Apologies if you’re trying to avoid talk of Christmas this early in the year, but I’m going to write about how we’re planning for a cheap Christmas this year.
In the past couple of years our kids have been, well, spoiled on Christmas day. However hard we have tried, we always seem to end up buying them far too much stuff. Stuff which more often than not has ended up discarded at the bottom of a cupboard and largely forgotten about.
This habit has extended to the rest of the family too, always beating ourselves up about whether we’ve brought enough for each of them, which is of course ridiculous.
With things as they are, this is out of the question this year. So we’ve been planning a cheap, frugal Christmas.
The kids will still be getting a decent present, but it will be just one, without the neverending stream if crap that usually gets brought at Christmas. We’ve also agreed not to buy for all of the family, just the odd present here and there, mainly for the kids. Plus personally I’m hoping not to spend the vast amounts on food and booze that we have done in the past.
We’ve started to build up a Christmas fund by selling quite a bit of unwanted stuff on eBay – the proceeds have been left in our Paypal account so far, to resist the temptation of spending it, and we’ve already got a couple of hundred quid saved, so that should go along way this year, providing Paypal doesn’t go bust and we have another Farepak moment!
Not only should we save ourselves a fair amount of money, but I also think it could help the kids learn to appreciate what they do get a lot more. Another drawback of buying so much stuff is that they don’t really value the things they have been brought, as there’s always something else to play with. Plus I’m hoping that my waistline will appreciate the booze and food only being consumed in moderation.
Do you have any tips for saving money this Christmas? If so, let us know in the comments below.
photo credit: Nicholas Smale