As The Christmas Credit Card Bills Start To Arrive Slowly, How Well Do You Think You Have Budgeted Over The Last 28 Days?
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For my family I would give ourselves around 7/10 for being roughly in budget with a bill of about £2005 when I had budgeted to spend £2000 and not a penny.It was down to one extra small miscellaneous expense.
Responses (11)
Are you being serious CS? I mean, a budgeted £2000 spend? That's a serious amount of money to even think about spending at Christmas .... and you give yourself seven out of ten for an excess of only £5, and for only 'one extra small miscellaneous expense' ??
This is a joke, right? Or have I got this all wrong?
Makes your new shiney diary seem a bit odd in the equation of spending £2000. That was very naughty spending an extra fiver CS. No pocket money for you this month.
No seriously £2000 for Christmas you must be joking.
I paid my Visa bill before New Year which only had one Christmas present on and the rest was for my new shower room. Only the Builders to pay now.
Oh that sounds lovely how is it all going with the shower room are you on schedule?
PS Not everyone has anything like £2000 to spend at Christmas CS. This doesn't sound like your posting.
By buying gifts at various times throughout the year and especially when they are on offer means that I don't have a ridiculously large outlay all in one go.
As for spending £2005 seems a bit excessive to be honest but each to their own. I know my brother loves Christmas and perhaps would go without throughout the year in order to be a child again and spend loads at Christmas to make it really special and memorable.
All I'm going to say is you must have a very large family!!!
£2005 is a heck of a lot! Do you have a budget per person? My friends think I spend a lot on my daughter which I probably do as she is my one and only and my daughter is very grounded and humble and doesn't ask for things and is always very grateful but everyone else i roughly spend £15-£20 on friends and tell my daughter only to spend £10 on her close friends... It does seem a lot but each to their own as a creative saver I didn't expect that but hey if you can afford it etc then who am I or anyone else to judge!
As long as one spends within one's means for a given period, that is what matters no matter what the budget is. I overspent by £5 due to an extra taxi expense as my car was in the garage.
Apparently the average household spend (in total) this Christmas was predicted to be between £530 and £680 on gifts, decorations, food and drinks, with the very poorest families spending less than £200. Will be interesting to see what the actual spends were, but I don't think many people will have spent as much as £2000.
Creative saver "big spender" as Shirley Bassey sings!! The minute you walk in the joint....
Oh I couldn't resist cs :)
WOW! £2000........ what a huge christmas budget you had!! The £5 overspend seems pretty insignificant given your budget.
No credit card bills heading my way thank goodness, everything bought and paid for in cash, as we never use any kind of credit, and we keep within budget on everything.
No Credit Cards, cash only! Bliss!!
Very sensible greydo. I think when you are handing cash out you realise just how much everything costs and how little you have left at the end of the day.
greydo - it's easy ...... Just don't apply for cards, get shot of any you already have and there you have it .. 'bliss'. It's really easy to 'opt out' of this plastic money society most people seem to live in, but look at the state of most peoples finances (debts, etc). If you only spend what you can afford on that particular day then life becomes a whole lot simpler and a really lot cheaper!! A Debit Card is handy and comes straight out of your existing funds, so still nice and simple with no scary bills to face every month. Give it a go - I can highly recommend it :)
My January CC bill is £785 and I spent around £1200 in December itself. Still, I was out partying most nights in December...
So is that £2000 on a credit card as your question implies? If so then I don't think you are living up to your name, otherwise, if you can afford it... well done.
At my stage in life I have adopted a policy of presents (money) only for immediate family and cards for friends.
We took ourselves off at Christmas for a two week all inclusive holiday in the Algarve region of Portugal. All paid up front so no bills, just empty pockets. Time to start saving for next year.
Wow £2k?? Seriously? Guess it depends how many people you buy for. My budget was well below that, but I have no credit card, so if I didn't have the cash I didn't buy it. I don't buy for many, but spent a max of £100 on each of my children, and they had £20 each to spend on their friends. Money is tight this year, but I got no complaints, and we had a good time.
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I'm just as in shock as you Snoops! I now don't feel bad at the amount I've spent!
Yes. I am being serious everyone. I had quite a few relatives from mid December to 2nd January 2012.Relatives I had not seen for some time.
No need to feel bad Serena 1 seriously!