Christmas Tip #13: How Much Should I Spend At Xmas?

Around Christmas time we're constantly bombarded with lists of the best Christmas presents, the most wanted toys, essential Christmas gifts. We're told that we've got to get a new outfit for the Christmas party, we've got to have a huge turkey with all the trimmings and our kitchen has to be stocked full of booze. What wait, doesn't all that cost money?

Advertisers and marketing departments don't really care about the pressures they put parents under and the amount of debt they'll incur just to keep their family happy. But we've got to take responsibility for our actions (here I'll loose some of you).

I've done it in the past, I've spent more than I've expected as I forget how much I've spent on people already so I'll just "get them that thing, it's only a tenner".

So how much should you spend at Christmas? Well obviously everyone is different. I've read advice that you should only spend 1.5% of your income. So if you earn the national income which is around £24,000 that means you should spend no more than £360. Is that reasonable? Well it doesn't take into account the size of your family. If you've got to feed 4 people over three or four days then it won't even cover the food.

Personally I'll set a budget of around £150 on my girlfriend, £50 on my brother and his wife then a tenner on everyone else. Is that tight, probably! But I just know that if I didn't set a budget then I'll buy everything that moved.

The trick is to look for bargains. We've put together a list of the cheapest Christmas present ideas and have done a lot of research. So at the top right of this page you'll see a search box, just put in who you're buying for i.e. girlfriend, brother, uncle etc and hopefully you'll find some cracking, cheap gift ideas.

You may also like to try this Pre-Christmas spending Quiz.