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!

No talk of Christmas before November.

Thats the rule in our house!

For quite a while no sooner did the summer holidays end than the talk of Christmas would start amongst the kids, with hastily written Christmas lists being thrust under my nose at every opportunity. So we implemented the rule of, "No talk of Christmas before November." Unfortunately, as is typical of children, we now have a count down to the beginning of November and they get more excited as the day arrives with whispered plans of what they might talk about!

I am a planner and an organiser. I don't like to leave things to the last minute when I am then presented with the only option of smash and grab at the supermarket and panic buying presents for relations. However, I refuse to let Christmas take over my whole year by snaffling presents away at every opportunity and spending too many months excessively plotting and planning what is in effect, one day. Christmas is in December, planning a reasonable budget and being strategic about what and when to buy means Christmas does not need to dominate any more time than it is meant to! 

So, starting in November ( as I am allowed to talk about Christmas then) I am doing a series of posts from budgeting to present buying to budget Christmas dinners. I shall call these posts Christmas Crackers so watch out for them!!

Teacher Gifts

End of term is fast approaching and being an ex teacher myself, I do like to put a bit of effort into the presents I give to the teachers and teaching assistants ( please don't forgot the TAs , they work sooooo hard!). This term  my eldest son is leaving primary school to go to secondary and he has been with a fantastic teacher for the past few years so I want to make a special effort with her. I do enjoy shopping around for interesting and unusual gifts that don't cost over £5 - otherwise with 3 children it costs an awful lot each term! I try not to go down the quick box of Roses chocolates route. I think my record one year as a teacher was 16 boxes of chocolates! I didn't eat them all I hasten to add - I shared some of them.

Gifts I have given so far have included seasonal chutney in a kilner jar at Christmas ( this was a bargain at £3.50), luminous metal book markers, Cath kidston mugs , recyclable shopping bags in the shape of a strawberry, pretty bath salts in a toilet bag ( £2.00  from Boots), pencil cases with named pencils in  - the list goes on.

I found this mug this year that my son loves and I am going to fill it with a box of Miles  ( made in the Westcountry) tea for one of the male teachers.

A Cath Kidston Mug is always a good one as well - a lovely mug for a fiver - filled with bath salts, a selection of tea or traditional sweets and pretty tissue paper. I have also put a collection of some of the unwanted samples from my beauty box in one - makes a lovely gift and a good use of those products too. I have often got a multi pack of more expensive Cath Kidston soaps and creams and split, mixed and re wrapped them in pretty tissue paper to make them go that bit further.....

I managed to get a 4 pack of owl themed mugs from Tesco today as well for around £5. I spilt these and then added a small present to each one . Not expensive at all, although mugs can also be a overused present given to teachers so make it a pretty one that could be used in the staff room ! It worked out at £1.25 for each mug and then £2.00 for each additional present, so £3.25 per present. 

A pretty notepad and some pens or pencils are a nice little gift too - this one was from Wilkinsons - the pencils were 75p and the notepad I think less than £2.00. It really doesn't need to be expensive.

Home made pencil pots by the younger kids , shows they have made some effort and contributed. Or a picture drawn or painted by your child and framed in a simple Ikea frame doesn't cost a lot at all.

I have been inspired this year to have a hunt around the charity shops and see what bargains I can come up with there as well. I am always on the look out for vintage glass jars for my kitchen and thought I could buy some bubble bath, relabel and decant it into some pretty bottles. Or filling some glass jars with pretty bath salts or old fashioned sweets or marshmallows looks lovely too. These ones ( see below) are from Next - the larger is £12 the smaller £6. They are actually sweet containers from my kitchen that I have had for about a year, but an example of the sort of idea I am talking about!

I picked this glass jar up for £2.50 today - just need to fill it ...I'm thinking pretty bath salts for this one?

I found a lovely necklace on line with the word "inspire" that I would love to get for my son's teacher, but I'm too late now and it wouldn't come in time. Lisa Leonards Designs USA

There is so much out there and it only takes a bit of thought and effort and really not much money - even buying a bunch of roses and giving one to each teacher with a ribbon on it shows your appreciation for the effort they put in with your children. I often pick things up when I see them on offer during the year - these packs of shower gels/creams cost me less than £2.00 each, but are ideal little thank you presents.

To wrap the presents I will often get a 5 sheet pack of pretty tissue paper and some raffia ribbon as it works out cheaper, but the cheapest of all is to buy some traditional brown paper on a roll and then get the children to decorate it with drawings or stickers. If you want to be really clever you could pre cut the paper and do some paint designs on beforehand or some splash art and leave to dry before wrapping. Labelling the gifts with luggage labels to match is also a nice touch.

If you really don't want to, or can't spend anything at the moment how about getting the children to write a few lines in a thank you card or letter - as a teacher myself I know you build such close relationships with the children you teach it often brings tears to your eyes when they say a few words of thanks back!

One of the biggest reasons I do this if I am honest is not only to say thank you to all of the staff at the school , but to also reinforce to my children the importance of saying Thank You.

Do you give thank you gifts - what ideas have you had - always looking for fresh inspiration!!?