What is your Christmas budget?

[KittyPup]

I’m considering trying to cut back a bit this year as DH thinks I go a bit mad at Christmas. I’m not sure I agree so I’m just gauging what others do.

I put away £250pm all year and everything Christmas related comes out of that 3k. This includes gifts for our 2dc (approx £400 each), gifts for each other and dc in the family, Christmas food shop, Father Christmas trip, Christmas jumpers, any new decorations / wreath making workshop, fresh tree etc. Basically anything Christmas related in December and then the day itself and a few days in between.

Can I ask what your Christmas budget is? Or do you just not track as you’d rather not know?

Yeah me too! Adults getting advent calendars??

As little as possible this year. Kids are young adult (20s) and no stockings anymore. I’ve had some unexpected horribly expensive financial outlays this year so am counting every penny till I can recoup. As a single mum there’s no combining money to soften the blow. Thankfully they’re passed the stage of high expectations.

I'm sure foliage is freely available in most woods, copses etc

£250 per month ?

That would buy c.40 chickens that would each feed a family of 6 for a week - according to MNetters.

this is my first year of actually saving throughout the year for Christmas, done £50 a month. Will buy partner’s present separate to that and usually treat myself to something too. So maybe £750? £250 a month for a year seems insane but if I had the money I’d love to spend more than I do for sure.

Ive not tracked it like this, but yours doesn't sound unreasonable when you are counting everything like food and experiences. I allocate the children £200 each on their lists, then I add to that what i think theyll like and add stockings. We also have christmas eve boxes. I buy for dh, dm, mil, my siblings. we go away for a night which is about £600 with food. We also have a small £50 budget of gifts on the epiphany and chalk the door. We do the full 12 days of Christmas and have days out and family days in throughout, the two days away and a family members party every year on boxing day.

i do not go into debt or spend more than we can afford.

I don’t envy you, we bought a new house this summer and moved, I’ll never do it again 😂😂 best of luck 🙌

I have saved around £1200 for this year. And it was a struggle to put that £100 a side every month at the moment.

im hoping to spend around half of that so I have some money to put Into savings. I have 2 DC (2 and 4) and will not be buying adults gifts this year, and me and my partner haven’t bought each other grifts for years. I’m also working Christmas Day this year so don’t think we will be doing much. I wish we could put away a bit more but it feels hand to mouth every month at the moment.

to be honest it’s nice to see other family’s doing things on a smaller budget coz I feel like we are failing all the time x

No budget, just me and my husband (great), so the goal is to go for comfortable, peaceful and tasty (Christmas) stuff.
👍

So glad we have a low key Christmas rather than keeping up with the Jones.
Would be really interested @KittyPup how that compares to what you spend on family members birthday. Or the op who is spending £20k on a car.

We only buy for a few people
each other £50 to £100 ish
PIL £150
Dcat and Ddog £50 ish
Extra food £100 including wine and nibbles for visitors. Some years it’s a home made pizza for Christmas dinner

DH got his wish for a fake tree so that needs to be reused for a while
£20 for advent calendars maybe

We don’t really budget and if there was something one of us wanted we would get it. But years ago we ending up buying stuff for the sake of having nice gifts for each other that the other didn’t want but didn’t want to upset the other on Christmas Day.

We also do something for charity. Last year we gave £250 each to a favourite small charity, some years it’s a big shop for a food bank or a toy drive.

I was about to say the same. I have a basic green wired garland that I twist up the banisters and then I collect Ivy and holly and laurel on my dog walks and tie it in to the garland. I do the same on mantelpieces and shelves. Add in fairy lights and pine cones et voila!

About £2000.
Most of which has gone on Florence and the machine tickets for 3 DC and their partners.
£100 to local hospice in memory of my parents.
We aren't doing work nights out this year and are going out with wider family instead.

About £2.5k all in. £500 each on both DD. Then add in pantomime, ice skating, ballet and we normally go away for a couple of days (UK) for NY. We don’t go crazy on alcohol and food. It’s more on experiences. The £500 is small stocking presents and a couple of big presents. This year it will probably be one big present as one DD would like a laptop. If we could not afford it we would go lower, but we’re good with money and this is a big deal for us as both DH and I love Christmas.

I have quite a big extended family, lots of nieces/nephews/ siblings etc to buy for so presents always end up costing something like 6-700 once you include my own kids presents, everything i buy for family, stockings, husband and I's gifts to each other.
We generally do 1 or 2 ticketed things like a show or play or ballet and tickets are so expensive now it can easily be £300 for a family of 4.
The food shop for the christmas week usually costs about 200 because obv it includes stuff like turkey, all the trimmings, some alcohol, some fancy desserts and that sort of thing.
Then theres costs like the tree, christmas related activities at school eg xmas jumpers and christmas fair. And the extra money on petrol driving to see family over the holiday period!
So yeah id guess all said and done it probably is closing in on 1500 quid!

Probably around £500 on DS13, £200 on my mum, £50 each on DB, SIL and nieces, £200 on extended family and then something on the dog. I never host and just give some money to whoever in my family is hosting. I have a fake Christmas tree that I use every year with a lot of decorations - I just buy another couple of nice ones every year. Around £1200 in total. Too much for me if I’m being honest as I also have DS’s birthday in December and I’m a single parent. I’m hoping that next year I can save a little every month but for this year, it’ll probably be a bit less than usual. As long as DS is sorted that’s all that matters. And DDog but he is very easily pleased!

I think your meal sounds rather fitting, splendid and delicious.

l just wondered if you had tried thev following.

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It is unspeakably wunderbar.

Gifts around £2k, food and drinks £400, tree and decorations £100. Socialising £500 - so around £3k

We’ve stopped buying for every adult.
So the 14 adults , we now do a £100 Secret Santa ) that’s cut my bill by about £800.
i spend around £100 on each grandchild ( 7 of them )
Food, drink around £200
So my total budget now is about £1000 - and that’s by far enough for 2 days !!

That’s insane! What is your household income out of interest? I assume it’s massive?

I make £200k - £500k a year and wouldn’t dream of spending anywhere near that much

But if you can afford it and enjoy it all why feel you need to cut back?

My spending is affordable to us, we enjoy it doesn't leave us lacking in other areas. Is more than some less than others. But affordable.

I don't feel guilty at spending what we can afford to spend. We give to charity, support local causes etc

We just forgo saving that month and absorb it into our normal higher month spend rather than saving through year. It always gets maxed so would say Xmas is about 1.2k more expensive than an average month. But that’s everything. Gifts, parties, drinking, travel to relatives, nicer food etc.

We spend perhaps 100 quid on our daughters. Dh and I buy for each other, but nothing more than £20. I buy for my sister, similar price, and I buy for my parents perhaps £10 each. So perhaps 280 in total. We stopped buying a real tree a couple of years ago, and we now have an artificial one. We buy a traditional advent calendar for our daughters - about £3 each. We might spend £50 on Christmas food. We don’t drink, so no alcohol. After having lived comfortably for many years both DH and I have been made redundant and unemployed in our early 60s, so things are very tight.

I've spent about £70 on adult DD for her birthday presents at the end of November and I tend to spend similar on her for Christmas. Similar for DH and him the same for me. He buys something for his adult daughter 50. Usually around £30.
I get some chocolates for my singing teacher and my physiotherapist. Not an inspirational choice but I figure then they can eat them or regift. We send about 6 cards between us and only to those who send us one.
Wrapping paper won't reach £10. No new decorations this year. We don't buy much extra food just a box each of hotel chocolat which will last me till February. I also put in a special vegan cheese order split with DD. That's about £10.
So about £300 - £350 for absolutely everything.

Surely this is a jokey/sarcastic response.