Not a Christmas money saving tip per se but it's something that puts Christmas in perspective. Many years ago when my son was about 5 years old he came home from school one day & asked if we could do a 'reverse advent calendar'. I didn't know what he was talking about so I asked & he said "instead of getting 24 things in the advent calendar in the run up to Christmas, could we donate 24 things to a food bank instead so that other people can eat at Christmas too?" I melted on the spot! ❤ Being a single parent on a low income & no child support, money was tight so to make it happen we did a pantry clear out & anything that had 3mth or less left on it that I knew we wouldn't use, went to the food bank & we topped up the numbers with whatever the food bank said they were most in need of! We do it every year now & he's now 14 ❤ xx
I take my grandchildren shopping for nice food for the food bank at Christmas. Things like hot chocolate biscuits cake chocolate money etc. they enjoy it and makes them realise that it’s good to help those less fortunate
I always buy my christmas wrapping paper and cards in the January sales. We buy days out/ meal out vouchers for our sibling's families. One year, i made Movie night in boxes Sky store voucher with popcorn, crisps, sweets and a drink each with a couple of cheap movie prop's my sister said they absolutely loved it, as it gave them a reason to spend time together ❤
I love making story sacks for my friends kids. I get pjs in the sale and then find a book that matches the theme of the pjs normally on an offer from the works. Then find toys/crafts to match the theme add a couple of cheap snacks and make a little hamper. X
We have 5 children and we have always set a strict budget of £150 each. We don’t do Christmas Eve boxes but on the 1st of December they get a new pair of Christmas pyjamas and a Christmas themed age appropriate book to read in the lead up to the big day, they’ve always loved this ☺️
My family does secret santa! £30 in the pot and the parents buy their children one pressie no more than £100 but can be and is normally less than £50. We take lots of board games to the alocated hosts home and take a dish already cooked so the host only has to cook the turkey/chicken and everyone supplies one treat (cake, sweets, chocolates etc) so the host isnt overwhelmed for feeding everyone and all dietary needs are also then met 😊
Such an impressive achievement. I always buy wrapping paper and Christmas cards in the January sales for the following year as they get heavily discounted, and then I just leave them in the hallway cupboard. And I get some presents in The Works pre-Black Friday sales that they do at the end of October, with good presents 3 for £12 for kids like crafts, toys etc and they also have great stocking fillers and books as well often for £1 or £2.
Great video! Well done on completing it. I think charity shops are a great place to find gifts. Some also have brand new items with the label on so it’s worth a look. Giving as a gift and giving to charity. Win win ❤
great video, congrats on completing it. I've learnt that the most expensive gift isnt always the best. My nan loves reading so I get her books from the charity shop and she loves them. I also get the kids stuff out the charity shop, can get some good ones still in their boxes and even if not in boxes the kids don't care.
I started to do January shopping on sale and discount for wrapping paper and cards plus other stuff for the wider family for bdays and next Christmas as well things like pj's and toiletries don't go bad... and it's for a split of the price...
My friends and I stopped buying for eachothers kids, instead now we have a wintery walk/day out during the school holidays with hotchocolate and snacks. Also, no longer buy my siblings gifts, we're all adults with jobs and responsibilities we don't need another bath set. Just my kid, my parents, my nieces and my partner now
I like to give a Christmas decoration with a card for friends/family…. It’s a nice sentimental gift and can be used every year. I did for my nieces when they were little a box of their own Disney decorations…. So they have them for always to. I also get my dad a ‘fancy’ advent calendar as apart of his Christmas presents, last year was the Bonnie Maman jam one…. He loved it, nice jam/spread for his toast everyday to!
Great video🎉well done Kerry. So great that you've completed your box. My Mum and I usually buy any Christmas Cards, wrapping paper and if needed any decore in the sales❤
I bought my nephews and niece there Christmas Eve bags just to get them out of the way. And fill them up with hot chocolate bombs, homemade gingerbread cookies and candy canes. I tend to leave vouchers as last minute cause you can get them anywhere. We do a collection every year in the school I work in and donate food, biscuits, coffee and etc to the food bank and bring in stuff we have laying around the house or go out and buy stuff and wrap them up and give them to first years to give to there parents as a Xmas present. Fab video 🩷🩷
Great savings kerry! 🩷 This year iv saved the change from my food shop to be able to donate to the food bank, and iv been saving extra to be able to do the dunelms gift donation they do on the xmas trees. I use my blue light card wherever i can to save on gifts, buy it in sales or on offer. I use park during the year for the gift vouchers for people and also for the stocking & santa gifts for my children 😁
I'm the exact same with messy play things. I don't bat an eyelid at it 😂 I actually really enjoy them as they keep my boy occupied for ages. I've got him a tuff tray for his birthday this week 🙈 I absolutely love that you've finished such a big amount so far in advance. I'm flooding this year and already putting a little away for next year before I snowball it. I like to be done by October. Funded, brought, and wrapped! We personally don't buy for a fair few friends and their children. Just never started. My oldest friends, when our children were born, we stopped buying for each other and just got for the kids. I dont buy for my parents or my sisters either! It keeps costs down for all of us. We're big on food and family gatherings, it's super important to us. We go wild on food and really splurge on it. Long meals, snacks, good drinks, desserts, etc. I love hearing about how others enjoy their Christmases 🎄
We have a budget of 150 each child and £30 for stocking. Prime day in November can pay off but I start shopping from August but set a budget for everyone. Grab deals on everything I buy and , I log what I have brought on a spreadsheet for everyone as I buy it so I don’t duplicate for people.
I have a large storage box I call the gift box and buy special throughout the year and use that for Christmas by the time it’s divided up for $20 dollars they have $50-60 dollars worth of toys . Including adult stuff
I have 4 kids so I save all year round and it's worked for me these past two years. I always ask my family to get my kids clothes, defo next size up as well. Saves me money. 😂 Great video as always. ❤
Christmas in Australia is in the middle of Summer, so it’s usually stinkin’ hot! 😮 My kids are all grown, and so are the kids of most of my friends, so the cost of Christmas for me is substantially reduced to what it was when the kids were young. We had a few traditions for Christmas…or ‘rules’ if you will. lol. For instance, to stop the kids trying to find the gifts before Christmas Day the rule was ‘if you find it you don’t get it!’. The other rule came into play once my kids all started working their after school jobs. Through all of December (and their birth month, for birthdays) they couldn’t buy anything for themselves. This stopped me buying them something for Christmas that they’d already bought themselves. I still implement that with my adult daughter who lives with me. 😊
For Christmas I do 6 Christmas Eve boxes, advent calendars I have the refillable ones, for Christmas presents each of my children have a budget of £100 each ❤
It's unpopular, but I dont do elf on the shelf . I have cheap advents and buy sweets and meats and drinks from September in my food shopping, so the cost doesn't bite me all at once me I dont do Christmas eve boxes but do a santa drop off in 1 box with the advent a pair of pjs and hot chocolate in a cup the last week on November for then to start the excitement. I holiday in winter because i prefer the weather and price 😂and our budget for presents varies on different years depending on when events we have going on santa only give my children 1 present a book and stocking as he sorts the world out and then mummy and daddy top the rest up x
Amazing! I really want that box to save for Christmas but I don’t think she does it anymore. My son’s birthday is 15th December so Christmas is not cheap for us! Ha. To keep costs down I try get the 3 for 2 deals at boots x
I just put a price cap on everyone because we have four children and a lot of grandchildren lol...that is how we do it and it usually comes to about £1800 but we have a direct debit into an account that is just for Christmas prezzies and food and we find that is enough for everything.
Ah, I loved this 😊💛 I’m now brimming with ideas for Christmas! I wish I was any good at saving money at Christmas but we have so many kids to buy for it’s really tricky. This year though I think we’ll save money by not having a full Christmas dinner again. Oscar hates roasts so last year we just ordered him a pizza, I think me and Ben just had cheese and biscuits because all other years we’ve been too full to eat the cheese so last year we just skipped the middle man haha! Xx
We do takeout for Christmas as well. We found it’s actually cheaper than buying roast dinner stuff and half our kids won’t eat it anyhow so this way we all eat and no one has the stress of cooking a big fancy dinner and everyone can relax, play games and get what they want 😊
@@Vampire_Panda Ah yay! Take out crew 👍 It feels weird for me, we’ve always had full blown traditional dinner and I love it! But weirdly didn’t miss it last year. But a roast… my absolute fave!!!! Now we have the air fryer I might just make a little one just for me lol
Just a Q is there any reason why you use cash? I set up my sinking funds into pots on my Monzo and starling bank accounts along with plum. It means they get 4% interest, which unfortunately you don’t get when kept in cash. In relation to Christmas I save via my plum account so it rounds up your transactions and saves the extra but skims your bank account for savings throughout the month. This usually gets me £500 by November. Luckily we don’t host and have no kids so £500 is more than enough to cover Christmas (and all the birthdays that fall at that time)
I also have been cash stuffing and things my 3rd year. But I feel june and july have been a little disaster. I feel I went throughout a kinda budget burnout. Does it happen to you? Ans, how do you cope
Xmas eve has always been tradition in my family since we were tiny and the eldest of my siblings is 40. usually it was Xmas pj's wrapped up and some colouring books/pens and a dvd to keep us occupied while my mum ran around like a headless chicken so I've continued that on with my own kids before 'Xmas eve boxes' became a big hype thing
Hi Kerry loved watching you unstuff your Christmas Box🩷You are so right Christmas can be over whelming lot of people causing them to get in debt. All mine grown up so mostly just give money so they can get whst they want but only have small family🩷 l do make my own xmas cards do lot recyled ones. Hope your all doing Ok
Not a Christmas money saving tip per se but it's something that puts Christmas in perspective.
Many years ago when my son was about 5 years old he came home from school one day & asked if we could do a 'reverse advent calendar'. I didn't know what he was talking about so I asked & he said "instead of getting 24 things in the advent calendar in the run up to Christmas, could we donate 24 things to a food bank instead so that other people can eat at Christmas too?" I melted on the spot! ❤ Being a single parent on a low income & no child support, money was tight so to make it happen we did a pantry clear out & anything that had 3mth or less left on it that I knew we wouldn't use, went to the food bank & we topped up the numbers with whatever the food bank said they were most in need of! We do it every year now & he's now 14 ❤ xx
I take my grandchildren shopping for nice food for the food bank at Christmas. Things like hot chocolate biscuits cake chocolate money etc. they enjoy it and makes them realise that it’s good to help those less fortunate
I love this idea ❤
I always buy my christmas wrapping paper and cards in the January sales. We buy days out/ meal out vouchers for our sibling's families.
One year, i made Movie night in boxes Sky store voucher with popcorn, crisps, sweets and a drink each with a couple of cheap movie prop's my sister said they absolutely loved it, as it gave them a reason to spend time together ❤
I love making story sacks for my friends kids. I get pjs in the sale and then find a book that matches the theme of the pjs normally on an offer from the works. Then find toys/crafts to match the theme add a couple of cheap snacks and make a little hamper. X
I have a good look in charity shops for books and little gifts
Hi 👋 catching up on videos. Loved your video as always ❤ I volunteer at a charity shop and save bits and bobs throughout the year 😊 xx
We have 5 children and we have always set a strict budget of £150 each. We don’t do Christmas Eve boxes but on the 1st of December they get a new pair of Christmas pyjamas and a Christmas themed age appropriate book to read in the lead up to the big day, they’ve always loved this ☺️
My family does secret santa! £30 in the pot and the parents buy their children one pressie no more than £100 but can be and is normally less than £50. We take lots of board games to the alocated hosts home and take a dish already cooked so the host only has to cook the turkey/chicken and everyone supplies one treat (cake, sweets, chocolates etc) so the host isnt overwhelmed for feeding everyone and all dietary needs are also then met 😊
Catching up Kerry and well done for completing Christmas 🎄 xx
Such an impressive achievement. I always buy wrapping paper and Christmas cards in the January sales for the following year as they get heavily discounted, and then I just leave them in the hallway cupboard. And I get some presents in The Works pre-Black Friday sales that they do at the end of October, with good presents 3 for £12 for kids like crafts, toys etc and they also have great stocking fillers and books as well often for £1 or £2.
Great video. You did it Kerry xx
Our food shops leading upto the Xmas week one. We buy a few items each week that'll store as we do a picky bits buffet for Xmas teatime. X
Great video! Well done on completing it. I think charity shops are a great place to find gifts. Some also have brand new items with the label on so it’s worth a look. Giving as a gift and giving to charity. Win win ❤
Here catching up 🥰💛💛
great video, congrats on completing it. I've learnt that the most expensive gift isnt always the best. My nan loves reading so I get her books from the charity shop and she loves them. I also get the kids stuff out the charity shop, can get some good ones still in their boxes and even if not in boxes the kids don't care.
I started to do January shopping on sale and discount for wrapping paper and cards plus other stuff for the wider family for bdays and next Christmas as well things like pj's and toiletries don't go bad... and it's for a split of the price...
Great watch ❤❤
Great video 🥰
Loved it ❤
My friends and I stopped buying for eachothers kids, instead now we have a wintery walk/day out during the school holidays with hotchocolate and snacks.
Also, no longer buy my siblings gifts, we're all adults with jobs and responsibilities we don't need another bath set.
Just my kid, my parents, my nieces and my partner now
going for a nice wintery walk & hot chocolate instead of gifts.....what a fabulous idea 💕 x
I like to give a Christmas decoration with a card for friends/family…. It’s a nice sentimental gift and can be used every year. I did for my nieces when they were little a box of their own Disney decorations…. So they have them for always to. I also get my dad a ‘fancy’ advent calendar as apart of his Christmas presents, last year was the Bonnie Maman jam one…. He loved it, nice jam/spread for his toast everyday to!
Great video🎉well done Kerry. So great that you've completed your box. My Mum and I usually buy any Christmas Cards, wrapping paper and if needed any decore in the sales❤
Well done Kerry great achievement to get your Christmas 🎄 savings all done and dusted, well done the budgeting queen as always 👏 👸💰👸💰👸
I bought my nephews and niece there Christmas Eve bags just to get them out of the way. And fill them up with hot chocolate bombs, homemade gingerbread cookies and candy canes. I tend to leave vouchers as last minute cause you can get them anywhere. We do a collection every year in the school I work in and donate food, biscuits, coffee and etc to the food bank and bring in stuff we have laying around the house or go out and buy stuff and wrap them up and give them to first years to give to there parents as a Xmas present. Fab video 🩷🩷
Great savings kerry! 🩷 This year iv saved the change from my food shop to be able to donate to the food bank, and iv been saving extra to be able to do the dunelms gift donation they do on the xmas trees. I use my blue light card wherever i can to save on gifts, buy it in sales or on offer. I use park during the year for the gift vouchers for people and also for the stocking & santa gifts for my children 😁
I'm the exact same with messy play things. I don't bat an eyelid at it 😂 I actually really enjoy them as they keep my boy occupied for ages. I've got him a tuff tray for his birthday this week 🙈
I absolutely love that you've finished such a big amount so far in advance. I'm flooding this year and already putting a little away for next year before I snowball it. I like to be done by October. Funded, brought, and wrapped!
We personally don't buy for a fair few friends and their children. Just never started. My oldest friends, when our children were born, we stopped buying for each other and just got for the kids.
I dont buy for my parents or my sisters either! It keeps costs down for all of us.
We're big on food and family gatherings, it's super important to us. We go wild on food and really splurge on it. Long meals, snacks, good drinks, desserts, etc.
I love hearing about how others enjoy their Christmases 🎄
We have a budget of 150 each child and £30 for stocking. Prime day in November can pay off but I start shopping from August but set a budget for everyone. Grab deals on everything I buy and , I log what I have brought on a spreadsheet for everyone as I buy it so I don’t duplicate for people.
I have a large storage box I call the gift box and buy special throughout the year and use that for Christmas by the time it’s divided up for $20 dollars they have $50-60 dollars worth of toys . Including adult stuff
I have 4 kids so I save all year round and it's worked for me these past two years. I always ask my family to get my kids clothes, defo next size up as well.
Saves me money. 😂
Great video as always. ❤
Christmas in Australia is in the middle of Summer, so it’s usually stinkin’ hot! 😮 My kids are all grown, and so are the kids of most of my friends, so the cost of Christmas for me is substantially reduced to what it was when the kids were young. We had a few traditions for Christmas…or ‘rules’ if you will. lol. For instance, to stop the kids trying to find the gifts before Christmas Day the rule was ‘if you find it you don’t get it!’. The other rule came into play once my kids all started working their after school jobs. Through all of December (and their birth month, for birthdays) they couldn’t buy anything for themselves. This stopped me buying them something for Christmas that they’d already bought themselves. I still implement that with my adult daughter who lives with me. 😊
For Christmas I do 6 Christmas Eve boxes, advent calendars I have the refillable ones, for Christmas presents each of my children have a budget of £100 each ❤
It's unpopular, but I dont do elf on the shelf . I have cheap advents and buy sweets and meats and drinks from September in my food shopping, so the cost doesn't bite me all at once me I dont do Christmas eve boxes but do a santa drop off in 1 box with the advent a pair of pjs and hot chocolate in a cup the last week on November for then to start the excitement. I holiday in winter because i prefer the weather and price 😂and our budget for presents varies on different years depending on when events we have going on santa only give my children 1 present a book and stocking as he sorts the world out and then mummy and daddy top the rest up x
Amazing! I really want that box to save for Christmas but I don’t think she does it anymore. My son’s birthday is 15th December so Christmas is not cheap for us! Ha. To keep costs down I try get the 3 for 2 deals at boots x
I just put a price cap on everyone because we have four children and a lot of grandchildren lol...that is how we do it
and it usually comes to about £1800 but we have a direct debit into an account that is just for Christmas prezzies and
food and we find that is enough for everything.
Ah, I loved this 😊💛 I’m now brimming with ideas for Christmas! I wish I was any good at saving money at Christmas but we have so many kids to buy for it’s really tricky. This year though I think we’ll save money by not having a full Christmas dinner again. Oscar hates roasts so last year we just ordered him a pizza, I think me and Ben just had cheese and biscuits because all other years we’ve been too full to eat the cheese so last year we just skipped the middle man haha! Xx
We do takeout for Christmas as well. We found it’s actually cheaper than buying roast dinner stuff and half our kids won’t eat it anyhow so this way we all eat and no one has the stress of cooking a big fancy dinner and everyone can relax, play games and get what they want 😊
@@Vampire_Panda Ah yay! Take out crew 👍 It feels weird for me, we’ve always had full blown traditional dinner and I love it! But weirdly didn’t miss it last year. But a roast… my absolute fave!!!! Now we have the air fryer I might just make a little one just for me lol
Not going to lie I save all year for Xmas so I do go a bit overboard but I love christmas
I never buy gifts . Could never afford to .
Just a Q is there any reason why you use cash? I set up my sinking funds into pots on my Monzo and starling bank accounts along with plum. It means they get 4% interest, which unfortunately you don’t get when kept in cash.
In relation to Christmas I save via my plum account so it rounds up your transactions and saves the extra but skims your bank account for savings throughout the month. This usually gets me £500 by November. Luckily we don’t host and have no kids so £500 is more than enough to cover Christmas (and all the birthdays that fall at that time)
I also have been cash stuffing and things my 3rd year. But I feel june and july have been a little disaster. I feel I went throughout a kinda budget burnout. Does it happen to you? Ans, how do you cope
💗💙💗
First🩷🦋
We go to our local butchers and get vouchers for all our parents and grandparents 🩵
I started my Xmas shopping today 🫣 only 1 thing but it definitely helps starting early
Xmas eve has always been tradition in my family since we were tiny and the eldest of my siblings is 40. usually it was Xmas pj's wrapped up and some colouring books/pens and a dvd to keep us occupied while my mum ran around like a headless chicken so I've continued that on with my own kids before 'Xmas eve boxes' became a big hype thing
Hi Kerry loved watching you unstuff your Christmas Box🩷You are so right Christmas can be over whelming lot of people causing them to get in debt. All mine grown up so mostly just give money so they can get whst they want but only have small family🩷 l do make my own xmas cards do lot recyled ones. Hope your all doing Ok