you need to make a list of expected costs.

How much does your household spend each week on 1)cigarettes, 2) food, 3)petrol 4) any other regular expenses such as alcohol, takeaways etc?

Next, make a list of places you'd like to visit over Christmas and work out the cost of attending, the cost of tickets, snacks, meal out in a restaurant etc.

Make a list of all the extra food/treats you want to buy for Christmas week and price all these items up now in your local shops.

When you have a list of what everything costs then you can work out if you'll have enough money for everything you'd like to do.

Mumsnet can't answer your question based on the scanty details you've provided but if you'd like to list your expenses here, then posters can give you more accurate answers and help you figure out where you can cut back, if that's required.

Budgeting apps are very useful, I know using one has helped me a lot.