I am not known for my generosity.
This year we went away Christmas Eve and Boxing Day. Therefore with the exception of mincemeat for mince pies I didn't buy one food item for Christmas, I didn't see the point.
Someone in work told me she has thrown away cheeses, crackers, sweets and worst of all a complete uneaten Christmas cake. I said she should have bought it into work (hospital) and shared it round the midwives rather than throw it all away. She didn't think.
I told my husband not to buy any chocs as I get given loads from the managers at work. One box was taken to relatives and a couple of bottles of wine I was given was also taken along to our hosts.
We did buy some new lights so spent about £40 there. I have an artifical tree and just £2 on a few more babbles to add to the collection.
We gave up buying presents for brothers and sisters years ago, then when all the kids reached 18 we gave up buying for them as well. This was a universal decision amongst us all (once I had suggested it).
I suppose all in all I spent about £400 on presents for immediate family not too bad I consider.
Are you a big spender or on a tight budget?
we dont normally go mad but we did this year and it has bit us on the bum - so very tight belt in January which always seems a really long month
didnt help that whilst checking and tightening floorboards in preparation for the fitting of our new carpet today hubby managed to put a nail through an old water pipe so had to call out the plumber last night and cost us £130
Tight budget. I spent 300 pounds on gifts this year for my mum, gran, brother and friends.
I put up last years tree, got my decorations from poundland, lights and lovely decorations were 6 pounds.
Went to mums on Xmas Eve, we had a chinese meal. Went out at New Years to my friends house, didnt get home on New Years day as people were having a drink so ended up staying another night.
Gave gifts that I thought people would appreciate, ethical gifts and eco friendly stuff.
Didnt do anything extra really apart from my normal food shop, couldnt be bothered with the scrum and in the end, due to some external events, was quite a sad New Year which put it all into perspective for me.
Its only another day and its people who matter.
I may be getting made redundant this year and I found that out after I bought the presents but Im glad I did it.
Pauline
Holiday spends...
Tight budget. I spent 300 pounds on gifts this year for my mum, gran, brother and friends
Gosh Pauline! In our house, that would be a HUGE budget!!!
We didn't really do gifts this year. I make jewellery so all the ladies got a necklace or earrings. I also baked some gingerbread with my little girl and gift-wrapped it for a load of people and her nursery children.
We donated to a few charities, so I guess that was our biggest expense. Our daughter was two on Boxing Day, and we got her a doll and a second-hand toy kitchen - again, minimal spend.
We stayed at my Mum and Dad's, so no food outgoings at all.
We got tons of choccie and good Champers, so took that along too.
We couldn't bear spending a vast amount of money - the commercialism of the whole holiday season sickens me.
It's also quite nice now, looking at our bank balance and seeing a healthy sum still available!
I suppose everyone spends to their budget really, unless you feel naughty and hit the plastic for gifts! Whatever makes people happy!:p
C xxx
Yeah when I bought the presents I didnt know I was going to be made redundant so the presents covered my brother, my mum, my gran, my pal, my pals sis and my pals mum and her partner so I suppose Im on a tighter budget now than I was then as I only found out the week before Christmas that I wont have a job after March so in a way Im glad because it meant I could buy people what I wanted to buy them and not have to worry about money, at the time anyway.
This year by default and last year have been the only 2 years in the last 6 or so that Ive been able to spend a bit more money due to some fairly big money restrictions and until then I managed to give people the odd mix of new and charity shop but even so, the bulk of the gifts I gave this year were from sites that give gifts that give to the third world and beyond, some charity gifts from the Uk and some pound shop stuff.
It doesnt really matter in the end what you give because I have been on very restricted and not restricted budgets in the past and very likely next year unless a miracle happens, it will probably be back to cheap and cheerful for me.
I also skipped tons of old stuff to charity shops on Xmas week, including old gift bags, shoes I had never worn, clothes and magazines.
As I said, Im glad I bought what I bought before I knew I was being made redundant and theres no point worrying about it because I will get by whatever happens.
P
Bummer about your job Pauline - really sorry 🙁
What do you think you will do after March?
How did you find the websites for gift donations on someone's behalf? I looked at them in November, but didn't really have the money to buy for everyone. I liked the idea of them though - helping farmers by buying animals etc: a very worthy cause.
I thought of making-up shoe box-sized gifts for next year, and filling them with relevant things to which charity or organisation we will be donating to. Things like toiletries for the Women's Refuge, and that kind of thing.
We are now thinking of moving house, so we will have to do the charity shop run in the coming weeks. Got tons of stuff that is in really good condition, but no space for it anymore.
Good look with the job situ anyway - hope things look brighter for you very soon xxx
I suppose all in all I spent about £400 on presents for immediate family not too bad I consider.
Are you a big spender or on a tight budget?
Oh, difficult to pin down. Didn't notice the bill, no need.
At a rough guess,
case of Bollinger - £500 inc. delivery
4 jars of Royal Sevruga Russian caviar - £400 delivery inc.
illuminated decorations - £350
Christmas Dinner for 4 - £400
Total about £2000, at a guess. Could be £3,000. Who's counting?
Seriously?
Cards £2 inc postage (two English friends and next-door neighbours.
Mince pie + Nuts + Crackers = £8
Presents for immediate family = £240
Alcoholic drinks = 0
Non-alcoholic drinks = £1
Total £251.
Regards.
Prashna
Well Im training to be an aerobics instructor just now and I know its hard to make a full time career of it but I'd really like to give it a go part time.
Ive bought off those charity sites for ages now, I found some new ones this year, I even bought the girl who I got in the secret santa one, I knew she would like it and she did.
To be honest with you, one of the charities is run through a British one and its helps people who are left looking after their grandkids if their mums and dads have died of AIDS etc and what really brought it home to me was that the present I bought which would give a child a years schooling, was 17 quid.
How many times have I frittered that on a night out? That made me realise just how lucky I am.
I think your idea about gift boxes for refuges is a fantastic one.
Sometimes people need to leave their homes with literally the clothes they are standing in.
There was a gift box in the local asdas where I am and Im sure they are replicated all over the country, to put a gift in for a child aged between 5 and 16 who might not get anything.
Sometimes you forget just how little other people have. Depending on how long it takes me to get a job I might do some voluntary work in a charity shop, I started out doing volunteer work about 15 years ago but I havent had the time since due to various work commitments.
If I had any artistic ability I would make things for people but I havent but I am afraid next year people will be coming to me for reiki treatments at Christmas as I wont have the cash to give them much else unless I get a job quite quickly.
I've been off work due to the stress of the whole situation but Im going back next week and this Christmas has been a bit flat in the end but as I said, Im a lot better off in some respects than many people on this earth and I really do know that.
What does upset me as the original poster said, is when food goes to waste, I will never comprehend why people buy as if there is a war on when the shops shut for 2 days.
P
:confused:Not really sure how much I spent. I know the gifts I bought were things I thought people would like rather than buy the dearest thing out there. Which I know a few people do. One gift I bought for a friend was a set of cards, Mermaids and Dolphins, I knew she had been considering them and couldn't really justify spending the money on them. That made the gift even more special, to both of us really. Some new baubles for the tree I bought when visiting my sister in Newport. There is a Christmas decoration factory shop near to her and the "stuff" in there was fantastic and a bargain. Tree is artificial and I bought it last year. I do know I'm not in debt from it which I think would spoil the whole meaning of Christmas. Good luck with the job hunting Crystaltherapy, I'm sure things will work out well for you.
I posed this question on another site I contribute to and this was someone's answer.
For those of you struggling financially maybe a leaf out of their book:
NOTHING
Was well organised last year and used vouchers from various sites, received £500 plus in cashback from quidco, shopped throughout the year, made money from Tesco, Littlewoods and Boots glitches. DM book tokens were a real boost, used them in Tescos for shopping and put money to one side to use in other stores/online as needed. Ended up in profit and put a float of £150 to spend in sales.
2 teenage boys received far more this year than any other year. (playstation 3, wii, mobile phones, etc etc etc.
Hubby received 2 lots of concert tickets so he was well please. I bought myself a diamond bracelet, thanks Mr T.
Aim to do the same for next christmas.
Took about 3 hours work a week, was well worth the trouble.
Downside is that I now never watch TV and could never ever live without the internet.
Don't know how much we spent - suspect we were slightly more generous than in the past - but the important thing is that we only spent money we had.
Pound shops provided stocking fillers, even for adults - and so did charity gifts, so we didn't feel all our money was going to evil multinational capitalism!
Shame to hear about anyone throwing away a Christmas cake. I've just eaten a slice of ours at my desk and it was excellent - for the first time, we didn't put marzipan or icing on it and it's much better without. Still got some Christmas pudding in the fridge too. Fry a slice and serve with vanilla ice cream... mmm!
we had to do secret santa in the family but i still bought everone a present couldnt leave anyone out, got lot of these from charity shops,two were tombola prizes and one raffle prize that i didnt want.tow were new becasue of secret santa costs no more then26.50( had to pay for my daughter secret santa. so altogehter cost about 80 pound whihc inclueds few bits for xmas stockings. i got 2 books free from a freind that were new so gave them as pressies!!
the person was pleased wiht the books so it doesnt matter if it is cheap or expensive it is the thought that counts.
not decorations this year so didnt buy any.
Christmas
Similar to other comments didn't have loads to spend, so concentrated on buying individual presents such as hand made jewellery, gave some therapy vouchers. But there were stills things to buy and food of course!
I just think that people feel the pressure at Christmas to buy gifts and its all very rushed and someone ends up with 8 baths sets! Maybe we should go back to keeping it more original.
Also what do people feel about saying 'thank you'? The reason I mention it is that my parents stood over us whilst we wrote thank you notes, and this is something I still do. However, I've noticed our nephews and nieces never say thank you!
Ellie x
All in all with the buying of gifts and eating out, I'd say it's around $600 in all. That left me broke for the month of January 😀
I'm a little reluctant to post this on here as I don't want anyone to think that we are in the habit of throwing money about because we're not! BUT........
Spent about £3,000 eek!
£400 on prezzies for partner
Partner spent about the same on me
£6-700 on presents for all our families
£300 on NYE (went for dinner and dance at Hilton with friends and taxi there and back was about £50!)
£1000ish on food and drink over the festive period - 20th-1st (We were out every night which cost a fortune and also eating out a lot as nobody wanted to cook - champagne on Xmas and boxing day as we go to parents on alternate years so end up having two 'christmas days' a year.
Never spent anything like this before and no idea why we decided to this year but we're both really regretting it now as neither of us get paid until the end of the month and the bills are really mounting up - ho hum only got ourselves to blame really so can't grumble - We did have a truly amazing xmas though so I guess it evens itself out in the longrun!!