Set a Food Budget and Keep It Simple: It’s easy to feel pressure to have a big spread, but focus on a few family-favorite dishes. You can make it feel festive without going overboard, and the kids will appreciate the traditions.

Shop Smart for Gifts: Many people swear by buying gifts throughout the year, or checking local buy-sell-swap groups, especially for kids’ toys that they’ll outgrow quickly. Also, setting up a gift exchange with family or friends can help limit spending without sacrificing the fun.

Food wise buy things that you can during the year when on sale such as glace cherries, pineapple rings, etc

After a year of crazy inflation it can be hard to stretch the budget for holidays. I’ve been saving all my grocery store points for Chrissy, and kept an eye out for gift sales. Spending less on the average week where possible.

No, you’re not doing anything wrong – everyone is different and people have different incomes to spend. I save my flybuys dollars up all year and use them at Christmas which helps a lot. Or you could start a Christmas savings account where you put a little money away every week. The other option are things like Chrisco or hamper king but I think they are more for convenience as you could probably get more for your money if you shopped yourself.

Nope. you are doing nothing wrong. They may have more money, but Christmas is about the time spent with family and making memories with those near and dear to us. Have heart. xxx

We don’t do anything really fancy, just minimal decorations and the usual food. Leading up to Christmas I make a list of foods I need and every week when I do my usual shop I’d buy a few items that are on my list. That way I don’t have to buy a whole heap at once just before Christmas and the cost isn’t daunting.

We don’t do any elaborate decorations and with little people often their favourite decorations are ones they’ve made so don’t worry what other people are doing. You only need as much food as you can eat otherwise it’s wasteful so you just make Christmas with what you have and your kids faces will be better than any fancy photo of an extravagantly decorated room.

I budget and just do the best l can!

You buy little gifts and non perishable food items when the sales are on during the year. Sometimes you can get nice Christmas decorations or trees from op shops or garage sales for a fraction of their original price. The main thing is to have family around and laughter and singing in the home to celebrate Christmas.

The photos people post are a small perfect snippet from a much larger, imperfect reality. Things don’t make Christmas memorable, spending time does.
Don’t worry yourself, mumma.

Forget the photos around of fab spreads – they’ve posed it for the photo! You can have a lovely Christmas without going overboard and spending heaps of money. My favourite decorations are ones my kids made through the years and the best foods are the ones made with love from scratch. We live super frugal because we are trying to pay down our credit card debts but I think we have a high quality of life. We all have meals we specialise in and we often make presents for others in our family, rather then spend a lot of money. When we do spend we often buy sale items ahead of time and store them until needed.

Nope. Most people don’t live like that. We manage a good lunch by buying some things on sale well in advance (things like savory biscuits and soft drink, for example).

There are plenty of sales to get cheap decorations etc at a fraction of the usual price. I always get these items at sale time.

I hear you! I buy throughout the year whenever I see a good special. So by the time Xmas rolls around, I have a whole heap of things already so I don’t feel the financial burden.

I save my points to use at Christmas and usually start shopping after the last birthday in my house which is the beginning of September. This year I tried to just get what they asked for or needed which didn’t seem like much but still feel like I went.overboard this year. It’s something we have been able to afford but I’m feeling it’s not a necessity. I also haven’t bought any new decorations in at least 3 years and let the kids decorate the tree with their homemade stuff, I’m learning to let go of everything looking picture perfect

We budget and buy gifts throughout the year and also accrue points to purchase food for Christmas. We do not go overboard and always stay on budget. We do what works best for our family and it is best not to compare with other people. Outward appearances are not always what they seem. Some of our best Christmas experiences have been low key.

Who says you need to do the same as some other people do ? who says you need the most beautiful decorated home and food galore ? Who says that will make you happy ?

make what you can and spend what you can afford

Don’t over thinking. Just spend what you can.

Just enjoy Christmas with what you have Most people who have extravagant decorations etc I think have probably added a few over many years as most people can’t afford them now days.