Christmas Crunch – money saving ideas for a Credit Crunch Christmas

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Introduction

This is the time of year that we love to spoil our children – yet for many this year, there simply won’t be as much money or credit available to fund the expensive gifts. Here are a few ideas we have collected to help you out:

Set an overall budget

Do it now! Work out how much you can actually spend on Christmas (without going into debt) and stick to that budget. Work out which bits of Christmas really ‘make it’ for you and your family – and focus on these, ditch the rest. You will thank yourself come January when the credit card bill arrives...

Talk to your children

Younger children generally don’t notice if they get the latest Christmas gadget or not – they are often more interested in the box and packaging than the actual gift! Older children do unfortunately notice, but they are also capable of understanding what is happening if you take the time to talk to them. If this Christmas is going to be different financially than other years, spend some time with them explaining the situation. Re-enforce how much you love them and want to be able to treat them, but also need to be wise with the resources that you do have.  Giving them the gift of ‘time’ may well be the best investment you could ever make.

Christmas cereal

When our children were smaller, we would buy boxes of ‘fancy’ breakfast cereals & wrap them up to put under the Christmas tree. They take up space (important for the tree to look ‘full’ of gifts!) and were a treat for the children. Even now that they are older, they have a groan when they see a big cereal-shaped box under the tree -  but love it really! We have also moved onto wrapping up ‘special’ shampoos & showergels – all items you would normally buy for the family, but they get to have their own bottle e.g. ‘blond’ shampoo for the blond, ‘grown-up’ showergel for the son.

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