Christmas on a Budget

For many people, Christmas is always a time where finances are stretched to the limit. With the cost-of-living crisis the number of people who are going to find the festive season a financial strain will increase significantly. I decided to go through some of the approaches my family used when we had young children and very little disposable income in the hope that even one person might find one of my ideas useful. I am posting this on October 1 with 85 days to go, so there’s no time to waste!

Keep a Record

One of the things that really helps keep your spending in check is having a record of everything you have bought for Christmas. By this, I don’t just mean presents and cards, but also postage, food, drinks and parties at work or elsewhere. If you keep the information in one place it will make sure you won’t buy too much and you won’t miss anything. My weakness has always been buying too many presents because I have forgotten what I’ve already bought! As well as having a record of what you’ve bought, it will tell you how much you’ve spent, allowing you to keep within a set budget. The book I bought for £1.50 from Card Factory has been fantastic, but you can follow the example of my daughter who used one of her old notebooks instead.

No Unnecessary Presents

One of the pitfalls for Christmas lovers is spreading the joy even when you don’t really have the money to do so. It usually starts with ‘I can buy Paul from work a present, but if I buy him one, I really should buy Julie one, and if I buy Julie one’ etc. etc. You can end up buying presents for people who really don’t need or even want them. Stopping this cycle of present buying is sometimes difficult to do, but in the UK it has been increasingly common since the year the amazing Martin Lewis so memorably spoke about this subject.  

It’s time to ban unnecessary Christmas presents – YouTube

Now, if you still want to give something to your work colleagues, your children’s teachers etc. why not make something instead. I make Cucumber Relish every year and last year I asked people at work if they wanted any. I ended up taking 12 jars in. The cost of the jars and the ingredients was way less than I would have spent on a present, but all of my colleagues who took me up on the offer really appreciated it. For a little effort and not much money I had given them a present they enjoyed. Everyone has their skills, whether it’s cooking or drawing or making something so just play to your strengths. I also organise a Secret Santa with a fairly low spending limit. It’s been something we’ve enjoyed at all the places I’ve organised it and, with colleagues bringing in food and drink, it’s created a really nice party for all involved.

Shop in Advance

I know it’s October – well in 2022 when I am writing this! – but you still have two months and more to prepare. To save money, look around all the shops you usually visit and look for the bargains on food, drink or other Christmas items that you can put away. It doesn’t need to be large items. If you see a selection box that’s half price, even a couple of months before, just buy it and that’s something less to worry about. The same goes for anything you can freeze or put away in the cupboard. If you’re reading this now, don’t forget the World Cup coming up which usually means a whole raft of offers. As Shaw Taylor used to say in Police 5 (Very niche 70s/80s UK TV reference there!) ‘Keep ‘em Peeled’!

Christmas for Younger Children

When children are infant school age, Christmas is about the build-up, the wonder, the magic and the experience. They don’t need big presents as they generally don’t think about the money. When our children were small, we had a number of years when things were very tight, so we ended up focusing on the events that marked the month before Christmas and giving them as much magic as we could. The Christmas lights being switched on in your local shopping centre may seem like the height of boredom for older children and adults, but younger children love it as it means Christmas is getting closer. If there is an event in your local area that takes place annually, make it a fixed part of your Christmas. For us, it has been the Dickens Christmas Festival in Rochester, which takes place on the first weekend of December. Each time we went, we gave the children £5 each to spend as they wanted, which usually meant funfair rides and sweets, and watching them have fun was genuinely enough for us.

The focus of Christmas Eve was getting ready for Santa’s visit of course. It started with letters for Santa to read when he got to us. Then, once we had a computer, we sat them in front of the fantastic NORAD Santa site showing his journey around the world, which doubled as an impromptu geography and time zone lesson! Next, was usually me reading A Night Before Christmas and a number of their other favourite stories. After this, the stockings were put in front of our ‘fireplace’ in readiness and finally, the children helped with putting out carrots for all nine reindeer and brandy and mince pies for Santa. This was our tradition for many years, and it didn’t cost an extra penny. Even now that the children are grown up, they still put their stockings out for Santa!

Yes, younger children love presents! Yes, the bigger the better! However, long after they have forgotten what present they got on what Christmas they will remember their Christmas traditions and the years they found the reindeers’ glowing hoofprints in the garden the following morning!

Christmas for Older Children

Now this one is trickier. Christmas can easily become a game of one upmanship between children from Year 3 or 4 onwards, and that just gets more and more difficult when you are on a budget. Here is where you have to rely on grandparents and other relatives, very judicious saving or pure luck to get them presents that they can talk about with their friends. For this short section I will assume that you have relatives, or even very close friends, who are willing and financially able to buy presents for your children. It’s a neat way of getting round the No Unnecessary Presents pact that you have put in place! Often, relatives will ask for ideas. If they don’t then give them ideas unprompted! Ask them to club together on large presents or to get items that you wouldn’t be able to afford yourself. If you are not in that situation, keep an ear open for anything that your child mentions early in the year. If you have 9 months to save up for an item then you can spread the cost and perhaps save £5 – 10 a month for that item. Remember, that e-bay and Amazon are your friends when it comes to bargains. E-bay allows you to set up a search for the items that you want to buy. You get an idea of price outside of the shops and you can be ready to pounce when you can afford it, at whatever time of the year it might be. Remember, children will want an item that looks like new, not an item that has to be new. Amazon, of course, has various sales and sellers to choose from. If it’s something you want to get anyway, then getting some money off on Black Friday means you will be able to buy another smaller present or give them a little more money for a Christmas event. The luck I mentioned? My older children were the objects of fun for a couple of years because we could only afford a second hand PS2 which was, by then, hopelessly out of date. I used to enter loads of targeted competitions for presents and one year I hit the jackpot. In October, a massive parcel was delivered with a brand-new X-Box 360 inside! Now that was a good Christmas and my children took great delight in introducing their friends, who had made the disparaging comments, to a console that was newer than anything they had!

Final Thoughts

Christmas is my favourite time of the year, and I have never lost my love for it, even if finances have been tight. That’s not to say that there haven’t been stressful Christmases, but by using some of the ideas above, we managed to make them as much fun for our children, and ourselves, as we could. Now, with times being difficult and money correspondingly tighter, I hope the ideas above will help you to spread some cheaper Christmas cheer to your family, friends, work colleagues and (Another 70s UK TV reference here from Leonard Sachs in The Good Old Days!) chiefly yourselves!

Oh, by the way. If you enjoyed this, you might want to visit my blog again from December 1 this year when I will be taking part in Blogmas! For those of you who haven’t heard of it, I will be doing one blog entry per day from December 1 to December 25. Hope you can join me for that.

P.S. If you are interested in how to ‘spot’ glowing reindeer hoofprints comment below and I’ll let you in on the secret!