Seriously skint this year and need ideas please

[Margaritte]

No idea how we are going to do Christmas. We have hardly any money.. Lots of brothers & sisters to buy for, nephews of varying ages, grandparents, parents & our 3 children.
I don't know how we are going to buy gifts, have a nice Christmas dinner (1st year we will be home too) what to do over the holidays instead of Pantomime etc.
I am not crafty at all, and also am have pnd that I am working through, so doubt I'd have the energy to sew etc.
Its making me worry quite a lot, and I wondered if any one had any tips/ ideas? Any advice would be lovely, as when I google 'cheap ideas' it comes up with hand sewn toys or 'budget gifts under £10' . Neither of these are something that is possible for me

Start new traditions this year that don't cost but mean more.

Make a fuss of doing decorations ie Xmas music. Few cookies and milk watch a DVD with homemade popcorn can get cheap in aldi.

We go for walk round town looking at Xmas lights, could let them pick a 'new' book in charity shop (set limit is 50p each) home after for home made hot chocolate and story time?

Xmas morning I make pancakes. All you need is one egg one cup flour and one cup milk for mix little honey or syrup ect. Cost pennies but it's a treat.

Aldi have chocolate coins cheap and my 13yr loves them. Going in their stockings. Could put in beanie for 12yr get them cheap in primark. My boys love them. Get packs of deodorant bath stuff and divide.

We only buy for nieces/nephews any more and set a limit. But I would love voucher for babysitting if it were me. Or have them all over in week after Xmas. Get reduced meat in supermarket on Xmas eve and do simple meal or a large chilli type dish ask them to bring drink. Just have family day ie board games comedy DVD. That is what Xmas is about!

Stocking filler i have done snowman soup
Get celloafline triangle bags ( ebay) those christmas candy hoop things from poundland hot choclate and mini mashmellows
Place four large tablespoons of hot choclate in the bag then top with mashmellows and the candy stick tie with ribbon you can either print off the snowman soup poem or right it yourself
Goggle snowman soup

I made have made these for dc and they liked them

Plus if you have room in your freezer strat buying reduced xmas now this weekend i brought our xmas meat a large chicken and a duck both freezer and both under 1/2 price

The freezing ideas are great, thank you. I am going to do one a week on the run up. Potatoes, stuffing, yorkshires, gravy, etc. Not sure what to do for pudding though.

I really like the pinterest link of things to do over winter, and am going to start doing them once a week as well. Will really help me to focus with the dc too.

Big thank you for all the present ideas too. Is starting to become a bit more like it will be ok.

hello op, do not fear its just one day, with food and a few gifts, its not an insurmountable mountain to climb and you will do it....

I have only skimmed and probably repeating what people say.,

but if you can eek out one or two decent gifts per child....when i say decent I mean roughly what you tink they would like then bulk out with lots of little things from charity shops, xmas fairs in town halls, check out this for your toddler

www.babyandchildrensmarket.co.uk/Events.aspx?CountyID=65

Check this out and see if any markets near you, cost a pound to get in and whislt some people sell and want silly amounts THERE IS ALWAYS AT LEAST....one person there who is there to SHIFT stuff...and get rid for really good rices, you could get some things for her....for very cheap....

I know, i recently sold loads of great stuff at one, for 2 - 3 pounds!

wilksinons have large tubes of sweets for a pound at the moment....good to bulk up stockings with satsumas to.

there is a great tesco toy sale on better prices in shop than on line.,

tk max does great reductions if you live near one, for books and clothes for older dc.

we got last years xmas dinner from wiatrose months before it cost me 13 quid.
also meat counters reduce sauges really well too, i get all mine from waitrose reduced on meat counter.

if you had the time to pop into shop later on, holding back till you see what you want you could easily get joint of meat 75% off....my local sainsburies does massive reductions at 7 pm ish...you have plenty of time to get something really lovely,

bulk out main with potatoes...yorkshire puds?

I honeslty would simply tell all rest of familyt your having a lean year this year, and do token gifts, like the tube of sweets from wilkos for nephews. maybe tk max for your bro....t shirt? scarf?

cut everyone else out. we have done this, we just cant afford to buy for everyone. even dh and i dont give each other gifts.

A veggie Christmas dinner cuts costs dramatically. We used to spend £60ish on meat stuff alone (turkey, bacon, meat stuffing, sausages, pate etc) for Christmas dinner. We all went veggie about ten years ago and now our 'meat' expenditure is under a fiver. £1.99 for a Quorn roast and a pound for sausages if we fancy them. Asda currently have all Quorn frozen stuff on at 3 for a fiver so I've stocked up and my Christmas 'meat' is taken care of! It's delicious and sooo easy to cook, just chuck it in the oven and 45 minutes later it's done. We have it with roast potatoes, roast parsnips, stuffing, sprouts and gravy and it's gorgeous.

Yy to not buying adults presents (and not feeling guilty). They're old enough to understand and if they care about you, they will. Also PLEASE DM me your address, I've a pile of fab barely used board games here which DD has long grown out of and you'd be doing me a favour by taking them off my hands

Oh also have you got stuff you can eBay? Anything at all, a few items at a couple of quid each soon adds up. It's been a revelation to me this year. Also have a look at Amazon for cheap, cute gifts for the DC - you can get things like finger lights for pennies (but order in plenty of time because they're shipped from Hong Kong). I just bought DD a lovely wax seal kit with her initials on for about £2

Hi, not read the whole thread.. What i'm doing this year for my niece and nephews is sending a tin of heroes/celebrations (5 quid each) as a present for the whole family (using nectar and tesco points) Plus i'll be sending them off early so the parents know in advance to not spend too much on us..
HTH

Plus, I decided to spend 10 a week on my ds (started at the beginning of this month) so he'll have plenty by Dec 25

So many ideas. I'm going to have to reread the whole thread I think.

Thank you everyone

Idea for adults...put a £1 scratch card into a Christmas card for them.

Yes, Chicken for dinner sounds a lovely idea. Some places will be doing offers on things like pigs in blankets and Xmas puds right now, expecting to get you to try and buy for the proper date, so can you keep an eye out and snap these things up to freeze? Designate an early November 'shopping around' date?

Could you do something a bit memorable like decorate up an outside tree as an unusual surprise Christmas tree (for Xmas Eve or something)? And hang some very little named presents on it for each DC to open the night before? Or do a treasure hunt - someone in my family once left a gift tag addressed to me on the floor but it was attached to a v v long piece of wool that I had to follow upstairs and it was attached to the present. I must have been about 7. They just said - oh look! I think that one that's on the floor's for you! I remember it still!

Save some fireworks/sparklers if you get a BOGOF?

Make a snowman out of lots of balloons?

Look for the comics between now and Dec with the maximum amount of plastic freebies on the front! Save these and wrap up!

Someone mentioned something about wanting a home made playdough recipe...

I'm pretty sure this is the one I've used before. Really cheap to make. Could possibly be a present for the 5 yr old and the toddler?

2 cups flour
1 cup salt
2 tablespoons cream of tartre
2 tablespoons oil (vegetable or sunflower seem to both work)
Boiling water (1-2 cups - keep adding it slowly until you get the texture you want)
Food colouring to change the colour and/or flavourings like mint, strawberry, vanilla essence, etc. to change the smell.

Change the recipe to make more/less. The recipe above makes about 3 tennis ball size blobs. If you keep it in the fridge once made it will last for weeks/months.

They are the sorts of ingredients you may already have kicking around in the cupboard, else you can buy the cheap flour and salt for almost nothing.

For most adults I'd just not get them anything and explain that you don't want anything also (just so there's no resentment or anything).

For your parents/grandparents could you get the kids to make them home made gifts? I know you said you weren't crafty but maybe your kids could come up with some ideas?

You could make Christmas crackers - card covered in wrapping paper, rolled round and stapled to make each half and slip one half inside the other to make the cracker (sorry if that's not explained very well). The Works or B and M or Home Bargains would be good to get the card (maybe a pound for 10 sheets, 2 sheets needed per cracker). You don't need to make them too complicated, they could just slide together. Then put in a token gift like a keyring (maybe a free photo one and just pay postage I think someone else mentioned that you could do that) or a pen (there are nice ones around in gift boxes for around 99p) or something inside and get the children to write them (all together, but maybe the 12 yr old to actually do the writing) a message you could roll up in a scroll style type thing and tie with a small piece of ribbon...

CEX are good for cheap second hand DVDs. I actually saw that poundland have started doing refurbished second hand DVDs and CDs too and there were some good titles in there. Have a look through them and you could find some good childrens ones in there.

Bubbles are a good cheap stocking filler for the younger 2. Chocolate coins. stationary type things (Wilkos is good for cheap kids stationary). Bubble baths (get a set from superdrug or tesco or somewhere and split the set between the kids). Socks (Primark or Matalan?). If you can find them (possibly the pound shop or Wilkos or somewhere) those flannels that are small hard shapes, then you put them in water and it becomes a flannel.

(Almost) free activities -
Make salt dough decorations as a family (almost free as you'll need to buy the ingredients/paint if you don't already have some). You could also make salt dough handprints as a gift.

Make paper chains and other decorations. You can make Christmas trees to hang on the walls from green paint and handprints.
Carol singing - is there like a town square or something nearby where you could join in carol singing?

I'll keep thinking and see if I can come up with any more ideas...

I wondered - you'd have to ask your kids if they might be up for this - but one thought would be to make a certificate or voucher for the grown ups representing a promise to wash and hoover their car or something like that. If they are staying or coming for any length of time you could do a production line for this with wellies at the ready!

Thank you for all the ideas. Vouchers for favours sound great, not sure how my family would receive them though. I have a feeling it wouldn't go down too well.

I've just noticed I haven't replied on who I'm actually cooking for, despite being asked a few times- sorry! Its just us this year (first year at home) however unsure if DH will be working or not as of yet. As he didn't last year, I have a feeling he may have too Will know sooner the time though.

TBH I like it when it's just us! Doesn't happen often though (and won't this time!) Shame that your DH might have to work though. Among my favourite years was when I made a big 'Christmas casserole' - bog standard jar of white wine cooking sauce, chestnuts, turkey, gammon, leeks etc all chucked in together instead of the whole roast palaver, and we went for a really nice walk to a castle ruin without a soul about. Hope you have a good one and that it all works out.

That sounds lovely Ormally Especially the Christmas Casserole.

I think it will be nice if its just us. Think it will be something we will make a yearly thing, at least being at home. Will make it clear everyone is welcome, just we will stay at home from now on.

Will be very different if DH is working though as will just be DC & I.

op do you have any clubcards\advantage cards. i save my tesco and boots points and use them to buy xmas gifts. especially as you can double the value of your tesco vouchers on some stuff. or use the tesco ones for xmas food and drink. we cant afford to buy as many gifts this year either so have been reading your thread for ideas .

No, I don't really. I find Tesco quite expensive now, though I used to shop there a lot. Are you using any of the ideas cartoon?

dh enjoys baking so may get him to do batches of biscuits and\ or mince pies. we have most of the ingredients in the cupboard. i like the sound of some of the more crafty stuff such as the crackers but I'm rubbish with that sort of thing and reckon it could end up expensive. pound shops and special offers mixed with my points for me! ive got an offer with one of the photo websites, photos 1p each up to 50 of them. so will make sure of that with some cheapo frames. we brought some if those cards that you slip a photo in, its ds's first xmas so he is being posed for a pic in a xmas outfit for the cards. i think it will be cheaper than the usual cards i buy.

If you're near a pound world, they have plastic popcorn holders shaped like the cardboard ones you get from the cinema. They are red and white with popcorn written on them.

I'm going to get a couple of these, a cheap Xmas DVD from the pound shop and a pack of popcorn. I think they'll look really cute and only for a few quid?

OP - why not look on the freebie websites like www.magicfreebiesuk.co.uk and make up a hamper of the things you get for free?

If your 12 year old is a girl, why not take her to a makeup counter for a free makeover and say you'll be back to purchase another day?

I second the Aldis Christmas Eve bargain idea, last year it was great, all the Christmas food was reduced a lot.

Every year I try and bring our Christmas budget down and I have noticed the less I spend, the more fun we have.

Will have a search for poundworld near by- don't have any that I know of though. My 12yr old is a boy, though that's a lovely idea for a girl frankie80 Will get myself over to magic freebies too.