A frugal Christmas

[absolutelyknackeredcow]

Our income has been massively hit by Covid. I have had to take a pay cut and my husband (main earner) has has a pay cut, has been on furlough since June and is likely to be made redundant.
We are not on the bread line - and for that we are very grateful - but things are massively, massively tighter than before.

What free and cheap things can we do - either catering or otherwise to reduce costs ?

We make our Xmas pud - which the children enjoy - but thought it would be nice for others to post their ideas

Chicken not turkey

A turkey crown rather than the whole turkey or a chicken. Tastes just as good and much cheaper!

If you make your own Yorkshire puddings for the lunch, double up the mixture and have pancakes for breakfast Christmas morning. Fun, cheap and time saving.

Tesco's have half price on children's toys at the moment.

Go over to the Christmas boards and there is bargain thread on there with some great buys and tips.

Look on Facebook marketplace for fun board games you can play on the day. I went shopping the other day and almost fainted at the £30 price tag of the monopoly set I found

Amazon (in fact most shops) will normally have some really good Black Friday deals too.

I've got a big box I'm filling with toilet roll tubes, empty bottles, cereal boxes. I got 500ml pva from Poundland and the £6 Chrismas craft bag from The Works (has loads of good stuff in) In December we're going to do craft activities from Pinterest and Facebook. Cardboard Christmas!

We also picked up waterproofs from a charity shop and we'll be having plenty of spot the Christmas tree walks.

I'm painting our windows (I did a passable Frozen scene last year) and I know of others locally going to a big effort on windows for the kids to enjoy so walks will be more exciting.

@JumpingJamboree I agree 100% about the board games! Very expensive. We've had some luck in charity shops there.

How old are the kids?

Homemade presents can be just as fun as the plastic overpriced tat but would depend on their ages.

Crafting together, creating a movie watch list, buy from charity shops and eBay.

Do you have a Tesco Clubcard? Every year DH and I buy our Christmas dinner food (& a few festive treats) with the vouchers we've earned throughout the year! Saves us loads!

We always have chicken instead of Turkey
We make paper chains, and paper doll chains (we then colour them to look like ginger bread men/women) cut out paper snowflakes and put glitter on them and stick them to windows.
make and decorate shortbread biscuits and ginger bread
have hot chocolate in a flask for when we go out on a walk in the evening to look at Christmas lights

I would say beware the allure of handmade presents. It can actually really add up.

It's much more frugal IMO to hit up the charity shops and social media market places, as well as those free or almost free websites like Freecycle.

It would also depend on how old your children are, but if they are young enough then a well filled stocking and a present under the tree will be plenty exciting!

Cutting down the cost of Christmas Dinner- even as a small family who do just us at Christmas, the dinner itself is so expensive. Definitely forget those £50 turkeys and get a lovely free range chicken. Prepare your own veg and gravy etc.

There are many more tips on the Christmas board :)

Potentially an opportunity to strip Christmas back to the basics of quality family time. Turkey crown, cheapest smoked salmon cuts still make a delicious and easy pate, a Christmas jigsaw puzzle to dip in and out of, board or card games. For the latter my mum used to make more of these where the winner got a "fabulous prize" (imagine The Price is Right voice over ) which were things from the poundshop wrapped up; washing up sponges, notepads, naff calendars, chocs... Made it all the more exciting! Plenty of walks with a flask of hot chocolate. Christmas TV and movies.

We make decorations out of pine cones, it gets the kids outside, we make a bit of a day of it collecting them (have to say I mainly did it myself last year), we then paint them to make them look snowy. Also made my own wreath out of holly that I collected on a walk.

This year I’m looking for board games in charity shops, I’m fed up with buying new each year, most are badly made unlike the older board games from the 80’s/90’s.

Stocking fillers, are mainly food and things the dc’s need, I buy the odd item with my shopping each week so it doesn’t cost too much.

Agree with the chicken instead of a turkey, Christmas dinner is just a roast dinner and turkey is over priced (and dry compared to chicken).

Really like some of the presents on the Dunelm website. The prices are really reasonable.

Agree with a PP about homemade gifts, they don’t tend to be cheaper ime

Buy less....it sounds obvious but it can be hard not to get swept up in things..even in the Christmas bargain thread..which is fab for what you do buy but is addictive ..

Only buy for your dc...and a token gift for you and dh (i think its good for dc to see parents buy each other something (can just be bubble bath from supermarket) make something with the dc for the other parents..
Supermarket often have Xmas xraft so decorate a mug sort of thing..

No one else...tell anyone you usually buy for now.... eBay is also a good source of boardgames just get one..bulk dinner with Yorkshires and veg and stuffing
...although we did pizza one year as all had been ill and the dc loved it so maybe just a less normal dinner!

Secondhand board games are a favourite here. Hot chocolate and marshmallows after a walk. We watch a lot of films under a duvet and I always have a stack of charity shop books for me and DC.

We try to buy things that will last and that are needed (no crappy smelly sets), we try to buy secondhand and instead of bulking out the kids presents with plastic tat we have put money into savings. The DC always get a gift voucher for lend with care and put together hampers for the few elderly we know.

We totally overhauled Christmas when we were having a tough time. Some things we did that stuck were to make a hamper for the family, the kids loved this - and of course was food so money we would have spent anyway. Homemade activity kits for gifts from us - things like all the bits for science experiments or baking or a craft activity.

We stopped buying a tree. We make some traditional-for-us decorations every year and it is a special day.

No crackers, we make our own and they cost the price of six sheets of paper. This takes a while and has become another tradition.

Basically we stopped buying anything . I love Christmas even more now, and our prep takes aaagggeeesss which adds to the anticipation.

Games for Christmas Day - we play these even when things aren't tight!

• Werewolf

www.playwerewolf.co/rules All the kids that come here ALWAYS want to play this - no need to buy the game or use playing cards or make your own.

• Bingo - for silly prizes or a tin of peas (booby prize!)

• Crazy naming game - everyone puts 10 or 20 names in a bowl. Teams take it in turns to take names out the hat and try and describe to their team mates - one minute per turn

Turkey legs from the butcher are super cheap and still free range

Yes agree just ditch the big turkey

We already do lots of walks so will go on decoration hunts, or make it into a game first to spot 5 reindeer wins etc we also make our own board games regularly, we either draw them with silly bits on eg shark bite miss a turn to go to hospital or pot of gold go forward/back x no. places, we just made one other day we called dinosaurs vs unicorns we bought the stickers in pound land, unicorns go up dinosaurs down same rules as snakes and ladders.
Add a treat item each week to the cost, the value chocolate is good I'm going to get some to melt and make chocolate bark with sprinkles, sweets etc with the kids, also going to try getting them to make paper snowflakes for decorating the windows, you could also do a bit of a challenge each member of the house gets £5 to get a family gift could be stories, snacks, pamper things, things for a craft session etc or to make a gift from things already in the home not sure how old your children are but I think this is the year people really can turn things around, so many people will be low on funds that it will almost force them to come up with free/cheap fun which they realise actually gave them a great time with their kids.

They are 7 and 9. Last year we gave them laptops which was frankly a life saver with homeschooling and we were clear at the time that it wasn't going to be repeated.
Some great ideas here and on the other thread about small Xmas. Have already agreed to the sleepover by the tree

There are some great ideas on MSE in general and here - my DC are a bit smaller than yours OP and enjoy making chocolate truffles, fairy cakes etc as gifts - ingredients from Lidl, nice party bags/ ribbons etc via eBay.

Poundland is your friend for fairy lights etc!

Xmas dinner is a glorified roast. There is no need to go overboard on food that you won't eat....

.... but, add 1-2 items to your weekly food shop of items that you may need over the festive period. Grab items that are on offer. Don't forget to check expiry dates.

I make up hampers for my children. I buy sweets and chocolates from the poundshop and put it in a decorated box. If you present it well, it can look amazing.

Prepare some games for fun family time. I bought a bingo set, which wad fun. You could do a quiz (look online for questions) and get a couple of prizes.

Don't forget to stock up on wrapping paper and tape early. The cheap stuff sells out quickly, so get it sooner rather than later.

Don't send cards this year.

Speak people you buy presents for and agree not or exchange gifts or cut back if you can't.

I know this is looking for next Christmas but seriously - buy your wrapping paper on boxing day/whenever your local wilko/tesco first opens after Christmas. I do it every year and get the little sticky star tag things and name tags and store it with the decs for next year. Never spend more than 50p on a roll of paper and it's always the pretty stuff!

@NewMumma1819 I did this last year. I got about 3 years of posh wrapping paper from Aldi for 19p per roll and bows and ribbons for 19p per pack!

I buy my wrapping paper from Sainsbury's, after Boxing Day. It gets reduced to 50p, plus it's 3 for 2, so it's 3 rolls for £1.

Let the dc know what price range to consider for gifts- even when mine were believers they knew there was a limit to what they could expect.
If you buy for adults, have a chat now about cutting back or not buying. Everyone knows that things are different this year and even if they’re not personally affected it won’t come as a surprise that others are. But have the conversation soon because people are buying early this year.

We have a lot of little advent traditions that add fun, but not expense, to the build up: we wrap up the nativity figures and build the crib gradually; we have a collection of Christmas books that we lucky dip (although I’ll probably replace this for a chapter a night of a book), we bring clippings of pine, holly and ivy into the house from our walks so that the house gets steadily greener. We make paper snowflakes to decorate the back windows.

Ask your family to nominate one or two favourite Christmas foods. the answers can be surprising and you may find that there are a few traditional staples you can safely jettison!

This is a very good time to watch charity shops because people tend to clear out the old toys to make room for the new.