How do people afford Christmas?

[Poppets14]

Just been out Christmas shopping and have had to use my credit card and store cards.

We are remortgaging the house in February and paying off our debts so we are back at square 1.
We are in about 4K worth of debt so not a massive amount.

My question is how do people afford Christmas? Everything is just so expensive.

Do you save all year?
Buy throughout the year?

We are getting are finances in order next year and I do not want to fall into the debt hole again!

We do a monthly transfer to a Christmas account - pay comes in and gets transferred out to various accounts. But that’s obviously only if you can spare something each month. If not maybe as a start can you swap out a monthly or fortnightly takeaway for a deposit to the Xmas account /jar? And twice a year try and sell some stuff? I definitely buy stuff in sales and put it away for Christmas too.

4 children so expensive here. We save from January for Christmas (and back to school which breaks us more!), from September we buy in sales, make sure as we buy we're not impulse buying and the kids use their own money for if we go to a Christmas fair (or we give them money for sweets or something, the odd time we've splashed out at a fair for a snow globe or fidget spinner but still not a huge amount each, fairs are way too expensive!). Christmas jumpers are bought in Penny's (Primark) every few years and they get passed down (unless we see a standout one!!) and we do kris kringle among the extended family. So as cheap as possible but the kids don't know it really the Christmas treats are more that we play board games, watch movies and drink hot chocolate, putting up the tree etc (ps all of this is learned from a few years of overspending when we both had well paying jobs and a few years of being properly poor, struggling to pay bills etc)

I save £50 per month into a monzo pot. Then that's £600 at the end of the year. I don't go over that amount for anything! That's the amount I have to spend and that's it!

I do hate how much of a financial burden Xmas is. Imagine if we all had £600 extra to live on per year? Sigh...

@Kylie83

In Australia we have a company called Chrisco, every week I pay $15 direct debit to this company and they have hampers, gift cards etc. I always go for the gift cards. They send them out between 1st November and 1st December.

We had one of those in the UK. A few years ago they went bust just before they were due to send out all the vouchers and hampers and a lot of (mostly lower income) people lost all their Christmas savings.

Definitely save all year for Christmas, but make sure it's an affordable amount, after you've also saved for other more pressing irregular expenses like being able to replace the washing machine if it went pop.

I also think most people put it on credit cards, which I'm not a great fan of so I've started saving for it several months ago. I can't say we spend a lot but I've started the savings just to be on the safe side.
Gifts for immediate family, Smartshow 3d video cards and gifts cards for distant relatives, most of the decorations are fine throughout the years, etc. We also do Secret Santa with friends and at work but the amount of money spent for the gift is limited so that nobody would felt left behind or went extra.

Monzo (or Starling, Revolut etc) are a good way to save the money because you can transfer it into a pot labelled Christmas.

Or you could start a regular savings account that will mature in November or whatever works for you, and these are harder to take the money out because you have to close the account to get it, which may help some people. They also pay what looks like an attractive interest rate, but sadly it's a tiny bit of money because it's only on a relatively small amount.

@OneRingToRuleThemAll

Watch the competitive under spenders all come out. I save all year and spend £250 each on a pre teen and a teen. It's easier to find £50 a month than a lump sum of £500

I agree competitive misery and the faux shock at what others spend.

I save a bit throughout the year into my credit union account. I save all the cash back I earn and store card loyalty points and then follow resties bargain thread. Then I top up using an interest free credit card if necessary.
I get joy from picking the perfect present for people- doesn’t always have to be expensive
At the end of the day you are here once so I’d rather not be miserable

Have a look and see if you have a local credit union, ours does a Christmas account you can only access in November and December.

Luckily so far our kids don't ask for much, the 11 year old asked for a Vans beanie, fluffy socks and PJ's and 'skate stuff', 9 year old has never wanted anything in particular and 4 year old isn't there yet in terms of requests

@Morgan12

It amazes me how mumsnetters can spend so little on their DC. I don't get how you do it? Things cost alot of money. £300 is maybe around 3 presents? My eldest has asked for something that costs £650.

My oldest I've just bought a hair curler that was £50 on a Black Friday deal . That's her main present from us and she'll get a stocking with about £50 of lots of primark type things that she will use and like. That's plenty. As mentioned before we have lots of grandparents including a great gran and aunties and uncles who get the kids a good present too so they have lots to open . My other daughter likes Brandy Melville and lush so will get stuff from there. My son wants mainly medium sized gifts Unless you're buying playstations or bikes I'd struggle to spend £300 on one kid If you can afford it go for it but I wouldn't spend that much unless it was a 'must have' gift

I forgot to mention this in my earlier post, but we do a lot to make things extra festive - decorating the tree to Christmas music with Christmas jumpers on (sourced from the charity shop for the kids, me and DH keep ours), Christmas dinner with candles and music, decorating our own wrapping paper, making a centrepiece for the table, baking gingerbread to take round to friends etc - and honestly I think that makes the presents less important because it’s all so nice.

I worry about the cost of Christmas all year - this year I got a 2k tax rebate and am spending 1k on Christmas. I've bought my 3 older dcs some really nice expensive presents after years of scrimping and I've really enjoyed it. I'm more organised as I don't have to dither over anything. I've saved the other 1k for next year.

It amazes me how mumsnetters can spend so little on their DC. I don't get how you do it? Things cost alot of money. £300 is maybe around 3 presents? My eldest has asked for something that costs £650.

I'm in a fortunate position could spend a fair bit, but don't feel the need. Growing up we would have a present for say £30, and then stocking fillers because that is what my parents could afford, and still had an amazing Christmas. When we were teens if we wanted an expensive item we would get cash towards it and then stocking fillers to open on the day, again, Christmas was still amazing. I will spend around £100ish on DC for Christmases, if he asked for something when older for £650 if he was old enough he could add his wages from part time work to it or it would be a no! Don't care if that makes me sound mean, Christmas doesn't have to be excessive, if you have made it so then that's on you.

@Nc123

I forgot to mention this in my earlier post, but we do a lot to make things extra festive - decorating the tree to Christmas music with Christmas jumpers on (sourced from the charity shop for the kids, me and DH keep ours), Christmas dinner with candles and music, decorating our own wrapping paper, making a centrepiece for the table, baking gingerbread to take round to friends etc - and honestly I think that makes the presents less important because it’s all so nice.

Sounds lovely and tbh I know my kids love all this more than the presents so buying then expensive gifts probably won't make a difference to them.

I do this every year in a big tin (one you have to open with a tin opener) - it works really well. I do it in reverse tho and tick off the higher value boxes first.

Eg if I sell something for say £10 i tick off 3-4 boxes to make that value and then carry on like that.
I've done 2 tins this year as we had lots to get rid of!

Is the 650 thing a laptop? Laptops are always gifts here but birthdays rather than Xmas as I can't match the cost across 3 kids.

You can minimise your Christmas spends just by being honest with your kids about how expensive their present list it. I would think most children have no idea how expensive their wish list is against the household income. A reality check is often needed.

Also for some of you who might be planning to push the boat out financially and go over and above what is actually affordable to you. Please be careful as there are going to be huge price rises in grocery and energy bills in the new year. Gas prices alone jumped by another 17.5% yesterday. All of this will be passed on to consumers after Christmas. Please be careful.

@FreeBritnee

You can minimise your Christmas spends just by being honest with your kids about how expensive their present list it. I would think most children have no idea how expensive their wish list is against the household income. A reality check is often needed.

Also for some of you who might be planning to push the boat out financially and go over and above what is actually affordable to you. Please be careful as there are going to be huge price rises in grocery and energy bills in the new year. Gas prices alone jumped by another 17.5% yesterday. All of this will be passed on to consumers after Christmas. Please be careful.

I know I am quite worried about this. Luckily I've not taken on any debt over Xmas.

This is the thing on mn , everyone’s circumstances are different. We spend quite a lot on our kids but they get very little from extended family so what we buy them is what they open. We can also afford it plus they get little throughout the year. We make a big show of Christmas and it’s wonderful. But those are our choices.
What I don’t like on here are the people who think all kids need to be taught a lesson at Christmas no matter what

Meant to add I've always been honest with the kids about money and cost

I also never let them post pictures of their presents on social media or at least I tell them please don't do it. Its a really awful trend

I forgot to add one thing that's helped me is I never started the whole Christmas list thing so what they get is mainly a surprise. Family members do ask them what they would like but they know not to ask for expensive things from them.

I do do lists, but I say very clealry that I will pick a few things off it not get all of it - and that's exactly what I do and what they are used to.

As a kid my favourite Christmas gift each year was the inevitable wrapped box of peak freans biscuits that would appear under the tree from the great aunts.

I put away £125 each month. I only buy for my 3, bil, brother and sil, dad. No friends etc.

I buy throughout the year to spread the cost. Saving for me doesn't work because something always crops up and the money gets wiped out on that

@MegaClutterSlut

I buy throughout the year to spread the cost. Saving for me doesn't work because something always crops up and the money gets wiped out on that

I can't do that as I only want to buy what people want and they hit me with a list in November. I do buy bits of food earlier.