Christmas on a budget

[fairyofallthings]

With Christmas approaching too fast and with money being tighter than ever, here's a thread for people trying to buy presents on a budget - I'm not sure how I'm going to afford Xmas this year.

some ideas are here - www.goodhousekeeping.co.uk/consumer-advice/christmas-gift-ideas

Give some details and I'm sure people will be along to help with cost saving ideas, home made presents etc for whoever you need to buy for.
And it's bloody hard sometimes x

crikey - everything on that link is ££££! Recommend checking on the Christmas threads for bargains. The M&S sale is on now and I find dc love random things that you wouldn't necessarily think of. Have ordered a nice 'F" initial cushion for dd from the M&S sale but last year her favourite thing was a big conch shell I'd found in a charity shop.

Ds is into science so I'm going to make him an experiment box and print out home experiments to do - will be full of flour, vinegar & other inexpensive things!

Won't help most people but check for any food manufacturing places nearby. I'm in NI but we have a chicken factory nearby & the turkey crowns etc going for £50 in M&S can't be bought at the factory shop a mile down the road for £10 and down to £4 on Christmas eve if you can wait it out!

Homemade gifts are good and if you have time to browse through the charity shops, there can be lots to find

Personally we have managed to get a little extra money by selling some of our stuff on eBay and Facebook market place (prefer Facebook as no faffing with posting etc). We have also used Facebook market place to buy lots of happyland stuff our toddler is obsessed with second hand at a fraction of the cost. Think she currently has a rocket, house, pirate ship and a dinosaur land for same as we would of paid for one new. She won't no difference and it's all in great condition.

I've got to buy for elderly parents, a young male adult and two teenagers and I need to spend less than £200.

Lidle do small panetoni etc that make nice gifts for older relatives.

Home bargains have lots of bits.

I'm on a budget too, on mat leave pay this year. Luckily I don't have many to buy for just the kids, something for my mum, my brother gets cash and BILs and MIL will get a bottle of alchohol each when it's on offer. I've made a list for the kids and I'm sticking to it, I'm religiously watching the bargains thead, hotukdeals and price spy to get what I want for the kids as cheap as possible and I've set an amount each month to spend on Christmas things. I'm trying not to feel guilty on not spending much on them because they do get spoiled by family