How much did Christmas cost you?

[Jbrown76]

And how long will it take to pay it off? Or how long will you be skint for?

It'll be Summer before I'm in the clear 😓

I don't know, I don't keep track, nor do I need to 'put it aside' if I had to guess I'd say around £800/£1000. I didn't send money to nieces & nephews overseas this year, they are older now (still teens) never say thank you & never send me even a card & they get loads from my mum. I'm fed up of it, so I didn't do it. If there's any 'fall out' so be it.

i go to friends for a few days over Christmas and after trying various options of bringing stuff, i now just put money into their account to help fund the food & drink & take presents.

I don't have a partner or kids, so no 'big' presents to buy, but even when I did I didn't go into debt.

Probably around £1000-1200 half of which is saved up through the year. The rest is spread over the 3/4 months before Christmas so no big hits to weather in December. There are eleven GCs and a chocolate hamper to sort for ex-pat AC and we always buy in plenty of food over Christmas and we eat our way through this in January using the store cupboard challenge and just top up on things like bread and oat milk for dairy intolerant GC.

Around £1k, I hosted Christmas day and am hosting NYE. Most I've ever spent but didn't need to go into debt, will just feel like I've got more money in January! I've luckily got a good disposable income and this was the first year dc didn't believe in Santa, so happy to go a bit overboard but get all the credit!

Probably £1800 for everything including west end theatre tickets and taking my team out for a meal.

A few grand. It was a more than expensive year as DS had a computer for school & gaming (£800) and we also went away for Christmas week.

Apart from the computer which is on 0% for 18 months, the rest is all from savings and salary but I’ll be looking forward to January pay day 🙈

Probably about £1000, paid from Novembers salary. I don't have a credit card so nothing to payback. Definitely wouldn't go into debt for it.

About £400 total including food. I see it as a fancy Sunday roast so that’s what it is, with a nice pudding.
We don’t drink so no booze.
No debt at all.

I think too much… and now on reflection it didn’t make it “better” IYSWIM.

Food - approx. £800 (we hosted)
Presents - DH £400, kids £800 (I buy throughout the year but this is far too much I feel…), my family £120 (secret Santa), DH family £200
Activities - £200

That’s already £2520.

We can afford it but we could also spend half that and the outcome would probably be the same (the outcome being I felt like a Christmas slave and I’m exhausted, and my family didn’t appreciate any of it, and the kids fought the whole time).

Need to make Christmas easier/more relaxed and cheaper next year.

Each year I work out what I’ve spent, and try to save that amount for next year. It makes Christmas a lot less stressful if you have the money saved. Even £5-10 a week, stuffed in an envelope in your underwear drawer (I have done this before ) is better than nothing.

Around £1500 but that includes everything and we are still eating through the food. No debt carried forwards as I save up all year.

Save up throughout the year. Around €600. Nothing to pay off even though we did go a bit over.

I use YNAB and find it excellent but there are other cheaper ways to do it. YNAB seems to be the method that works with my ADHD, so I don't mind paying. If you want to try something like this I would definitely recommend money saving expert's budgeting guide. Their money makeover is fab and worth doing too

Probably around 1.5k- 1.7k we don’t have children but we’ve been out for lots of great restaurant meals since Dec 1st, bought gifts for each other plus enough food & drink to see us through to new year (so we’ve not actually been to the supermarket for the last 2 weeks and probably don’t need to for another week or two)

We probably spent approximately £1500
5 children (mostly adults)
Show £400
Meal £100
2x food shops £150 each but I was ill the week before Christmas & we literally had an empty fridge
Butcher £90
But no debt & still have plenty to chose from to eat.
I will need to shop again as student DC not back at Uni until nearly mid Jan

£1000. Three young adults. About half on presents and half on other stuff.

We had a great time and none of that was wasted. Except am not going to bother with special M&S food order again. I was unimpressed by most of it and the Lidl and Iceland stuff was as good for much cheaper.

£200 on presents/cards
Didn't cook was at work
Family paid for Boxing Day meal

Far too much!! But not on credit. Saved up for it since last Christmas. Probably around £3k in total ( we don't holiday abroad, so don't have to save for that). That includes 2 x major theatre trips ( tickets bought last year) and 1 close to home in a small theatre. Several Christmas lunches out with friends, food and drink ( mostly for use between Christmas and New Year and 'hosting' family during that time) and a Stay in a Hotel on a package for 4 nights. Without the hotel stay and the theatre trips, probably around £600 - £700

I now use a 12 month regular saver account starting November to pay for Christmas. So I've made 2 payments towards next christmas already. Makes it easy for me to get a lump sum in November, and we get a bit of interest too. I refuse to get into debt for it and have had a couple of years before doing this that we've not spent much. We spent around £1500 this year as I've been paying £125 into the regular saver.

No idea. I haven't added it up but I only spent what I had. I don't buy for many people. My family gave up with presents years ago. The food was mostly bought with nectar points saved throughout the year and I haven't had to buy any food this week as we've had plenty of leftovers to get through. I don't see the point in going into debt for Christmas.

£1k but hosted 5 extra people for three days and dined like Kings! Presents for our kid was about £200 the rest was theatre tickets, Christmas outings , food and drink.

Probably around 3.5k
Polar express was £260 and we managed to spend £300 while there. So £560 there. But the tickets were purchased in April.

Legoland trip was free as pass holders. £30 for Santa. And we did around £200 during the day.

Gifts for 4 children was around £2k (SEN aimed equipment/toys is costly and usually where the largest part goes)
Family gifts and for partner was around £500

Christmas dinner out with drinks £200

Panto £100

There may be a few odd things not costed. Everything was paid for out of Christmas savings account and had some of the budget left over this year.

I usually budget £600 for Christmas but it’s been that amount for years. Probably £800 ish this year. I have older teenagers who are expensive. I didn’t get a stupid amount of food this year though and we ate everything.

About £500 all in. Will be a bit skint through January but should be OK after that.

Not much really, we do a fairly relaxed Christmas. Already had decorations, wrapping paper and artificial tree etc so didn't need to account for those this year:

Presents for DS: £100
Presents for family & friends: £100
Activities ie santa visits and crafts: £12
School stuff eg nativity, PTA Christmas events & present for teacher: £15
Food for Christmas eve through to tomorrow: £120

£350-ish and we had a brilliant time. Fortunate around here though lots of beautiful walks and free stuff to do I suppose.

Luckily didn't go into debt just paid for it with Nov & Decs wages.

Activities:
Christmas afternoon tea £120
Pantomime, sweets and dinner £220
The Holiday live plus dinner £250
Dinner with friends £130
Mum group Christmas night out £100
DH work lunch and drinks £80

Two nights in London plus travel, meals and treats (theatre tickets were a birthday gift and sale shopping with Christmas gift vouchers/money) £900 but count this as more holiday budget than festive

Gifts for 3 DC £1800
Gifts for DH and him to me £500
Gifts for family and friends £600
Gifts for staff £140

Wreath making class £65
Replaced outdoor decorations £140
Candles £80

Hosting/contribution to host;
Baking Christmas cakes £50+
Buying desserts for Christmas Day £105 plus wine and soft drinks £55
NYE take away £60
NYD at ours £200+

An eye watering amount really but we save and might feel the pinch a bit towards the end of January but don’t go without.

Not sure. No debt tho. I’ve always put £50 into an account each month and start buying in Sept a bit too.

I had a £50 Asda voucher from work and also £35 in cash pot for a few extra bits in my shop etc