Ten quid...it'll be great!

[WontLetThoseRobotsDefeatMe]

* No children or animals are involved in this budget cap *

We lost our dad last year, and did a lot of £€$ compensation attempts. This year, my bro has suggested we have a budget of 10 quid a head (GBP) for the family. We're just brother, sister, mum, me. Siblings 35-45. Mum is notquite70.

I like it. I love a thoughtful gift, so like the challenge. I am also a proper LOVER of Christmas / general planning.

Anyone done a similar challenge? Any hints / tips? Do you do this with immediate fam partners? Or include them?

Sorry for the your loss of your dad.

Why not just discuss doing a secret santa and up the amount to say £20-£30 instead?

£10 can buy a lot if you have time on your side (and you do)!
A family photo book, a picture, a vintage copy of a long-loved book, something small and homemade, some experience vouchers. Some of my most interesting presents were from the period when My siblings snd (preDC) decided on striving for a budget.
Great call OP. Please let us know how you get on!

Lots of sales going on right now. Boots also do Tenner Tuesday, which is hit or miss but the hits are pretty good! Etsy can have nice stuff if you filter the search with free delivery and have the patience to wade through stuff. Wob can be good for books. Ebay of course.

What are your siblings and mum into?

It can be run to shop on a budget, I like a challenge.

Keep an eye on the "Christmas bargains" thread on here - you can often get some brilliant things for a bargain. This week I got my daughter a John Lewis dressing gown for £5 (reduced from £18) and slippers for me for £6 (reduced from £20)

I would personally look at making things for under £10. On of my go-tos is to buy a hardback book from a charity shop (bonus if it's a book they leave a connection to), buy a pattern on Etsy and make a folded book - you would probably still have £5 left over!

Emma Bridgewater has got a sale on at the moment. Many of the mugs are reduced to well below £10, which leaves you room to buy a fancy coffee/tea/chocolate to give with it. Would be a perfect present for me! Got to be quick though as I think it’s the final reductions now...

Oh and we’ve done token gifts for quite a few years now - children all grown up and three of us/them have birthdays in Nov/Dec so it’s just simpler and nicer t have a very low-key Christmas.

Sorry about your dad.

Making Christmas about all the wonderful joys of Christmas that don’t have anything to do with spending/consumerism makes everything much, much nicer IMO. It takes away all stress and leaves everyone free to properly enjoy the season. I absolutely love our Christmases.

Thanks so much all, for the wishes about dad and the budgeting ideas.

I am pretty sure mum would hate nit buying for all of us, hence secret santa not ŕeally being an option. Good idea for others though, especially with bigger / extended families I imagine.

I know mum would love something handmade, so may use some commuting time for pondering that...

Would £20 be doable? That’s a much healthier budget and makes things quite a bit easier in terms if there being scope for some really very nice things. Especially if you’re wanting to buy local/handmade (as small business sellers often have to charge a bit of a premium to make the finances work for them).

@NiqueNique That's a good point. I might suggest that and see how it goes down. I think its still in the original spirit of the idea...just maybe more realistic.

My parents and I don't really need anything for Christmas so we usually just do a box of chocolates and pair of socks kind of gifts. it's nice because we have something to open but we don't feel like we're wasting money.

Yes, it avoids a situation where you all end up exchanging bits of tat that no one actually wants or need....

Really low budgets can work very well if you make it into a bit of a joke and the fun is part of it but then it’s best to go really low (as in £5) so it doesn’t turn into a waste of money. Or with a £10 budget making it a charity shops or pre-loved only challenge can be quite good, but not everyone is up for 2nd hand gifts only.

Sorry to hear about your dad @WontLetThoseRobotsDefeatMe. We do a £10 secret Santa in our family and we always get thoughtful gifts. I really enjoy the challenge and I'm also very grateful for the cost of presents being reduced as we'd find it difficult to afford Christmas otherwise.

The Christmas bargain threads are brilliant and £10 would probably do you nicely on there! But I do think a lower budget is fine for those who are very good at thoughtful/hidden gems presents but doesn’t suit everyone’s buying style and can stress some people out, especially if it’s not how people are used to buying. So sometimes it can be good to work down to it - £20 this year and £10 next year, for example. And if it’s to be local/handmade then I do think £20 is more realistic.

My sisters and niece do this with a budget of £5. I spend time on the Christmas bargain threads to get them something they will like that is personal. My niece buys something random off Amazon and gets it sent unwrapped to me. Drives me mad. I've tried suggesting that we stop it and go back to a secret Santa but my niece insists she loves spending time picking gifts for us all. Only she clearly doesn't spend any time at all on it!

Personally I like the challenge of getting a gift that's nice and within budget, but I hate getting cheap tat in return

I love the idea but I'd up the budget and each just get one gift (pull a name from a hat). That way you won't get any tat, £50 you can get something nice, but keep the overall spend pretty much the same.