How do you afford Christmas?

[cantpooinpeace]

I just about manage each year without using my credit card much.
But see many people buying extravagant gifts without a money worry in the world & wonder how they do it.

I tend to start buying in October's pay packet using the surplus cash that I would normally save fritter away and do the same for Nov & Dec but believe me January is tight and not much fun :(.
it's not just the presents but the night outs, secret santas,
Panto tickets....you know the score.

Interested in hearing your Christmas budget strategies please :)

Whoopsy - it's quite obvious what a 5 year old girl will be into all the year round! Are you talking electronic things for a teen?

I have spend about 150 altogether on presents for family and friends. Then xmas dinner was bought by work (last night) and I had a cider and black and a coke so spent 3.80. We dont do secret santa anymore at my place to save money. Wrapping paper cost 99p. Decorations and tree bought years ago.

I cant drink anymore as I am pregnant but usually can do a night out drinking on between 10 and 15 dependent on whether I have to chip in on taxi. Just have a couple of drinks before I leave then drink half cider and black usually about 1.25 to 1.50 so very cheap.

Whoopsy - I bought most of their gifts in advance, they are 4 and 2. DD has wanted a snow white dress for over a year, and that's the only thing she's asked for. DS can't talk well enough to ask, but I know Happyland will go down well.

Might not be so easy next year, as peer pressure will kick in more for DD and she might be more aware of 'stuff' (she doesn't see adverts ATM) from her friends. I will probably still get some stuff early though, and if I get it cheap and keep it in the packaging I can sell it on eBay nearer the time if it turns out she has outgrown it. I will definitely be leaving more space in the last minute budget though :)

Start buying in September.

Only buy for dc's, dh and my mum. (modest gifts for last two.) siblings, neices, nephews have agreed we don't but (relief all round). Try not to buy for friends either (although a couplke rather force my hand).

ebay and amazon, 2nd hand for littlies.

sell outgrown stuff on ebay to fund purchases.

nectar points etc saved for xmas supermarket shop.

With these measures I don't find it a financial strain at all, and we are not minted by any means.

We only buy a small present for dd, I tend to buy that in November. We make a few foodie gifts for others in Decembef.

December buy the food.

There is no need for Christmas to be expensive

We have credit cards that convert points into vouchers (we use them to pay for everything - petrol, food shop etc all year round, pay off in full each month). I have John Lewis and DH has M & S. We then save all the vouchers to buy christmas presents for family with them or use them for special waitrose food shop if any left over.

We save all Boots points, Clubcard points and Nectar points - have just done nearly all DH's family in the voucher double up at Tesco, and bought bits for my family from Argos using Nectar. Effectively all free presents.

DD1 got some duplicate presents (books) for her birthday, so I just put those to one side and will regift to family children. Ditto with any baby bits bought when DD2 was born - keep them to one side for other new babies/christmas.

DDs are 2 and 4 mo, so have no idea what it's all about, and I don't buy them much at all while I can get away with it. DD1 toys all come from Gumtree/eBay/Nethuns local boards. I think I will wrap a lot of things I would otherwise had to buy them anyway - swimming stuff, tights/socks, new cloth nappy etc.

I always keep and eye out for offers and sales, never buy anything full price if I can avoid it Am making a lot of gifts for neighbours/local family friends this year, am using brown paper with gift ribbon for wrapping, with luggage labels and gold pen for tags. I bought presents for family/friends who live far away well in advance so that I can avoid postage cost by either taking along when I see people (causing alarm in Sept for example!) or arranging for them to get to the intended recipients by convoluted transport methods!!

Whilst the above sounds a bit joyless (I'm not honestly ) I get no fun from spending money we can't afford.

I am very fortunate to have got a 4% Xmas bonus at work for the last 23 years which pays for the bulk of Xmas.

But company will have 60% redundancies next year , and whoever is staying will be on new terms and conditions which include no Xmas bonus so if I end of staying I will need to get into the habit of saving throughout the year.

We're lucky in that the traditions dh & I were brought up on mean that Christmas isn't too crazily expensive, plus we have a very small family.

I've got a friend who was brought up on big piles of presents under the tree (hundreds of pounds worth) so she really struggles to provide the same for her dcs.

We were brought up with one big present and a couple of other things plus stocking of very small, cheap gifts and the toe filled with a satsuma and an apple.

We only have ds and he's only 5 so his main present cost £30.

I spend about £15 on each nephew/niece (3) and we only buy adult presents for each other (which can be scaled up or down depending on how much money we have) and my mum, dad and gran (around £20 each).

Christmas dinner is always at my mums and we provide wine and cheese, so my parents really sub our Christmas dinner

We only go to panto etc if we can afford it.

Dh isn't working this Christmas but we've still managed to get it all from my pay last month and this month.

i start in october, i cut back on everything to buy presents [we don't go out, drink or smoke anyway, but cut back on food shoping] and jan is a horrid month very long and skint

I save £40 a month as an ongoing standing order and that pays for Christmas. I don't miss the £40 so much but no way could I fund Christmas out of regular money. I also don't spend on credit.

I do the PARK thing too.

£100.00 a month, I get love to shop vouchers, M&S for my naice food and Amazon vouchers.

You don't pay over what it's worth either, you put in £100.00 you get £100.00 back plus a little comission is earned too. Due the Farepak fiasco and everyone losing their money It's all protected now so if something were to happen you'd get your money back.

I also pick u the odd thing now and again if I see a bargain

I have always spread the cost throughout the year, picking up things in sales all year round.

Now the dcs are older and making more specific requests I have suggested to dh that we open a new bank account just for Christmas and put a direct debit into it each month.

Reading this thread has also given me the idea to put the 2 months council tax we don't have to pay into it as well.

This year I have also made over £300 on ebay this autumn and used that for Christmas. I plan to sell most of next year and keep all of that in my paypal account ready for Christmas.

Hopefully we will then have too much in the account

I did also have a few awkward conversations with quite a lot of friends about stopping buying each other and our dcs gifts. Most were very happy to stop though and very glad I had suggested it.

I don't give to my dbro and my dsil on that side either. I still give on the other side as they have no dcs with them on Christmas day so it would be a bit of a non event without a few presents. I club together with my dbro for my parents' gifts which means we can get them one really nice gift rather than a couple of little ones.

Great thread - some very useful ideas.

We don't spend a lot, buy a real christmas tree (last years lights/ ornaments). Don't do presents for adults, we do buy each other something nice though.
We have a proper freezer so I stock up on special offers on meat and fill up the cupboards. I'll buy a bird from butcher and stock up on wine from Lidls (they're doing a decent Barolo for ?8,00)

DS is only small so the magic commercialism of christmas hasn't kicked in. so he'll be happy with anything really. I don't really see the point in spending loads of cash on stuff that'll be 75% off a week after christmas. Boots "must have" gift sets anyone?

I think we'll do it for under £500 which I think is quite a lot tbh but we seem to be more frugal than a lot of people we know.

I start shopping as soon as the dc go back to school after the summer hols.

All 3 have birthdays in the 6 weeks before xmas so it is always a bit of a panic which ever way I do it, but I think I might start using Park too. I'd love to have a wad of vouchers come November to do a big shop.

I always shop around to find the cheapest place for every single gift. I hate to think I am spending more than i need to.

I start shopping in January. I will buy next years cards and wrapping paper, which always ends up being expensive just before the event, and some generic gift sets from Boots or Body Shop dead cheap for colleagues, childcare workers, those type of people. Id rather get them a £20 set for a fiver than a £5 set in a panic.

I never pay full price for anything, unless its a very specifc toy my youngest has asked for. Even with DD1 now, who is 12 two days after Christmas, I will say to her that Santa probably wont get that but I would be happy to get it for her birthday if she can wait and we will go shopping for it (if I am sure an item will be in the sale). She obviously does know about Santa, but we still play the game!!

I use Pricerunner, Kelkoo AND Google Shopping to check prices for absbloodylutely everything. I wait for special shopping events at Debenhams and House of Fraser, etc. Play.com deal of the day has been good this year too.

I buy food which is nonperishable in the run up when I see it on special. Ditto wine and alcohol (got my litre bottle of Baileys for £10 several weeks back, as an example).

I buy everything on my Play.com credit card and convert the points into play voucers (you can get an Amazon one too). I pay for my food shop on a Tesco credit card then convert the points into 4x Goldsmiths vouchers. I DO the food shop in sainsburys and get nectar points too which then translate into free toys from Argos.

I try to write a list and not be distracted from what is on it (but I find that hard). I book meals out and order food a good bit in advance, paying deposits, so its not such a whack all in one go.

I collect vouchers from papers. I begged borrowed and stole Sun Perks from colleagues and got some free DVDs. I collected the Mail Rewards at the weekends (I always buy papers anyway, otherwise its not a saving at all) and Ive had £5 Tesco vouchers, £10 Boots vouchers, £30 high street vouchers and Downton Abbey series 1 dvd free this year.

My luxuries - a real tree every year, whatever the cost, and a lot of baking. Its actually much cheaper just to buy ready made. But I love doing it.

I always start in Sept, buying one or two things a week, this year money has been so much tighter than ever before its the first time I've properly had to keep a strict eye on things.

So next year from Jan, I'm going to put money aside every week - like the park schemes (but just in a seperate bank account) - I may not need it if things improve in which case it will just go into the 'pot', and if I do well then its there.

I have a small business and I'm also going to do this for my staff (any who want it). I will be their 'bank' and keep it in the safe at work for them, they can have it any time they want - but they will have to come and get it - so they won't just fritter savings away (when they are drunk etc!). Did it a few years ago for a couple of the staff who were having money problems and it really helped them out!

I save all year, just like Onlyaphase :)
I was reminiscing with dh yesterday, about our pre-kids days when we wouldn't have even considered doing any Christmas shopping until the first Saturday of Decembe and how we'd be in a major stressy panic if we did that now

I always budget for Xmas, and DDs bday on 17th usually £300 for everything. Already have tree, wrapping paper and cards from before. Havent done dinner for the last few years, but would get it from Aldi if I did. Poundland is excellent for stocking fillers, rest of shopping done on Amazon. Doubled the budget this year as DH is earning now but have spent less than last year.

Plus we never bother with tat or extravagent gifts for each other, we celebrate Xmas Eve in a more physical way . Much more enjoyable!!

I usually start buying very early, feb/jan time and put it all away. that way we are done by november and I work in a cafe so manage to pick up extra shifts in the run up. terrible for my ribs though. having said that, I rarely pay full price for anything, and have a strict spend policy.

I am putting a plan into place next year. I can manage to pay for Christmas over a couple of months, just from left over money and an extra job I do in November. However, extra job no longer there this year and things have been much tighter.

I'm also funding all of the food and drink this year (normally at parents' home and give them £200 towards everything as we stay for just over a week). That will be more expensive. Spent £100 already in Tesco this morning on booze and bits and pieces. I have all the fresh food to do and food for 2 parties as DS has his birthday on 16th.

Next year I plan to save routinely. I will also by ebaying toys they are too old for in the Autumn to generate some cash (I sell books on Amazon too). I've missed a trick with the Amazon and Tesco credit cards, so I intend to get these in the new year in order to generate some points. I will save all clubcard vouchers in the hope that they will double up on toys again as the bargains to be had were very impressive this year. I also do surveys that are paid in Amazon or Tesco vouchers, and I use quidco for cash back. I plan to be better organised.

I didn't even consider my nectar points and Argos, so I will certainly bear that in mind for next Christmas.

I will also STICK TO MY BUDGET .

I buy all year round, I don't food shop as is the shops won't be open again for a month - it's just a roast dinner! We're not panto fans, We don't have an unmanageable amount of christmas party invites anway.

The Sun free Lego is brilliant for stockings too

I have sun lego for stockings too

I don't overbuy.

I buy a few things for the children, but not too much. I wouldn't buy them so much that I thought "How am I going to pay for this?"