I am so skint, I am seriously considering cancelling Xmas!!

[lucysmam]

Someone please help me see sense & tell me all the good things I'll miss out on if I do

you will miss everything. exactly how skint are you? how many kids do you have, what ages and sexes are they? i can prob give you some ideas to do it cheap if that will help?

I am the same at the moment, how old are your dc? would the free lego the mirror are giving away at the moment be any use for xmas? Its only 35p a day or if you pay £6.50 for a playmat and storage box.

obv £6.50 includes all the lego vehicles as well as the playbox and mat as well.

What about the xmas appeal?

Don't cancel! If your children are small they will not need loads of pressies... How old are they?

If preschool age I have some as new stuff?

Christmas isn't about spending money.

i prob have stuff too if you want it?

Could you do a "home made" Christmas with them, with "rules" that all gifts has to be made yourselves? They could make you something like a "painting" that you "always wanted" for the wall etc, and you could make them something (maybe buying a cheap bag at charity shop and decorating it yourself etc)?

For lunch you might skip the "traditional" more expensive stuff and ask them to help you prepare something cheaper? If you do pasta and homemade sauces or something in that line it doesn't need to be expensive.

You could all sit around candles on Christmas eve singing songs and barbecuing marshmallows etc?

This Christmas might even me more memorable than others because of the fun activities together.

I have 1 lo, myself and oh.

Everything's just so tight, we have the same coming in as we had last month & I wasn't worried then. It just doesn't seem to go as far when you actually look at what you have iykwim

I have been collecting bits but it is literally bits & feel like just cancelling everything but a few pressies for the lo & a nice dinner & giving something small and home made to everyone else.

I just don't know how to work it into my budget which is already tight so that we pay bills/rent & get food. Usually only have enough for one bus fare to town & back and nappies left.

& before anyone tells me to cancel t'internet we don't pay for it, MIL does so we have something to do rather than be sat here bored

£6.50 lego? Am curious, would the Mirror website tell me more about it do you think?

I can totally help you with a reasonably priced yet DELICIOUS Christmas dinner. If you make it all with your new found cooking ability it will be cheap and much nicer and all you need is some cheap booze and a few trinkets for the LO's. It is ridiculous that Christmas should be so bloody expensive.

I guess I just need a kick up the backside to get myself going & stop being miserable about it

how old is lo? and boy or girl? if your lo is in nappies still lego might be a bit old. what have you got so far, and what do you need?

tell EVERYONE else you are only buying for dc this year, if they are true friends they will understand.

Just give your 1yo the presents you have already collected. She wont care

yes please Carmenere!

LO is a nearly 2 yo girl. She's toilet training atm (not that makes any difference to lego having thought about it) Maybe you're right about a bit young!

It just seems a bit tight (right word)??

You're all right though, am going to kick myself up the backside & start planning some home made bits for everyone else & rummage out what I have the lo already!

'I have been collecting bits but it is literally bits & feel like just cancelling everything but a few pressies for the lo & a nice dinner & giving something small and home made to everyone else.'

But that's all you need to do. Christmas shouldn't be about who can spend the most money. It's about spending time with your family.

You don't need to cancel it, you need to readjust your expectations of what is going to make the day good.

You're right Oli! Thank-you. I think I had high expectations of this Xmas (although not sure why) & didn't envision being skint like this again ever.

I am going to find some xmassy stuff to do with the lo over the next couple of months & stop feeling sorry for myself

I have got ds a little oven I found in a charity shop for £2.75. I'll add a set of veg or something and that will be it for him.

You and your dp don't have to buy things for each other, you can do something like promise a night of "us" time, exchange favours, that sort of thing.

Food always ends up being one of the most expensive parts of Christmas but if you want to go traditional check out the frozen birds in Aldi or Lidl or have a break from tradition with a cheap but divine cut like belly pork (our farm shop sold us enough for 3 people the other week for £1.20)

Christmas isn't about money. I don't go to church and even I know that .

let me have a look to see what i got here. i picked up a few bits for dd2 (nearly 3) earlier in the year and she will be a bit old for them come xmas. will let you know. can i have email address please? also i have a load of recipes for nice xmassy food things. i can email that to you if you like?

I remember making all kinds of tree decorations with my mom when we were small, and it was SO much fun. Oh, and going out to collect cones and things under trees and then decorating it - messy but brilliant.

With Christmas (and I do this myself too!) it is so easy to get carried away with stupid gifts etc, always having to "better" previous years, that I think in the end you (or I, you sound as if you've got more sense than me!) miss the whole point. You've inspired me to have a more "involved" Christmas this year. For me and dh anyway, I'm quite sure ds (6 months) won't notice!

Ok I second Indiths belly pork suggestion. that is really cheap and really, really delicious. It would be a good thing to have instead of turkey as you could have a huge piece with tons of leftovers for a fiver.

Or buy a frozen bird, if you buy a bird you can get quite a few meals out of it with stock and curry ect. Potatoes, carrots and parsnips are cheap at the moment as they are in season.

Make smoked mackerel pate as an appetiser and serve it on melba toast or home made bread, that should cost about 2 quid for the two of you.

Or make a lovely soup and serve with home made bread. make lots and put half in the freezer for later.

Buy Asda Cava for about 3/4 quid it is very drinkable or lidl prosecco, you and dh deserve a little bit of fizz at Christmas.

Also Asda do 3 bottles of wine for a tenner and sometimes they are quite decent wines.

What is your favourite dessert? If you are not mad about it, just buy some nice chocolate and some nice ice cream rather than go to the expense and trouble of making traditional trifles and puddings and cake. HTH

cherryliquor, it's [email protected]

Receipes would be great too thank-you

Carmenere, I think I could manage that if I start adding a bit to my shopping each time

Thank-you all for this virtual kick up the bum, I am going to start planning some bits to do and make with the lo tonight. & add a couple of bits to each shop between now & then so it doesn't seem so bad

Much appreciated & I feel loads better about it

ok will send those recipes in a mo. also sainsburys is doing a very good value range for xmas- xmas puds for just over a quid, various other bits like stuffing and gravy really cheap. its all good stuff just cheaply packaged

I used to get all kids presents from Christmas Fayres or charity shops. Once I got 2 bin bags full of toys for £5. It only works when they are young, had to stop doing it when the oldest got to be about 6/7 but I did get a few cheap years! Sad that I have to buy proper new toys, but you can make savings by going to pound shops for stocking fillers and I see Asda are doing good stocking fillers for £1-5 (when I say good, you do get what you pay for, but stocking fillers are supposed to be little cheap treats).

have a big chicken instead of a turkey. You will still have some left-overs and you will have much the same sort of dinner. TBH I prefer cjicken to Turkey