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!

I don't buy presents for anyone other than my husband and children. Or if I do it's a box of chocolates / bottle of
Wine type. We told my in-laws years ago just to buy for the children (if they want to) and then my husband gets them something to open but inexpensive. When we were younger we seemed to spend £££ on Dh's family and it is so wasteful spending loads of money on stuff people don't even want (or worse lists from adults of
Expensive things they would like you to buy - so tacky).

I have 5 children and this year we are introducing a Secret Santa amongst them so that they (me) are only buying one sibling gift. I hope they carry on this when they are adults. Likewise, we have encouraged them to pool their (small amount) of money when buying us a gift (it's my money anyhow 😂) as I deffo don't want my teenager spending her allowance on me.

We are relatively affluent and can well afford to spend more but I have set a budget of £250 per child from us and I think that is a bit excessive if I'm honest. I wouldn't spend more per child if I had less children. That said, if the kids need things throughout the year we are fortunate to be able to just get them. One of my children needs a new bike and another wants an expensive drone so we buy that sort of thing and some stocking fillers. I'm hoping we can get a second hand bike.

I spend about £200 on my husband.

We are going to attempt to not spend ££££ on food this year! It's so wasteful as most of it ends up half eaten.

As much as I love Christmas and I don't really have to budget for it as I said. I don't buy a lot of the extras like
Christmas Crackers for the table
Christmas cards
Excessive food (I probably spend about 50-60 extra)
We don't do gifts for adults-only our parents.

@Fimofriend

£300 for your dd? In my opinion you only give presents of that value to your children for huge events like their confirmation. We give presents for about £60-80 for each of our children. We only give presents to family members above the age of 14 if we are together with them on the day except for my brother's kids and my parents.

So if you aren’t a catholic and your kids don’t do ‘confirmation’ then they never get a ‘huge gift’ like that?

That would be like me saying, no way, you should only get your child a big gift for Eid! Of course different families celebrate different things but you spending hundreds in your child’s confirmation is no different than someone else spending the same amount for a Christmas gift.

Christmas club through husband's work and I have a separate bank account I put a little into each month starting from January. I start shopping in September and everyone laughs at me but I keep it as simple as I can so that I can also food shop for our extra Christmas treats the first week or two of December and then just relax and enjoy the season and laugh at every one who made fun of me for starting early stressing 🤣, you can do it,just need to be organised earlier, Happy Christmas!

I do overtime at work from October onwards, pays for Xmas and then some.

Good post and interesting point of view @WombatChocolate

I save with Plum throughout the year and use the money in the account on Christmas gifts. I'm lucky that I have a relatively good job so there can be a few hundred pounds by the end of the year.

@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 spend quite a lot. Probably around £1500 when you include food, drink and gifts for family. We don’t have DC, so most of that is just on us.

DH is incredibly organised with money and has Christmas built into our savings budget each month. We save our club card points. We have a piss pot that all our change goes into during the year. I started shopping for gifts in May this year. I know when all the sales are on and what shops can usually be relied on for a good bargain (I got a gorgeous Barbour scarf for £8 this summer). And we start buying non perishables along with the shopping as soon as the use by dates make it practical to do so, and tuck it all away safely so it doesn’t get snaffled.
We absolutely never get into debt for it. If we haven’t got the money to pay for it, we don’t have it.

In your position, I’d work out how much your entire budget is for a Christmas, divide it by 11 and start saving in January (which is also a fantastic time to get non perishable stocking fillers, like Christmas mugs, socks, and crackers, cards & wrapping paper for pennies). Get a plastic tub from Wilkos and stash it at the bottom of your wardrobe. If you think you’ll end up dipping into it for non emergencies, buy high street vouchers or supermarket vouchers. If you want to reduce the present budget for your DC, tell them their budget and let them loose with whatever the 2021 version is of the Argos catalogue. They’ll prioritise what they really want and will probably find some fantastic deals to make that budget stretch further.

The most important thing of all is to remember that your DC will not have a clue what gifts they got in five years time. What they will definitely remember is all the stuff that doesn’t cost anything but your time.

I have added up what I bought so far for my two dc aged 6 and 8.
I have spent 750 so far between them and I still have stocking bits to get.
I have sent gifts to dh's family abroad (4 dniece/nephews and grandparents only) probably another 200 on all of those (we don't buy crazy expensive gifts.
That's it so far. No food or pressies for dh yet.

So that's 950 and I'm not even done. But I only buy essentials for food and a few extras as I said!

Christmas isn't about buying toys and having "largesse" and basically showing off how rich you are. For goodness sake what is wrong with people?

I tend to save about 500 and that usually does all the gifts and then I maybe put the big shop on a credit card and we pay that jointly the next month. We don’t have a massive family to buy for.
My DD’s usually have one big ish present and lots of fun things wrapped up books and toiletries and stationary etc.
I don’t think you should buy the massive gift your child might want if it’s outside of your means you need to say. Or explain they could have a second hand one if it’s a gaming or tech gift.
The biggest gift mine have had is a laptop and that will be an under 250 one and they know there would only be a few little things then.
I don’t judge wealthier people though if you have lots of disposable income I can see it would be nice to go all out as long as you don’t bring up spoilt grabby kids who cares it’s their money.

Big fan of Martin Lewis. I collect cashback through the year by switching all my big bills through cashback websites. Also we switch bank accounts to something offering £100+ incentive. And Amex cashback.

We make in region of £300 which covers majority of Christmas. I would also love to cut down on family present buying. Ain't going to happen with my husband's family but I've accepted that.

Before we did cashback I had one very stressful Christmas now we are only on DH income. Very grateful have this system, takes a bit of organisation but it's worth it.

I agree with Martin Lewis it shouldn't be a retail festival and bring debt. If we were really in debt one year I'd have no problem just getting kids presents.

My husband and I earn good salaries but we don't spent that much Christmas time. Nearly everything we buy for our sons is from eBay or Facebook marketplace. Admittedly they are only 1 and 3 so is likely to be very different as teenagers... but I hope we can still convince them why second hand is the best way.

Never, ever spend more than you can afford. I do surveys, Top Cashback Yougov and look out for bargains I know one of my lot will love throughout the year. Tbh the last 2 years we have not had a holiday so used those funds.

The life saver thing we do is put most of the kids stuff on credit (very) and then we have 12 months until next Christmas to pay it all off. Usually about 50 per month? It's been particularly helpful this year because the kids need a new laptop so that's been a huge cost on top of presents too!

The rest of it (other people, food etc) has gone on credit cards which is a bit shit but Christmas

My DC are adults now and will be getting £120 each plus a stocking about £30. I could afford more but think that is plenty. My 15 year old foster son will get about £170 for main gift and stocking. I will buy good quality food and drink and we will all be happy. DH will have a new tool as that is what he always chooses and I will struggle to think of anything I want because I just had a big birthday and got spoiled then.

I was very proud of my foster son who attends a special secondary school when the teacher told them in ICT to research and find gifts they would like for their Xmas list my foster son asked what budget they should stick to. His teacher caught me after school to tell me he was most impressed he understood there should be a budget because some children in previous lesson had gifts for themselves for over £700.

I think if I owed £4k I'd cancel Xmas for my family.

@Frederica852

You spend £300 on your DD?! 😲 I spend less than £50

How old is your dd??

Mine are 4 and 6 and have asked for a switch!! That cost almost £300!!!

Had two free insurance months so that has covered everything, 2 sons, 1 25 in cash, as hardly seem him.
2 token gifts £25 worth
Daughter in law skin care £25
Couple of close friends, token gifts.
Don’t set budget tho
Food whatever live on my own, tho host or go to friends

@Mammyloveswine just because they ask for something it doesn't mean you have to buy it though

Surely it depends on your income & other outgoings? Maybe the people you are comparing yourself to earn a lot more than you, or have low mortgage/bills.

We have a very high income but probably spend a bit less than you.

Around £100 on each child.
£25 on my mum, same on dad
£10-15 on each niece/nephew.

I don't buy for any friends and do a secret santa with siblings so only buy for one each year.

Mammyloveswine

How do they even know what a switch is? Ds is nearly 5, his cousin is nearly 6, they don't know about these things to ask for them, if they did, I would say no until older.

Theres a lady that comes into our shop that puts a tenner onto a gift card every week. I asked her was it for Christmas and she said yes, but to treat herself at Christmas. I was thrilled to hear it! We put a fiver or tenner into an account when we can, more goes to start of school in September than Christmas but it helps. We also do secret Santa and for the kids we shop in sales and if we can buy over the year. We don't go to Christmas fairs every year or do anything that costs a lot, we might every few years, but we do a lot of walking/driving looking at Christmas lights/playing board games. We buy a turkey joint/frozen Turkey and get the Christmas sweets when they're cheap

Ps we told our kids santa doesn't like doing electronic gifts and generally doesn't do huge gifts so they use birthday money/save/family all clubs in for things like the xbox or a tablet or phone.