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 :)

Cliff who is that bank account with?

I need one? And if you don't mind me asking how much did you a crew after a year of rounding ups?

I transfer odd money too, just with an esaver account. On Natwest, all of your accounts show under each other and you can move money easily. If theres a bank account that does it for you, I would love to hear of it too!

Every day I round my money down to the nearest tenner- gives you an incentive not to go buying the random crap for £2.53 like I normally do! I'm more likely to draw money out and thinm about what you are buying. I saved about £180 in the last 15 weeks (when I started it).

i save all year with the credit union. it has been £50 a month, but i've just upped it to £60 a month for next year.

Gosh thats a lot to spend yoga!

cantpooinpeace - it's with Lloyds TSB, Save The Change account and I can't tell you how much I managed to save in a year unfortunately as I only started it in May but I can tell you that for the month of November we saved just over £8 by all the roundings up, so if it was like that for every month that would be £86 for the year. Enough for the kids presents.

Whoopsyla that reminds me of a conversation I had with my sister a couple of years ago. I said I'd spent £740 on Christmas (1 DD, me hosting Christmas for 7 people who like their food and drink) and she said she'd spent only £300.

It emerged that her £300 budget was for presents for her DH only. When she added up the cards, stamps, tree, wrapping paper, deisel for trip up north, additional food she'd bought, family presents, decorations, wine and drinks etc, she'd spent more than me.

I only realised how much Christmas cost when I sat down and added it all up properly rather than just the presents

Thanks cliff :)

I buy £50 of Amazon vouchers each month and hope I haven't spent them all come Christmas!
Also get vouchers on Credit card where we put all our spending, so normally get £200+ of M&S vouchers, which does for our food,and "adulty" type presents.
I use Quidco and vouchers - never pay full price and barely go into a shop,unless it is to collect and internet order.

What is Quidco? It sounds a useful thing to know about.

i know it is a lot of money. i have 3 kids and i spend £100 each on them. and my dh and i have 9 nieces and nephews between us. our parents, tins of biscuits for 2 elderly ladies across road, various bottles of wine for neighbour that takes my son to school twice a week, teacher that works with my home schooled disables son, etc, etc, my god theres loads and it all adds up! me and hubby are lucky to get a pair of slippers!

I have a direct debit for £75 each month.

We have quite a big family that we buy for, and we exchange gifts with a few friends as well. That also pays for our tree, Christmas outings (we are going on a Santa train ride this weekend), a couple of meals out in December, any new decorations, booze, stamps, cards, wrapping paper, and covers the cost of NY.

It means that we can look forward to a few days out and treats in January once it is all over, because we haven't spent as much out of our normal budget in December.

I cannot be doing with shopping all year, I would just get annoyed with having stuff hanging around the house and forget who I had bought for etc. So this is the easiest way for me.

I also never pay full price for anything. I start my shopping in the middle of November and take advantage of any deals etc. I've also got some amazing bargins in the ELC extra 20% off today.

another one who puts a bit away each month starting from January. Also get the high street vouchers they are fab.

At the end of the day I suppose many people afford christmas more easily as they have more money!!

Hmm. Well, for starters my BILS and SILS and I all draw names and can't spend more than $25 on each other, so that's sorted. I "liked" a bunch of sites on facebook (Bath and Body Works, Yankee Candle, etc) and now get coupon codes through them. So I'm able to get SIL lots of little things I know she likes in a pretty basket for very cheap. I also see sales all year on things like mini bottles of lotion, candles, etc that are red or green and I buy them to stick in mugs for teachers ,etc.

DS loves all super heroes, etc. A friend of mine had a huge garage sale this past summer and sold all of his still-in-the-box action figures that he'd collected for very cheap. We stocked up. :) Also we have a resale children's shop that sells like-new board games for pennies and have bought a few. And we tell DS that for us (DH and I), we believe that people give gifts on Christmas to show love, because it is celebrating the birth of Jesus who loves us and all people and wants us to be kind. So also we choose something to buy from Save the Children, and go together to pick something out for Toys for Tots. (I stress again that this is only our own belief :))

DH and I are usually happy giving each other a few books and small things like new mugs or framed photos.

My parents live on acres of forest so we go cut down our Christmas tree every year. We try to make a lot of the ornaments and the Lions Club in our town sells lovely wreaths for $10. I have to put my own bow on though, theirs is not nice. :o

Where are you finding the most stress comes from, OP? Is it gifts for DC, travel costs, food?

i start buying in july, me and my dh split it, i do the kids and womenfolk and he does the men and buys the tree (we have a real one so same expense every year), decorations etc and we always go to either his mums or mine for food so have no expense there plus his boss buys tickets for the dress rehersal for the pantomine for everyone plus families so thats free and his work do i free for both of us, we only get small gifts for the family which they understand as they know our money is going on the kids. Still costs a fortune i've just bought my two boys (it'll be my little ones first xmas) a personalised toy sack each from mamas and papas they cost nearly 40 quid between them. You can buy the smaller gifts during the year and stocking fillers and then leave the bigger gifts till nearer the time.

i'd never ever use park or anything like that i remember a few years ago a similar company went bust just before christmas and everyone lost their money i remember my mum telling me ( i must have only been 20 at the time) how sad it was becuase the people who had lost money were those who couldn't afford christmas as it was.