I know it’s only October but it’s time to start thinking about Christmas, if you haven’t already. Christmas is such a big holiday now. All of the shops have got their Christmas stock up and for sale, and lots of new things are being advertised.
So, now is a good a time as ever to think about your Christmas budget!
Apparently, the average family in the UK spend around £850 at Christmas. This includes food, decorations, drinks and presents. That’s quite a big number! Even if you have quite a large family, with a bit of careful planning you could get this down from that.
Firstly, what I do is to think about the people who we are buying presents for. Family members, friends and other relatives. Make a list of every person you are buying for. You can do it in groups if you like, or priority order if that’s what works.
Next, you need to allocate a budget for each person. There are people who you will spend more money on. For me, Frugal Baby and Mr FC are the two people I spend the most money on. They are the people I love and spend the most time with. It makes sense that money wise they are up there too! We don’t go overboard though, as we have more than enough already.
Once you have your ideal budget, you need to think about if it is realistic or not. Do you need to buy lots of things for everyone? Probably not. Could you reduce the amount spend on some people? Probably. If your budget seems quite high, then revise it until it seems more manageable. Could you even do things like homemade gifts? Or perhaps making up a themed hamper on a budget for someone. There’s some great ideas over on Pinterest for these!
Remember, you can earn money to help towards Christmas with cash back sites and survey sites such as Swagbucks. Both of these are free to join and can help a lot when it comes to earning extra money in time for Christmas. I’ve got a post on both of these:
Even if you manage to get a £10 Amazon voucher, it all helps! If you sit on the sofa on an evening just watching tv, why not do some surveys whilst you’re sat there? They don’t take long 🙂
Next, you need to work out how much to save, if you can. Obviously this is subject to what you’ve set your budget as. Start saving your £1 and £2 coins to begin with as these add up quickly. Think of other ways to cut back, like your food shopping spend or entertainment for now.
Also, think about things around your home that you could get rid of by selling online. Apparently the average household has over £1,000 of unused items in their home. Now is the time to get listing these as people are looking for bargains for Christmas! I’ve written before about how to sell well on ebay, and am planning on listing some things this weekend.
If you’re in charge of Christmas dinner, now is the time to start buying things that are non-perishable, or things you could freeze until the big day. Most supermarkets are beginning to have all of their Christmas stock in, so this can help spread the cost too. It is possible to do Christmas dinner on a budget, with a bit of planning.
Have you started to think about Christmas? How are you managing your budget? I’d love to hear from you!
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We’ve had our christmas budget talk recently and decided we won’t buy gifts for each other because we can buy what we want if we want it. But we will give a gift to our niece and nephew and our secret santa pick (so 4 gifts in total) So we have budgeted $500 for food, gifts, charity and any other things that may pop during that festive time.
I think we might just do token gifts this year rather than big presents; there’s not much we need to be honest 🙂
I do find Christmas a financial pressure as we are both self employed and on a very low income. I have been lucky after using a cashback website when I changed our internet provider and have just received £125 cashback which will cover the Christmas presents for my 4 Grandchildren and a couple of Birthday presents in December. Me and my Hubby don’t usually buy for each other and I do token gifts for the 10 other members of my family and make gifts for a few of my friends. This year we have been invited to a friends for the big day so I suggested a secret santa with the gift costing no more than £5 and we share the cooking. I have started buying non perishable food and I make all my Christmas & Birthday cards so I am getting organised. I always joke that Christmas should be like the Olympics and come round every 4 years as it seems to come round quicker every year!
It does seem to come round more quickly each year – I thought it was just me! It sounds like you’re very organised 🙂
We have always made gifts, encouraging the kids to make gifts, too. I had a birthday recently and got a few small houseplants–(they will grow) — a gift my daughter got for free and some movie passes. Then we went out to dinner. Years ago, we made decorations, doll clothes, cardboard play sets for action figures, and a few used items. The grand children made cards.
This sounds lovely 🙂 I love the houseplant idea!