Christmas and debt!!!

Ah. The Sutton Seed Catalogue Proof "Reader"

 

Years ago, when they were small, my niece and nephew made everyone 'cress heads': old stockings painted with smiley faces and filled with soil and cress seeds, ready to grow green afros.

 

What I really don't understand is why people think the only way to make sure they have a good time at Christmas, is to throw money at it - frequently, as has already been pointed out, money they don't have?

I know it's probably me being my usual old-fashioned self, but I guess a lot of it has to do with this 'modern' idea that the only way to show you care about your family/children is buy them 'things', often (in the case of children) things which mean the parents don't actually have to put any effort into being parents, after all, who wants to actually be with, talk to or do things with their children when it's a whole lot easier to let them plug in computers, TVs, DVDs, iPods, etc?

Pesonally, I take very little notice of the Christmas 'buy this, buy that' adverts on TV, but the one which seems to be on every ad break - sometimes twice - is that for Currys/PCWorld, where I'm told that something is "only" £499 - ye gods, I have 7 people to buy gifts for (3 daughters, their respective other-halves and Mr. F'smum) and I've spent a grand total of £87.72. The girls are young, they don't have money to throw around, so everyone in the family is limited to spending a maximum of £12.50 per person, (+/- 5%) - the girls don't buy gifts for their sister's other-half - unless it's something to share between the couple, and likewise the boys don't buy one another anything. There must be at least two 'proper' gifts per person, smellies and chocolates are considered a 'cop out' and are therefore banned.

When it comes to food and drink, I save whatever points I may have on supermarket loyalty cards and spend those at Christmas - yes I know technically I've paid for those points during the year, but my Christmas shop doesn't actually cost me any cash.

Skinflints? No, the gifts are usually imaginative, often very useful and cause great hilarity, there's a bar of chocolate as a 'prize' for the person judged to have made best use of their £12.50, there's more food than even 8 people can eat, leaving plenty for 'goodie bags' when the girls go home and, most of the time there are still loyalty card points left over to buy the girls something for their homes in the post-Christmas sales.

If people are sufficiently irresponsible to 'max-out' their credit cards etc., all in the name of one day, then in my (rather uncharitable) opinion, they deserve all they get.

 

My in-laws insist on an elaborate present-giving routine. It's a large family and everyone gets a present from everyone else. These days we can afford it - although I'm afraid I do things with rather ill grace - but in the old days, when we were literally scrabbling around for milk money, it was a huge worry. One year, as a concession to the 'poor relations', they decided to limit the amount spent on each present to around a tenner. I pointed out that this still meant that at least two hundred pounds had to be wasted on pointless trash that no one really wanted, whereas we could all keep the money and buy just a few things we might actually value. This didn't go down very well. I still don't really get it, to be honest.

It's become a bit of a wedge because we tend to avoid gatherings if we know there's going to be a huge junk fest. Even if I give up and join in with things, it still means carrying a boot load of bizarre items back to our small terraced house which is already bursting at the seams with our own clutter. What a strange festival! It makes much more sense to me to buy someone something special on their birthday, rather than swapping Yuletide garbage.

 

Gave up buying presents or even sending cards years ago,...........so may I take this opportunity to wish all the Members of GC a merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

a-a

 

We're lucky that both Brad and i make decent money, and we take a little bit of our pay's and put it away throughout the year, and thats what we use at the end of the year for Christmas....i refuse to have a credit card:gaagh:, we have one for the shop(business), but thats all we use it for....i will not go into debt for 1 day of the year.

Besides......if i was going to go into debt again....it would be for my trip to England and Scotland:yess:........and for that, we are saving again:D....we used the last bundle we saved to totally gut the bathroom and add a deck to the house.

 

Take out a loan....That's some very expensive nuts and tangerines!

 

One thing well under way,



Candied Apple Rings drying out now, made the syrup from water i'd cooked beetroot in, hence the colour.

Will make some other sweets like chocolate covered honeycombe & give little boxes to the family.

 

Christmas is a thing of the past in our house. But years ago when the family expanded it did get expensive. So we chose to do a 'Secret Santa', where everyone put there names in a 'hat' and then picked one out to buy for, it was easier on the pocket and you can put a limited spend on it too.

 

Dead easy with me if I havent £££ got it I dont spend its that easy ....


Spruce

 

Penny, I think you should go into debt again and visit WALES as well.

 

I'm sure I said that ... At least we think along the same lines ... :yess:

 

Stay on them Jack. They're great reading

 

When our kids were young i worked on the railway as a fireman. The wages were as poor as the coal i shoveled. My wife did not work,we had two kids then, and for xmas presents i saved embassy coupons ,and we would purchase toys using them. Crazy when i think back,i could have stopped smoking and saved a fortune. .
Now we have grandchildren,and when i see how much money my family spend on them i cringe. This year my youngest daughter has spent @ £1200 between my youngest two grandchildren, to date..