How much does christmas cost you?

[Bedtime1]

How much do you spend on gifts for family and friends, kids . And then christmas food, buffets, christmas decor. How much will you spend in total for everything .

It's interesting when you write it all down. Mine will be over £1000 on food and gift and decorating etc. then money on husband.
I wrote this thread to see if it is coming in at similar because it seems so much. Do you save up all year .

It soon adds up.
DH and I save £600 a month for Christmas, birthdays and holidays. Teenagers are definitely more expensive, DS's main gift is £400 compared to DD1 and DD2 at £65.

bedtime no I not save specifically for Christmas.

I do buy my friends presents throughout the year if I see something great though.

Crikey, meant I don't save! For Christmas.

I think i spend about £1000

£250 on my two boys each
£150 on dh
£60panto
Rest on family gifts,food and other ramdom bits.

Every year i hate the outrage on mumsnet if someone dares spend more than £3.50 on a gift for theor child.
Its all relative for some £50 is alot for some £1k.

As long as you dont get into debt wheres the harm?

DD will only be 6mo this Christmas so will be spending around £100 on her presents.
She will also need Christmas and Boxing Day outfits so around £50.
Some cute Christmas themed sleep suits and bibs £20 or so.
DH and I probably won't get each other much so £50 for him.
On family I will spend about £125in total.
Will be having our Christmas dinner and family this year but I will add some treats to our usual shop £20.
We have no Christmas decorations as we have recently just moved into our house so everything new I reckon around £100. The Christmas decorations we had were a bit rubbish but I'm now regretting binning everything

Now that I've written it all down it does seem rather a lot. And no doubt I will go over budget!!

Sorry, so in total around £500 this year.

We spend about £80 to £100 each on our children, maybe another £10 on stocking fillers. Tis plenty.

I always thought I didn't spend a lot, until I started doing a spreadsheet

It's amazing how a couple of new decorations, a slightly nicer bottle of wine than normal, stocking fillers etc add up.

My dc's present is normally around the £40 mark each, then a family present (board game, dvd etc) so another £10-20. Stockings are usually another £40/50 ish each (these include a biggish present and lots of bits).

I then have 6 other children and 6 adults to buy for, plus teachers and childminder.

Last year I spent £930 in total which made me feel slightly sick when I thought about it so I made all kinds of resolutions to spend less this year. The dc's main presents are more expensive this year so I've already failed but I'm going to try to rein it in elsewhere.

Hmm. I've never worked it out as dh and I deal with our family presents separately. I guess we spend about £20 per person and between us buy for about 14 so that's around £300.
Extra food is about £100.
Nights out about two each so up to £200 including a new dress/top for me.

The Xmas tree etc maybe up to £50.

So £650 in total??

I must show this thread to DP as he thinks I'm extravagant!

Maybe 250-300 for both sets of siblings, PILs.

Then tops £130 per child.

We usually go away end Nov for our anniversary so don't buy each other presents.

Each of the 2 DC has £250.
Family, about £250
Food £200
Paper, cards, decs etc £60
Christmas trip £200
DH £200

So, that's just under £1500. I put away £100 per month though, so the blow isn't too severe,

Ours is going to be a bit more reasonable this year, probably more like £750 but last year it was double.

I don't buy for adults or teachers etc, don't see the point tbh.

This year I have budgeted for £150 per child (5dc), £200 for all other presents, £100 for tree and new decorations, £200 pantomime, £50 cards, wrapping, advent calendars etc. £500 food and drink we are hosting this year. We are then going on holiday on Boxing Day for 7 nights which including spending money is £2000. This is our main holiday for the year as dh tends to work most of the summer and so has two weeks off at christmas and we try to make it as special for the dc as possible.

Normally I try to keep everything to about £250 total. But this year I'm hoping to buy a Wii U, so that means about £250 just for that. So I'll try to cut back on some other things, but still probably will edge it closer to about £400 this year.

About 2-3k, that's everything and includes hosting dinner, drinks and an evening buffet for 12 - 16 people.

I feel like a right cheapskate! But other than a few larger spends (a package to the states to my mum, a big gift for the dcs/family), it'll just be a few smaller presents, some stocking stuffers, and a little extra on the grocery list for a couple weeks to cover the roast meal and some baking, so that's really about it. I'm making my own cards from materials I already have on hand, so no expense there. Already have loads of wrapping paper from previous years put aside. Not a huge drinker, so maybe a bottle or two of wine. Artificial tree I already have, loads of decorations already have. I may have to stump up for some new Christmas light strings this year, as they were looking a bit tired last year.

I didn't have a clue until I thought about it.

We don't have that many presents to buy as just a small family and only one little one this year. Probably in the region of £400.

May buy the odd new decoration, but probably not. £15 max.

We will be hosting Christmas as per usual, but we do not go mad on all the additional sweets, goodies etc. No turkey, so shopping bill is quite modest and probably £30-50 more than the usual weekly shop.

Christmas cards and stamps. Cards and wrapping paper already bought in the sale last year.

So under £500 not including the usual grocery bill.

25 per head (kids included). Extended family and close friends 10 per head. About 150 food etc Xmas day. 400 total.

For the last couple of years I have saved my Tesco Clubcard vouchers and have been lucky enough to double them up and buy my DS's main present. Last year it was Lego, this year hopefully an ipod. So I suppose technically that is a freebie. I will spend about a £100 extra on him, including his stocking bits. We only buy for children in our family and as I only have 3 to buy for I do like to spend about £50 on each. DH and I don't buy each other presents but we let DS choose something for each of us. £100 extra on food and drink and £50 on the tree. Save my odeon points all year for a Xmas trip to the cinema. Sadly DS too old for visits to Santa and MIL likes to take him to the Panto so not much extra spend there. Daft thing is that I save hard all year for Xmas but in reality only spend around £500. What usually happens is that I have enough savings left over to pay for a large chunk of our summer holiday!

I've done my list and budgeted £450 on presents for 15 people, DS included (about £100 in total, some already bought - includes his stocking and advent calendar stuff) and mine and DH's presents to each other also included. That's spread over 5 months worth of wages (August - December).

Then we'll probably go and see a show/panto which is another few quid in December, 100 on extra food in December. Got tree/decorations. £30 on stamps for cards and wrapping (DS and I make cards together so normally manage those on the cheap as are well stocked in craft bits).

So rounding up, probably around £600 all in, but I refuse to use credit for any of it. I've gone overboard in the past and it just makes us miserable in January. Better planning happening this year.

Probably around £600, this is on 5 children ( 2 are adults ) and food.

LivvylongpantsSainsburys have LITTLE TIKES COUPE CAR down to £25.99 in my local store. C&P from Christmas thread for you.