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!

You need to clear your debts and start with a clean slate. It's really useful to budget throughout the year, put a bit away each month to pay for Christmas and don't spend what you can't afford. I am a financial planner so I am quite organsied, from a young age I have always managed my finaces by having different named savings accounts which I contribute a set amount to each month, to meet different expenditures for the year. This is particuarly important when finances are tight. For example have a Christmas account and contribute an amount each month thats affordable and realistic to the amount you will need. Try to get into the habit of regular savings and not rely on credit cards, you are a long time paying off the debts of things you have long forgotten about purchasing.Have a budget and stick to it.

I've just applied for and received by first ever credit card. I've always been scared to get one before but I honestly don't know how to afford Christmas without it.

Sorry.....on a practical note. We have a set amount in savings for Christmas and do save towards it throughout the year so we're not getting into any debt come January.

Also buying throughout the year, I'm on the bargain threads from summer looking out for deals then walk away once budget is spent otherwise it is easy to get carried away.

For DDs, some of their Christmas presents are from the chairty shop.... particularly books and some little toys for their stockings, plastic animals and toy cars. Got a pile of lovely books for DD1 including an atlas and all in great condition for about 50p each.

Firstly, start buying early (I start in September) and limit the people you buy for as far as possible. I only buy for immediate family and my cousin and her kids - nobody else gets a gift.

We don’t host at Christmas by default so get a frozen turkey crown rather than a huge full turkey, reducing leftovers and keeping costs down. We buy bits and pieces (stuffing, cranberry sauce, chocolate biscuits) in our weekly shop and build up a Christmas larder.

It definitely isn’t about how much you spend. Our kids get a lot of presents sourced second hand, like toys from eBay or FB marketplace. On skint years only their big presents were new. Stocking fillers often include nicer versions of things we would be buying for them anyway, like character pyjamas etc.

Set up family traditions that are free or low cost. We do a Christmas lights safari on Christmas Eve and walk round looking at everyone’s decorated houses before coming home for hot chocolate. We all love it and it’s one of the best parts of Christmas! Often the expensive grottos, Christmas markets etc are a bit underwhelming and what kids enjoy most is stuff like decorating the Christmas tree with christmas music on. Don’t get dragged into spendy stuff for the sake of it - make it worth it.

We are v high earners but don’t spend anywhere near what you spend! Might get a small token gift or two for DP (he currently has a mug I got second hand off ebay) and buy a couple of extra goodies like boxes of chocolates and twiglets etc. Other than that, a nut roast and some veg trimmings, an xmas pud for two and basically that is all. I spend in total including food less than you spend on your DD. Really you are spending quite a lot!

We have booze and food in and everyone is welcome to drop in - but thats it. We don't spend what we don't have, and if people get offended by that its their problem.

£300 on my DD What do you spend on her for her birthday? Does she get stuff she needs / wants through the year? How old is she? It seems a lot as you're in debt but appreciate its hard once they're tweens/teens. I'd try and halve it.
£50 on my mum / his Dad and stepmum I'd cut this down to £30 each
£25 for each niece / £15 for his niece and nephew why the disparity? Knock them all to £15
£15 on my friend it's hard if the epxectstion is to buy for each other, we've stopped doing Xmas presents and only buy for birthdays. Is this an option for next year?

There's ~£200 off your shopping.
Xmas food I'm sensible with, so we don't have mince pies lasting until Easter. Reuse tree and decs.

I also buy presents I go throughout the year

We stopped buying for siblings years ago which has helped so much.

When I say £300- that’s everything. 1 big present, med presents, stocking and Christmas Eve box.
It may not be as much as that I think if I worked it out properly it’s about £250
I’ll definitely cut this down next year.

Everything is so expensive. When you buy something for a tenner is just doesn’t look a lot.

Ill set up an account next year and save £30 a month - that’ll help so much and stop us struggling at the end of the year

@Teateaandmoretea

I don’t think it’s that unusual to spend £300 on a child at Christmas.

Nor me.

I've bought my teen daughter a 'new' phone that cost 250. Even then apparently it will be barely average (which I find reasonably hard to comprehend, we aren't poor by any means but phones are fairly likely to get broken/ lost!). According to her everyone has iphone 11 or 12s so assuming these are Christmas presents 300 looks low! She's currently got a samsung galaxy S7 which is apparently one of the worst phones of anyone.

Of course like the stories of £200 tracksuits it may not all be true.

"We aren't poor by any means" - well that is the difference, surely!

It's not unusual to spend a few hundred on kids at Christmas. But OP is £4k in debt and can't seem to even entertain the idea that £300 is a lot to spend on one child in that scenario.

If you're in debt, you don't have money. That's what debt means - OP has MINUS £4000, and is going further into debt for Christmas.

In that scenario, someone who is in any way able to manage their money just doesn't spend £300 on one person.

I always used to use my credit card and worry about it in January! My kids had PlayStations and new games and I’ll tell you the truth - I don’t regret a minute of it! I loved that they had amazing presents at Christmas.
That said, some of the things they played with the most, were last minute bargains that hardly cost anything - the year I bought light sabres for £10 each springs to mind and the year I got micro scooters in a sale for £15 each.
These days I’m more ‘sensible’ so I have a ‘save the change’ account at the bank which rounds up all purchases to the nearest pound and puts the change in a separate account. Dh contributes to a savings scheme at work which is £50 every month. I buy sweets and stocking fillers from sept/oct as part of my weekly shopping bill.
We also only buy for children, not adults which removes a fair bit of pressure.

I save all year (not just for Xmas but for financial common sense, you'll always have something coming up you need money for) and I buy starting around April-June and shop the sales and deals.

I also don't ever spend more than I have thus avoided debt entirely, I have a credit card only so it shows as a positive on my credit score I have actually never used it and don't even know the pin.

I think a lot of people (in the real world not us on Mumsnet talking about deals in July) leave stuff too late and then just throw money at the problem in a panic honestly and end up with the unnecessary expense and debt.

Spend less, or earn more. Obviously.

Getting into debt over it is bloody stupid.

I save a set amount monthly for things that do not happen every month eg Christmas, birthdays, holidays and more mundane annual bills like car insurance. My aim is to have a small surplus annually to build up longer term savings for occasional expenses eg boiler, though this doesn't always happen

@Poppets14

We stopped buying for siblings years ago which has helped so much.

When I say £300- that’s everything. 1 big present, med presents, stocking and Christmas Eve box.
It may not be as much as that I think if I worked it out properly it’s about £250
I’ll definitely cut this down next year.

Everything is so expensive. When you buy something for a tenner is just doesn’t look a lot.

Ill set up an account next year and save £30 a month - that’ll help so much and stop us struggling at the end of the year

Why on earth aren't you cutting it down this year? You're £4k in debt!

Sorry but I simply can't understand your mentality around this. Your child will be perfectly capable of understanding that money is tight and things aren't going to be as extravagent as last year. The world won't fall apart if you don't spent £300 on them.

If you want to then of course it's up to you- but that is why you can't afford Christmas - because you need to adjust your expectations and the way you are thinking about money and your debt.

I would suggest looking at charity shops for gifts too, £300 is a lot for one child unless it's a specific item like tech - I spend about £60 and exh the same on my kids

I start early (Boxing Day sometimes!) and take advantage of sales throughout the year. For example, last January, I bought my DH some Christmas pjs and slippers/socks that I’ll give to him this year.

I take advantage of toiletry offers and buy stocking bits and pieces during the year for my DDs stockings. I keep a list of everything I’ve bought.

Follow the Christmas bargain threads on here - they’re excellent!

Because I’ve already spent it

I explained we are clearing all our debt in February. So will be debt free in February.
I’ve already finished my Christmas shopping so that’s why I said I’ll cut it down next year

I would never get into debt buying presents for anyone, and nobody should want you to either. If you can't afford it, be honest and tell people that you can't afford gifts this year.

I use Top Cashback throughout the year whenever I buy anything and then spend that cashback on DD's Christmas presents. I also get Amazon vouchers from my Amazon credit card, and a vpn thing on my mobile, and my mum gets them through doing surveys. I can then spend a lot of money on DD without actually spending any money.

I limit what I spend on others. For some I make up a bag of goodies, so £1 reusuable shopping bag from Poundland, and fill it with treats from supermarket, no fancy wrapping required, and you can fill it with 7 or 8 items for less than £10 if you shop wisely when the bargains are on.

A family member this year is getting

Christmas pudding for 1
Chocolate Orange
Biscuit Selection
Matchmakers
Cheese Biscuits
Chutney

Total cost £9 including the bag and they will be thrilled with it

If you can't afford to save the money for Christmas then there's no way you can afford to pay off a credit card. So many people don't think about it though, and end up in a cycle of debt (myself included in my younger years).

These days I save for Christmas through the year. I don't have DC so save £50 per month and then have £300 to spend. That has to cover presents (siblings, nieces and nephews, parents and step parents), food / wine and Christmas meals / drinks with friends.

I tend to buy smaller gifts but put quite a bit of thought in to them. So a particular book that I know my dad would like, or a jigsaw with a fave character for a niece. My family are the same though, and we all aim for around £10 per present so I don't feel bad in gifting something small.

We have one DD and I only buy for her, my husband, mum, brother and best friend, so manageable for our household income. We tend to spend £100-150 on DD and lots of little presents so that she has lots of things to open. I’m lucky not to have to specifically save for Christmas, however if I see a good deal even a few months before I’ll grab it.

I spend under £360 all in (presents, stockings, Xmas eve, Santa sack) for THREE children OP and we always get told how crazy overboard we go (granted RRP is likely nearer double due to all the bargain hunting).

You are definitely throwing money you don't have around in a panic this causing the problem - £300 on one child is unnecessary.

I start buying presents early, especially stocking presents. Kids get around £100-£120 each spent on them (not including stockings). Haven’t bought their gifts yet, but the rest of our family is bought for - mostly when things are on offer. We usually spend around £35 per person as an unspoken rule. Smallish family though. My siblings and brother in law don’t have children.
Food ordered from the butcher and local grocery supplier. Chocs etc already bought. Cake and mince pies ordered from a local bakery for delivery on Christmas Eve.
It’s not massively cheap, but definitely cheaper than it would be if I didn’t start buying and ordering early. And if nothing else it spreads the cost over several months.
If I left it all till December I’d end up massively overbuying and overspending.

We have a mortgage - have overpaid but it still seems huge to us though tiny to many on MN- and we do know we can cover the chirstmas costs but we still talking hundreds not thousands and we still have nagging worry and when we were really strapped actual fear about over drafts and credit cards and carrying over debt into the next month.

So with 4K woirth of debt I'd only be buying for my own children and keeping that as small as possible and cutting back where I could while still having a few chritsmas treats for the kids.

I think DH and I were brought up to fear debt - not so sure that's been a bad lesson TBH.

I'm trying to be reasonable with the amount of the gifts, we don't have any debts and I want it to stay this way.

That doesn't mean we don't have a nice Xmas though- just being sensible and don't go over board with non essential stuff imo.