Does anyone else get tired of the spend, spend, spend?

[MrsGrinchesHumblePie]

We have a huge family to buy for on DHs side. Then there are relatives on my side. We don’t spend lots per person but as there’s so many babies, children , tweens, teens etc it really adds up. We don’t buy for adults other than a small gift for parents and grandparents.

We then have 2 DC of our own to buy for. On top of that , there’s school raffles , school parties which require nice clothes , school tombolas and family days out to be paid for .

I have finally completed my Christmas shopping but as we are on a low income , it’s taken 12 weeks to do. I’ve just looked at our bank balance and I’m a bit deflated.

We will manage through to the next pay day at the end of December with and we will also be ok through January with conscious spending, but I’m so pleased the spend , spend , spend is over . Does anyone else feel the same?

I'm only buying for children and my grandmother this year. We will take food to share to our relatives who are hosting us for Christmas.

I don't do it any more. Most people already have a load of stuff and kids have rooms piled high with plastic trash. I don't want to buy any more stuff made in Chinese slave factories.

I make presents for the people I love. For children I will sew or knit them a teddy or any favourite animal. I am making a rocking horse for a 4 year old and painting it.

this year my family have done secret santa where we have a £10 budget and buy from a charity shop £10 can buy something quite decent and they sell a lot of new or nearly new things. Plus the money goes to charity. Worked well I think.

What about starting off by buying one present per family? E.g board game, computer game etc or tub of Roses/Biscuits etc so it's not went from a gift each to nothing 🤔

Only gifts for the children these days. Useful ones, largely. A pretty M&S dress for the little girls, and a book/token, equivalent for the boys, or else money which I encourage them to spend a little, save a little. This year, I'm going to tell them that I have reduced the value of their presents by $10 each, and that money is going to buy gifts for the (many) underprivileged children of our area, from them, specifically. It has been a hard year for so many.