My best budgeting for Christmas tip is to write out a list of everything and put a figure against it.
It’s very easy to ignore a lot of small costs and then get overwhelmed. Lots of times posters here talk about hampers or homemade gifts as a budget gift. But if you add up materials, the cost of a basket with cellophane, ribbons and shredded paper, it quickly adds up.
Cost up gifts, wrapping, cards, stamps, new pjs, experiences, food, crackers, advent, decorations, school raffle donations, trips to relatives, catch up drinks, Christmas parties, charity donations, treats, taxi fares, ....
When you add up everything, look at the final total, make a cup of tea and then start scaling back. When it’s all on paper it’s generally fairly obvious what you can pull back on, which gifts to scale back, etc.
Then with your revised total consider where the money is coming from to pay for it. Do you need to spread the cost over several weeks? If you can’t afford what you’re planning to spend then do a rethink. Putting yourself in debt is a terrible Christmas present to your family.
What I do from there, is make a list on my phone of the people I buy for and other Christmas expenses. I have an amount budgeted for each, and as I buy, I record what I’ve bought and keep track of what I spend. Because it’s always in my pocket it’s easy to check before I buy anything. It’s nice to come in under budget.
I spread grocery costs out from September onwards, starting with extra tinfoil, kitchen roll, toilet roll and building up the non perishable ingredients gradually.