total christmas cost?

[giveyourselfashiny]

How much have u spent in total for Christmas? I'm thinking about starting saving for next yr and just wondered how much people actually spend? I know I spend more than I think cause I buy bits over the yr, but in total, for everyone for everything inc food, drink and night out we have prob spent 600! Which is mental, and will be coming down next year!

I do know that my food bill for the xmas period was around £300 but couldn't tell you what have spent on other stuff as instead of saving through the year I have purchased through the year, it all gets a bit muddled too as dd has a birthday pre-xmas and this is the first year we have tried to have a proper party as she had been talking about a birthday party all year so we had one but I haven't got a clue as it all comes out of the same account. I wish I did though although I fea I will have spent more than we think so am slightly burying my head in the sand!

Think parents probably spent about £200...and that's a lot! We had a v. nice Christmas, no gaps, completely amazed (or not so...) that people would spend a thousand pounds on two weeks!!!

£200. That includes care for our ducks and chickens while we were away . I make my own Christmas presents which were loved by all. I also belong a skills exchange so gave some beautiful presents ( ie a very personalised watercolour painting framed ) which didn't cost me a penny .
I have 2 DC .
I think it's pretty senseless spending thousands on 'stuff'.

OMG I can't believe that some of you would spend thousands on a couple of weeks !
I just don't do the whole food and drink excess at Christmas .
I don't like Christmas being about materialism either .( I'm not religious)
Fortunately my DC did not want lots of stuff.

£450 on presents

£100 on extra Xmas food

I spent approx £750 on prezzies for 27!! people ( that includes mine too from DH :) ) and approx £150 on food etc.

I buy presents throughout the year and DH and I do various surveys etc to earn vouchers which knocked nearly £200 off the cost so prezzies actually cost about in £550 in real money.

Have bought crackers, cards and wrap for next year in sales and a few prezzies for birthdays for the next year also in the sales.

Our Christmas is not materialistic. Dp and I do not even buy for each other . However we have constantly entertained people over the festive period . That does not come cheap.

We do ' bring and share ' with our friends . It cuts costs .

Who says it is affordable?

Going home to our family at Christmas (we are both Irish) is, as the ad would say, priceless. Culturally spending money on presents is also quite important, though I am not particularly materialistic myself. The average wedding present given by a couple to a bride and groom is ?200, a colleague would easily spend ?30-50 on a new baby gift etc. In that context, our expenditure was relatively frugal in comparison to the rest of our family.

We don't put anything on tick, but we will have a very frugal few months now again (and had before). I would personally prefer not to spend so much, but the family set a price and did a draw and we were told it would be what it was and have little say. That's then £240 on adult presents, with flights on top before ds or dh were given anything.. it is easy talk to the rest of it as my mother would say.

hmm, not sure overall, but hosted party here christmas eve, so drink and nibblies for that
pressies for family prob about £500
have had guests since boxing day so food bill has grown alot prob about £300
then I have been saving my earnings this year to take the family to the theatre and day out in london, 4 tickets to wizard of Oz in great seats plus lunch and dinner and a few hours at winter wonderland.. prob £500 inc petrol
doesnt feel too bad, gifts were about £150 more expensive than normal as mum had a very specific request for a dyson dc35 so we bought it for her and dad as a joint gift.. normally spend £40 ish each on them.

probably around £1500 with presents, food, nights out, days out etc, but i love christmas and save all year for it, we dont have expensive holidays either so i think it all evens out. However, in the past i have done christmas for less than £100 and it was still lovely, we spend within our means each year.

About £300, I think, all in. Included catering for my parents for 10 days, Christmas dinner for 8 and all presents. All decorations etc. from previous years, cards left from last year and DH and I didn't give each other gifts. I'm between jobs (two months without my salary before my new pay comes in at end of January) so we've been very careful.

Dp and I have a much higher household income than most of our family so I would feel wrong suggesting a bring and share. I have what I have now because of the support of my family, therefore this is a chance for us to give back.

I agree ruby, we would spend the same amount while on holiday and that is with just the three of us to entertain . There were times when we had 12 round the table so I think we did well.

Yes Kellogg, but we are in the position where siblings etc have much higher incomes than we do (although we are doing reasonably well) but the fact they want to give such expensive gifts makes us feel pressured to spend a lot more. Frankly, I'd rather there was a £5 novelty gift limit than to be getting a ludicrously expensive Chanel bath and body set that went way over the £60 limit set. It just makes me feel poor. I think spending on parents is fine, but certainly in dh's family I feel it becomes about showing off how well off everyone is. Dh gets a lot of hassle from his parents about our income/lifestyle/how we "manage money" because his other siblings are very, very well off indeed and these flashy presents just add to the discomfort of that constant comparison. They all thought £60 as a price limit was very low indeed, but having to adhere to it means that we have spent a month's salary... not saying it is the same for you, but be wary if you are spending huge amounts on lavish gifts for adult siblings who earn a lot less than you, it can make the lower earner feel very inadequate.

For that exact reason we do not do lavish gifts, we could not afford to to be honest . We have a very normal middle income, I am a teacher and dp works part time so earns a similar amount to me.

Isn't it a bit off to have an agreed price for a present? I have a friend from Ireland and because there are so many of them (8 children all grown up) they do a secret Santa sort of thing where they draw a name from a hat and buy one present for one sibling for about £70.00 rather than bits of tat for a tenner for everybody. That sounds very sensible to me.

Have just looked through the thread and wondering if our dc were a bit short changed compared to some of you.

I spent about £25 on my sisters,£20 on nephews and nieces about £50 on my Mum .

On maternity leave. DH in Afghanistan.

Presents:
DD: £40
DH: £50
Parents (x4) £140 total
Siblings (x3) £150 total
Secret Santa for antenatal group: £10
Friends (x3) £40 total

Xmas Cards, Stamps & stamps for thank you cards: £40

Travel: £50

Food: £50 extra. Took 30 homemade mince pies & tarte to parents for Xmas, took wine & chocolates to friends etc

Outings: £0

Tree (small, real one for garden) £19.99

Cats Xmas dinner: £2 :)

Total: £542

£1300 on gifts for our 4 dc and brides and nephews. DH and I didn't get each other anything.

Approx £800 extra on food but this was to cover period of approx 10 days with lots of extra guests staying

So just over £2000.

Nieces not brides

kellogg your entertaining for your family is a lovely sentiment .

I am no saint, my mum did my ironing and my sisters are great babysitters ! Win win!