Ok..so how much shall I save for next year Christmas?

[AnxietyLevelMax]

honest question…we have no Christmas decorations and no artificial Christmas tree. Family of three. I can more or less budget groceries but anything else - no clue! Need to start from January. Additional saving account just for Christmas is empty at the moment😂

I agree with others, if you have the spare cash buy decorations/gift wrap now. I picked up multiple rolls of silver and gold wrapping paper in Wilko for 30p a roll a few years ago and my stash is still going strong. Once this has ran out, for environmental reasons, I’m moving on to using old clothes to the wrap the presents for our immediate family (I sew so am starting to turn the material into patchwork wrapping)

in relation to saving we put £80 per month away for a toddler and two adults. This will cover:

Christmas lunch at a restaurant £200
Trip on the polar express £200
Christmas eve lunch £15
Daughters presents £150

The rest will be used for fun, teacher gifts etc

I do the same. Although this year was the first year I did it (started last year) but used it as a generic present account which meant Christmas was a stretch. This year it is JUST Christmas. I kick started it again yesterday with £75.00 and usually put £75.00 in a month. That will give me just shy of £1000 and ought to be ample for our needs I think and hope!

Depends what you can afford surely? If you struggle to afford bills and save then I wouldnt save at all and not prioritise Christmas, but if you are comfortable then maybe £150-£150 per month.

I had 1k saved this year as I always do and it readily didn't stretch as far as usual. I have 3 adults left home children and two younger ones at home. The cost of everything had risen so much at the minute I'm definitely going to try and increase the budget for next year 🤣 and sort the credit card.

This is ridiculous question without knowing what you want to buy. A few second hand gifts for a 1 year or top if the range electronics for 2 teenagers. Panto, Christmas jumpers, seeing santa, charity donations, ptfa events, 98p advent calendar from home bargains or expensive beauty advent calendars.

I think you could have a lovely Christmas if you saved £50 per month from January to November.

I saved £60 a month this year and will do the same next year. We know the year will be massively tighter as our mortgage is going up by a stupid amount but I'm determined to do everything I can to continue saving in this acct.

I use an app which totals what I spend and this year I spent £735 for the 5 of us and my parents. I'm hoping to bring this down next year as I did splash out a bit. Food was a good £300 but we went to Costco so still have some bits left over which will see us through the next couple of months of "treats".

Nobody can give you the right answer. Are you someone who has to have The White Company Christmas with fortnum and masons goodies or are you happy decorating your house with an home bargains tree & Aldi Christmas treats?

Christmas decorations can be bought in the sales, or charity shops, I bought heaps in charity shops this year and got a decent box of decorations from primark a couple of days before Christmas for £4.

Are you saving for just indoor decorations or outdoor too?

How do you do Christmas, are you saving for events like Santa visits or just gifts, how many gifts do you do or do you set a budget?

The way I set about it is to write down everything I would like to buy, look at the total, breathe deeply or pour a stiff drink and then get realistic.

Some parts of a budget are easier to whittle down than others.

If you can afford to pick up some bargains now, it’s a great time to get cards, crackers, wrapping paper, candles, decorations, lights and a tree. It’s not impossible to get a tree for free or nearly nothing right now second hand.

Split off your food budget from the rest of your Christmas budget. You probably need the money available from the start of November to take advantage of sales and offers (and before then if you’re booking tickets), so divide your total by ten, not twelve and save that amount monthly.

It’s going to depend on what you want to save for and what your budget is like. Sometimes less is more and it can be easy to go overboard on spending on things which are not necessary or don’t add much value/pleasure.

Have a think about what you may want out of the following:

decorations
wrapping paper and cards/stamps
activities/events
travel costs
outfits
gifts
food and drink
tableware

Now is a good time to see what you can get in the sales in terms of Christmas decorations, tree, crackers, wrapping paper and cards which you are likely to find at half price. If you were paying full price, you could be looking at a minimum of £200 if starting from scratch for the tree and decorations. If you have the money now, it really is a good time to buy.

The rest of the things are a bit like how long is a piece of string. The more things you do, and the more people who are involved, the more things will cost and the more you will need to budget. Only you can work out how much things will cost. I would work out what the total spend is likely to be and then divide by 10 (assuming that you will be looking to buy things earlier rather than leaving things to the last minute).

We have reduced what we spend on Christmas over the last few years and tbh, it has not made any difference to how much we enjoy the festive season.