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 :)

also I buy gifts that are functional and would probably be bought anyway, so if DC outgrows his bike, then new big bike can wait till christmas but it would be bought anyway, we buy new PJS each christmas but PJs don't generally last anyway so also would have to be bought, DC gets "things" from santa and rellies but from DH and I he gets an activity, so a term at his hobby, which we'ld probably do anyway... I get stocked up on Clarins for my pressie, which I like to use anyway, DH gets a new shaving brush and soap.. we all get new socks, we hold off on any DVDs we fancy getting from about sept on and make them for christmas, we stock up on books at christmas. If DH and I want festival tickets then we get them to each other for christmas

so its not really EXTRA stuff, its stuff we will use till birthdays start comming round. DC gets one big thing from santa and the rest is stocking

for us we either hold of on things we want to buy anyway from sept on and save it for christmas, and combine that with thinking about what things and events we'll want in the following spring, and get them in advance "for christmas". Can be anything, horse riding, cinema vouchers...

The Nectar/Argos thing is great. You go into Argos, fill out your bit of paper thingy, go to the till, and hand over your Nectar card to pay. Easy as that. No converting it into various vouchers that expire/have to be redeemed in certain depts by certain dates while you dance on your hands (Clubcard anyone?!). It's brilliant! Plus, you can pretty much find something for most people in Argos, so will always do if you're skint cashwise.

I save all £2 coins & 50p coins in a pot all year round.
This year i have £200 in it, last year i saved £240. Take bags to the bank, exchange for notes.
Dont miss the coins.

I buy £1 stamps from Tesco whenever i have a spare £1 in my purse and i am passing. £80 so far.
I save all of my Tesco club card points all year long. i have £120 so far.
I bought some stuff last January as soon as the shops opened afetr Christmas. Got some real bargains, all put away for this year.

We have a Sunday roast for Christmas dinner, i refuse to pay rediculous amounts for a turkey. Its a normal shopping week for me, we get tons of chocolate as presents, so no need to buy any.

In October i got onto ebay. To sell things, Never done it beofre so it was a learning curve. Ive sold all sorts of things and have £160 in paypal now! I am chuffed to death with that. Going to carry on as that will pay for Christmas next year

I shop in home bargains, B&M bargains for most presents. but have 18 children to buy for not including my own every year...so HAVE to be frugal.

I dont own a credit card, wouldnt know what to do with one.
I only have 3 people to buy for now as i have collected stuff all year. SO relieved as i am usually very stressed.

I start buying presents in about Sept especially the stocking gifts.

I save Nectar points and in spite of what Martin Money Expert Lewis says, I use them for food shopping. (He recommends the double your points exchanges)

I save £2 coins in a jar.

And write a list- for everything- to avoid last minute panic buying or leaving things out.

We save Nectar points to buy a couple of bottles of something eg I like Baileys and dp likes brandy - plus some nice biscuits, more expensive cheese than usual etc.

Gift-wise, we don't buy for adults except parents and set a limit of 15 max per child. We spend about 80 pound per dd (although it might be a bit more this year as we have just bought them a digital camera to share) and between 50-80 each for dp and I buying for each other. We don't buy into the whole teenagers need a new phone every year and the latest i-pod etc and the dds know that they won't be getting laptops etc etc.

We are sensible and don't spend more than we can afford. In fact, we probably spend less than we can afford. I don't like panto so that doesn't cost us anything! When the dds were smaller we went to whatever the theatre's Christmas play was (eg the last time we went it was A Christmas Carol) but we bought the tickets as soon as they came out along with tickets for another show, so got them at a special rate.

Despite all of this talk of spending people, my rule is simple, it is ONE day out of the whole year. I give modest gifts to my family and slightly larger ones to my DC's, I much prefer the entire family getting together and having a very special meal on the day and we just enjoy being in each others company - I see no reason to get into huge amounts of debt for one day!! I enjoy it non the less so to all of you mumsnetters out there here's wishing you a happy, peaceful and reasonably stress free Christmas.

I've started buying presents in August which are budgeted in. Any really expensive stuff is save for over a period of weeks.

It's can be tough going but it's worth it.

Boots points, nectar points, co-op vouchers all help a huge amount too.

Nectar points are saved up all year giving us an extra £30 / £40 on top of our normal weekly shop for christmas stuff

I also save £50 a month into a seperate account, its with my normal bank so if I buy anything early I just transfer it out so I don't notice anything different.

I order my turkey seperately and thats the only thing I notice, but I cut down on frittery spends at the end of the year so thats absorbed.

Have nearly finished shopping this year and its all good, I started this plan last year after yet another panic year!

No credit cards here.

I start buying stocking fillers for the kids fairly early on in the year, June time & add to them every couple of weeks. Only usually something small for a quid or two. Big presents I save a pot of random change for & swap at the bank for proper money. Have yet to open this this year but it'll almost certainly pay for dd1's Innotab & the odd bits of change that go in out of my purse aren't missed.

Grown ups usually get a small token present, say a fiver maybe & there's 6 of them so I buy one a week from the end of October until they're done.

Food shop wise, any extras that we only have as Xmas treats, a pound a week is put aside for & some tinned/dry foods with a good date on them are bought & stored in their own space in the cupboard.

If I didn't plan like this then we'd really struggle with Xmas shopping & I think the struggle would put a dampener on the day itself

I start buying in the January sales and squirrel stuff away all year. We have 5 DCs, one left home with a fiancee, a teen and three younger ones so Santa still comes, and I couldn't do it in a shorter time. I have to spread it all over the year or it just wouldn't happen. I shop around for the best price, and if I see something at a good price I buy it then and don't say "oh I'll get it later" in case it's gone.
I know mostly what they like so I can shop all year. I leave the "big present" til last to see what they want though. No2 son's birthday is in July so he tends to get a more expensive b/day present and less at Christmas, but being 17 he understands this. DD likewise, but without making it obvious as her b/day is August. We have a load of b/days in November and December though which makes it harder.

I try to buy things through the year that are fairly generic presents, smellies an things, when I see a good deal. Then in about October I see what I have amassed through the year and what could be given to who and then list what I still need to get - usually close family and people who I get a more personal gift for than just smellies.

The remaining things I try to get in October and November and then that means that by December I only have the last minute things to get plus the meals out and that sort of thing to pay for. We budget everything and know what we are prepared to spend and in December we tend to spend about half of what we would normally put in the savings account. We aren't extravagant at all and only have a small family so it keeps things quiet cheap.

We have a £100 a month present fund.

It sounds a lot but it covers absolutely all Christmas and Birthday presents for everyone. So nasty surprises or tight times all year.

I buy Christmas and Birthday presents all year round and store them until needed. Usually when I see something that I think would be good for a certain person. Just bought a Christmas story book for £2.99, from a forest visitor centre. My DS2 is too young for it this year but he will get it next year. Bought an Early Learning Centre farm set about 6 weeks ago, for half price. My DS2 will get it as his main present next year - it was a bargain.

DS2 is only 4 months so isn't getting anything this year. Except he got a lot of newborn toy gifts from friends. Kept and wrapped for Christmas. His older brother will "help" him open them.

I start my main Christmas shopping in August, mainly because I am a teacher and this is when I have time. I never Christmas shop in December - too busy at school.

I stock up on Christmas wine when half price offers are available. Currently buying Sainsbury's discounted Cava.

I never use credit cards for Christmas shopping. Budget all year and December is just and ordinary month. Spread the cost throughout the year.

Alvin Hall said on that money programme he used to do that the average family spends £600 to finance all the xmas costs. Some years we try to save all year through and sometimes we don't - but I find that's a fairly true figure to cover all the extras December brings.

We start buying in September and prioritise the DDs.
Then we do my family in October, DP's family in November and finally DP and I in December.
My Mum buys our Christmas dinner as mine and DP's Christmas present, we're foody types and it works perfectly.

The DDs tend to want to hibernate a bit during December, so we don't go out as much and there tends to be enough free Christmassy stuff going on in various places that we don't spend much on going out in December.

DP's work pays for the whole of their Christmas night out, he tends to buy a new shirt that does the work night out and Christmas day (he is antisocial and doesn't go out much!).

This year I'm having a baby so I'm not going out as much...not sure that is the best way to save money though!

Buy things all year in sales, cards, wrapping, stocking fillers, presents.

Spread food costs over several pay days, buy wine when on special offer in supermarkets.

Use loyalty schemes like clubcard, nectar and advantage points to help with costs.

Plan menus so that you know how much food to get, rather than buying loads 'just in case' and having it go out of date before it's eaten. Same with spirits, if you don't normally drink certain things, don't buy unless you know they will be drunk or look at half or quarter bottles to save costs.

Use same tree and decorations year after year.

We both get ALOT of overtime this time of year so that helps. But planning ahead. Christmas cakes (many!!) are made in september and fed until given as gifts to some families, and I also make some for MIL,SIL etc that I get a bit of profit on to cover the ones we give as gifts. Make alot of sloe gin as well which works on the same principle. Adding bits of food/wine to the shop every week (we've had our booze since october!!) but trying to get all gifts etc done by decembers paycheck so that covers socialising and "fresh" food/butcher etc.

Bargain hunting for gifts is helpful too!!

I save up my Sainsbury's points all year round and never miss an opportunity to use one of their vouchers to claim more points. Apparently the Tesco loyalty card is better but Tesco isn't as near as Sainsbury's so I'd only be wasting petrol to get there.

I also have a savings account with my bank which is quite clever. If I buy something on my debit card for 59p say, it'll round it up to £1, putting 41p into my savings account. It doesn't sound much but I use my debit card pretty much all the time so by then end of a year I've enough in that account to cover Christmas presents for the kids.

I also use ebay, especially for things such as games and Lego. So far I've got 2 Lego Technic games for ds for his birthday from ebay and 1 Wii game + 1 Nintendo DS game each for the kids for Christmas also from ebay. All good as new (the kids don't notice that the sames aren't shrink wrapped).

All our Christmas decorations were bought in the sales last year and we'll get some more after Christmas. Christmas cards are also much cheaper bought in the sales. That does require organisation I guess, but you can't miss the half price decoration and cards all over the supermarkets just after Christmas so it's not too much organisation to grab some and shove it in a box in the loft.

Oh and Superdrug has much better 3 for 2 gift offers, I always make sure the spare gift can be used as a secret santa gift.
Plus don't forget Aldi also do gifts that are great for teacher's presents.

This year we have dipped into our savings but next year I'm going to put a tenner a week away and hopefully that will do all the presents and food.

I buy all my cards, wrapping etc in january. Along with any new decorations that i missed this year, i need a new xmas tree ours looks pitiful so i'll be buying a new one and maybe some stocking hangers.

I save all my tesco clubcard points through the year and wait for a double exchange event. We also use a tesco credit card in a tesco fuel station to increase the points on what is a big chunk of our spend. We pay the bill in full.

I ebay what i can through the year and use quidco.

I have a list with every person on it and a strict budget. Then i shop all year, shopping around within budget for everyone except my own dd. I save 100.00 back and wait til nov to ask what she wants so hers are always last. I buy stocking fillers when i see them. I've never been overdrawn or credit card etc for xmas. I fact i make a point of not using dec wages on xmas as jan is such a long month.

I save some money each month and then withdraw it when the sales start in December. We don't go mad with presents, only buy expensive things for birthdays. For the past couple of years we've had a budget for adult's presents, which the whole family sticks to. Itcs more about family time than presents but DD is only 18 months so things are likely to change I'm sure!

I buy all my cards, wrapping paper, tages, ribbons etc in the sales between christmas and new year. Loads of choice if you buy at this time (rather than at the end of January) and much cheaper, even if you take into account 3 for 2 and the like.

I make as much as I can - Christmas cake, Christmas pudding, sauces etc.

DH' family this year has suggested thatw e do a home made Christmas (taking inspiration from Kirstie Allsop I think!) and although I couldn't be faffed with the whole idea at first, it has saved us lots of money. I have made things like flvoured vodkas, mincemeat, extra Christmas puds and an extra Christmas cake, chutneys and compotes and the like. And I made extra for us, so that was nice!

I buy presents all year round and put them away, and try very hard to resist the temptation to use them or give them before! its very handy in some respects to have presents ready for birthdays and things, though. I buy things which I know will suit my children or friends or family members. I sort of have in mind who I will be giving that present to when I buy it. And I only buy what I really like, not just what is on offer. That way I know that i won't be left with things I don't need or want.

I buy clothes in a size bigger for the children (who really won't care if they're wearing something 'ast season'!) at the end of a season eg last year after Christmas, I bought a size bigger pyjamas for DS, a coat, some tops etc. I buy books, sticker books etc in the sales that are slightly too advanced for the DC and keep them to one side.

I wait and buy toys whenever there is an enormous sale on - it takes some nerve sometimes though to be confident that there will be an even bigger reduction on something that I know one of the children wants! Like ELC are doing an extra 20% off their sale prices atm, and I have bought some brilliant bargains today.

I never pay for delivery - I ask for things to be delivered to a store where possible, or I buy on Amazon, or I don't buy from that store/site at all.

I buy most of my things for Christmas on line. If I see something in a shop that I like, I go home and google it and see how much cheaper it is elsewhere. And I google for a discount code so that i can get an even bigger reduction.

And I always think through what I would like so that if anyone asks me what i would like, I can suggest something!

Similar to others - this year I found an old Tesco clubcard account that had 75 pounds worth of in date, unused vouchers which doubled up bought most Christmas presents. I have 25quid of boots vouchers to spend too. We tend to buy things when we see them at good prices but set a strict budget for everyone. With most of my friends we have a birthdays only policy so don't buy at Xmas, family only

For Xmas day dinner we spread the costs amongst those coming, this year dad is buying the meat, we will buy associated trimmings and extras and pudding, dsis is on booze and MIL on cheeseboard.

I will still write a meal plan for the week between Xmas and new year so won't overly spend extra on food

Definitly don't go nuts! Also- it's little things like buying a live tree, keeping it potted, looking after it and using it year after year! I don't "do" christmas cards, buy from October (not as early as some but early enough to get some bargains and spread the load). Also limit the number of christmas gatherings we attend as they get expensive, and buy nice quality long lasting pressies for kids... but don't go crazy on it.