How much spent on Christmas?

[cantstayaway21]

I have 4dc Only buy for them and me and dh and the normal food etc but We roughly spend about 2k each year. From my fb feed on xmas morning he seems my kids dont get much but 2k is alot of money!!

I reckon about £200-300?

£80 on the two nieces? £60 on DP? £60-80 on food and drink for entertaining? I guess there's other extra costs such as shows or meals out that are easy to overlook.

Comparison is the thief of joy, because its always tempting to focus on the "mores" rather than the "lesses".

We all do what we can for our families within what is possible for us. Don't feel pressured into spending more by the madness of advertising and Facebook/Insta.

Spreadsheet 😆😱

Probably about £1K this year (not adding on all the extra Christmas drinks and parties here though, just presents and food on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day/Boxing day). We have a large extended family though, and this year have booked a Christmas dinner out so no washing up.

We could almost certainly cut it down to much less if needed, and no-one would care tbh, we just like getting everyone a little something and it's an excuse to visit and say hi

I budget £500 for each child but I only spend £200-300 max of that as I buy premium bonds with the rest. I've done it since they were small & both have over £3k in bonds. I want to give them their bond certificates as their 18th/19th birthday / university gift. I was that poor student eating beans and toast and was a skinny size 6. I don't want that experience for my children so I've planned ahead.

You need to change the way you think but it comes slowly and be kind to yourself.

I have one DD but 3 DSC, also buy for DH and our wider family and some DC of close friends we put on Christmas lunch for the family and my budget is £1500 - you must be spending an absolute ton on your DC - which is totally fine and your completely choice but quite the opposite of your worried OP in my opinion

There is no 'normal' and averages in terms of either amounts of money or percentages of income are meaningless.

It's well known that many low income families spend a comparatively high percentage of their income on the oft seen huge pile of presents around a gaudily decorated tree, often to the detriment of their year round financial stability because it is paid for by loans that reduce money available for essentials at other times of year.

Alternatively, if you're more well off, you often have more spare money, so the same amount of money is a much lower percentage, and people who have disposable income all year round often spend on expensive essentials and treats as a matter of course, so don't feel the need to go all out at Christmas.

You do what you think is right and most importantly is affordable to you and forget what everyone else's social media suggests that they do. Often a lot of that big pile of presents are low cost standard items wrapped up to make the pile look bigger, things like toothbrushes, clothes, big tubs of sweets, that sort of thing.

If your £2k budget is broken down as £400 per child and then the remaining £400 for extra food, a family day out, maybe some extra decorations and token gifts between you and DH, that's still really generous and many people won't spend anything like that.

On presents not very much: £150 each on DC, £150ish on mother and step, £70/£80ish on MIL, £10 x gift vouchers for DC. Probably £100 on each other.

But for almost all our marriage we have hosted although this year have taken a cottage near MIL because she can no longer travel.

I find it's the things on top of the presents that add up: cards, Christmas trees, a concert, theatre or opera (we like to do that), hosting a party in early December (we've always done that).

However, it's worth saying that our DC (now grown up) got stuff throughout the year. Also we go to church and the emphasis is on the birth of Jesus rather than a retail festival. It's much easier to say that however when for the rest of the year a family has enough and never feels the need to splurge because they aren't racked with money worries and how to stretch a pound. For many families Xmas is a once a year extravaganza to bring relief from that.

Gift Vouchers for god children.

Probably 600 or so on gifts for family, my husband has a big family with 17 nieces and nephews. This is our first year with our own baby but he is only 3 weeks old now so he'll be too young for presents. No doubt we'll be spending a lot more as he gets older but I'm looking forward to it!

£100 which is money for the children (only one is a relative and she gets £50).

That's it, the adults get zilch! Gave that lark up many years back, it was ridiculous trying to buy presents for people who already had loads of "stuff" and really didn't need any more.

Best thing I ever did.

For us it will be less than £1000 all in for christmas. We dont really budget as such, i only know this because we save with park and saved £700 for that. I then had around £100 leftover in the birthday account so that can go towards Christmas and then the last bit will be for food which wouldnt be more than £200. There is only us 5 (kids 8, 4 and 6m) and my dad for Christmas. we usually buy for MIL and SIL but theyve asked us not to do adult gifts this year so the budget above includes my niece. We have around £200 left on the Park card thing but we are done including stocking fillers and the kids have alot / will be very happy and grateful. We use alot of ebay/FB or vouchers for toys , e.g. the iron man playskool tower thing my 4yo wanted is £65 in smyths but I got it basically new off FB for £30. And i waited until i had a 20% off voucher to buy the onesie my older son asked for. You spend what you can but if you are savvy it can still be amazing. Dont feel like you need to spend loads or keep up with the jones'.

Around £2500 maybe a bit more as I still have a fair few presents to buy (Family of 5, plus we buy for 3 other adults, a neice, nephew and my friend and her 2 dc).

2k wow that's a hec of lot? £400 per person? What sort of things are you buyin... Electricals?

We spend approx. £100 on our DD & £25 on adult relatives & probably £50 on food. £50 on a real tree £50 panto tickets for xmas eve. We buy an organic chicken which is way cheaper & much tastier than a turkey, couple of boxes of mince pies, a nice pudding for the evening, box of crackers, stuffing. TBH our xmas food shop is only around £25 extra than our normal weekly shop? Oh we usually get the cat a treat for £2/3!!

The decorations we have, we have had for years, occasionally I buy the odd small decoration if I see something I like, but I'm talking a few ££ tbh our tree is always too full for any more anyway!! I couldn't imagine spending £2k on one day, I'd rather save the money for a nice summer holiday.

About £900 between DP and I, that covers gifts to each other, gifts for both sides of the family, (lots of) fuel travelling to family over christmas, and any food we need to buy.

I’d probably spend 2k if I had 4 kids.

we only have 1 DS but still spend about 1k due to the fact we have 16 nieces and nephews.

Every year we get someone post about how much they spend, asking what others spend. The OP is usually someone who spends a huge amount on their kids and it makes everyone else feel bad that they only spend £50 or that they don’t buy piles of cr*p for their kids.

Of course £2000 is a crazy amount to spend on any child. It’s one day and what child needs £2000 worth of gifts?

I spent a maximum of £1000 on the whole thing (hopefully less as I have cut back). That’s on food, presents for 2 teenagers, presents for 10 relatives/friends and a trip out to see some Christmas lights. We don’t do panto, Christmas fairs etc…( can’t afford it). I save all year so I can afford what I do spend, anything left goes towards a week away durning the summer (camping).

I think it’s crazy spending £1000’s on one day and I hate the thought of all the waste involved (packaging, plastic etc…).

Dh and I are really reigning it in this year. We’re not buying for each other, dc (9) are having £200 spent on them and Christmas food will be another £100. A tree and few treats will be another £100. That’s it this year, I refuse to spent money unnecessarily.

We spend too much, we have 5 adults at £50 each and 5 children £25 each. We spend a lot of money seeing family as we are quite a long way apart and we need to stay in a hotel on one visit, dad can put us up though on our other trip. We don't have a budget for our parents/my sister, we just buy what we think they'll like.

DH buys a lot of cheese, I reckon we get around 20 varieties including my non cow milk ones. Then we have the salami, ham, other meats. I'm a sucker for Christmas savoury snacks we usually end up finishing them at the beer festival in July.

I'd say 300-400.

50ish each on OH and 3 kids (200)

Gifts for 10 family members (150)

Me probably underestimating what I've spent (50).

We have a tree and decorations we use every year. Same with stockings.

Lunch is a roast with pigs in blankets, no extra cost as items collected and frozen. I might make a yule log, but that won't cost me much extra as I keep flour/sugar etc.

We don't do tubs of sweets etc. Kids will get chocolate in their stockings, eg chocolate orange/smarties from poundland. We do have £1 chocolate advent calendars.

Christmas jumpers I buy big on ebay and pass down from one child to the next. Didn't have to buy any this year. Kids don't care about them but there is xmas jumper day at school.

We don't always do a paid-for trip out. But we do go to xmas fairs, community craft sessions, trip to see garden centre decorated, late night walk to see xmas lights. Kids love all this, and it's all local so not stressful.

I'm not tight, we've just been on a tight budget for a few years due to having two maternity years close together. But it has definitely meant I've thought about each thing I've paid for, and whether it will actually improve the day or the experience for the kids. Or whether it is just needless rubbish I feel I must buy, for no actual reason!

The gifts I collect all year round, to spread the cost. So I end up with a decent number of gifts for the kids. And in our house santa only brings one gift, and the stocking. All else from us. So not too many unpredictable last minute costs.

In some ways I'd like to be able to spend more, but really it probably wouldn't make it much better. Apart from the occasional show or something.

And thanks to this board, one special treat this xmas will be getting the kids to choose the Christmas dessert at Lidl

Definitely would not spend that much at Christmas, simple life, and all appreciative people around me. If people have credit cards to up the costs of presents, that is even worse..

And not sure why some people are addicted to posting all that they have,on social media , it's a pretty dumb mindset to have,

@1forAll74

Definitely would not spend that much at Christmas, simple life, and all appreciative people around me. If people have credit cards to up the costs of presents, that is even worse..

And not sure why some people are addicted to posting all that they have,on social media , it's a pretty dumb mindset to have,

^ this.

@1forAll74 a lovely post