Christmas Crackers

Christmas Crackers......

The Budget!

That's a word that has the ability to have even the most organisationally obsessed amongst us running for cover. The thought that we may have to not only restrict our spending, but give account as to where the money has gone is enough to make us throw caution to the wind and do away with The Budget once and for all! 

My OH is the sort of person who thinks a day performing risk assessments and recording the results on a detailed spreadsheet counts as fun so you can predict what his attitude towards budgets will be. He would budget in the hamsters pocket money, if they had any. So, there is no budget avoiding in our house anymore and I am slightly sheepish in my admission that I think this is a good thing.

If there is no budgeting to your spending, things run away very quickly. I have learnt this the hard way . I don't spend a lot on myself, but with 3 children it is easy to overspend on clubs, clothing and days out. My children are expensive! Money can just trickle through your fingers without you realising it.

Beware of little expenses , a small leak will sink a great ship.

Christmas is no exception. If you, like us, have a big family, you can find yourself with a huge bill at the end of every year that is just difficult to swallow. We found ourselves a few years back, not only buying numerous presents for our own kids and each other, but for every member of our extended families. We were also the ones who entertained everyone at Christmas, and whilst I enjoyed this, doing it was expensive . In hindsight I should have requested  contributions from other members of the family in the form of a desert or drinks, but you live and learn!

So my first, very simple bit of Christmas advice ( and I will be taking my own advice this year) is to set yourself a spending budget. How you do this depends on where you are financially at the moment. You may have a  figure straight away that you know you have to spend so that is your starting point. You may wish to start with a list of people you have to buy presents for and the meals you have to cook , then allocate a reasonable amount to these areas. However you do it, make sure you are firm with yourself and  stick to it. I tend to have a food/drink and decoration budget and a present budget and I set the figures for these at the start. This means that the money I have available governs what I spend rather than how much things cost!

 We are not at that stage of our lives where we are living hand to mouth anymore, but I don't like to give our hard earned cash away without thought. So for starters, here are ten of my tips to reasonably cut back on that Christmas budget:

•  Make a list of everyone you buy presents for. Re evaluate this list! Does Aunt Dolly's hairdresser really need a gift?
• If you have a large family suggest putting all the adults names in a hat and doing a secret Santa. Everybody buys one present then instead of 20. 
• If you have a large family suggest you all contribute to a charity of your choice this year instead of buying numerous unwanted and unused Christmas gifts for one another.
• Buy your children one main present. Don't go overboard with the extras.
• Wrap presents in value paper or brown paper that the children can decorate . It lasts 10 seconds at the most.
• Do a car boot with toys your children have outgrown to fund this years purchases.
• Keep food shopping to a minimum. The Supermarkets are only shut for a day. Don't panic buy your food. 
• Shop around for the lowest priced goods and food. If you can't get it within your budget, don't buy yet!
• Take the time to look for vouchers, codes and the cheapest deals on the items you are buying.
• Change your focus from giving presents to spending time together. An activity that can cost next to nothing, but be worth everything.

It all sounds so terribly unfestive and scrooge like doesn't it. Sorry. I do love Christmas. What I don't love is how it can dominate months of my life and swallow hundreds of pounds of my money without a second glance. Christmas is in December. It is one day. I want to keep it in perspective and not have to spend the whole year paying for it!

In my next Christmas Cracker I will be focusing in more detail on Gifts and how to find low budget alternatives to popular gifts.

What tips do you have for keeping Christmas budgets under control? All suggestions gratefully received by a Mum of 3 trying to keep tabs on the spending!