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How I Manage My Christmas Budget: Parents, on £2.5k a month, who spend £100 on food

Sophie and Richard are cutting down how much they spend on the festive season this year

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Sophie and Richard are cutting costs this Christmas
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In our special How I Manage My Christmas Budget series, we speak to people to find out how they are saving and spending money during the festive period.

This week, we speak to Sophie Aspinall, 31, a social media manager living in Wiltshire with her partner, Richard, 31, and their two daughters, Mila, five, and Ivy, three. Sophie has a £100 per child budget for each of her daughters and won’t be doing a conventional Christmas meal. In Sophie’s household, the kids will decide what they want to eat on Christmas Day. In the past, Sophie’s felt under pressure to spend more than she can afford at Christmas.

Monthly budget

Our monthly income: I am a social media manager and my partner is a plumber. Our total combined income is around £2,500 a month. I also run a TikTok channel talking about life as a mum. 

Our main monthly outgoings: Rent, £650; council tax, £169; groceries, between £400 and £500; utility bills, £600; car fuel, £120; car insurance, £80; mobile phone bills, £80. 

Our Christmas budget: Food, £100; drinks, £30; presents for wider family, £50; gifts for each of our daughters, £100, so £200 in total. 

We try to make Christmas magical for the girls and love seeing their faces light up when we decorate the house. It is always wonderful seeing them so happy. Our total budget for Christmas this year is about £380, with most of that going on presents for our daughters.

While I do love Christmas, I think it has become a big commercial racket. It’s so easy to get carried away and spend too much, but that can easily lead to debt. We have a budget and stick to it. We’ve also had to rein in our spending because everything is so expensive.

I haven’t spent any money on pre-Christmas activities. We were fortunate to go and see The Festival of Light at Longleat as it was paid for by other family members. Other than that, we have been to local garden centres to see their Christmas displays and visited any free local light switch-on events. We also just drive around in the car to look at people’s Christmas lights outside their homes.

I’ll be spending Christmas with my partner and two girls at home. We don’t cook a conventional Christmas dinner as the girls won’t eat it. I also think it’d be unfair for one of us to be stuck in the kitchen all day rather than being present and watching the kids play with their toys.

Instead of a traditional Christmas meal, we let the girls decide what they want and usually get a takeaway or have steak. We’ll also buy snacks like cheese, crackers, chocolate and nuts for the day. In total, we’ll be spending about £100 on food and no more than £30 on drinks. We’ll get most of the extras from Tesco, but will also have a look around Marks & Spencer and Aldi and Lidl, as their Christmas ranges are good.

We’ve spent £100 each on the girls’ presents this year and only got them things we know they will like and enjoy. We always set the same budget for them.

Most of the presents for the girls have come from Amazon, the Early Learning Centre and The Works. We’ve used Temu to get a few stocking fillers. I purchased a second-hand Barbie wardrobe with clothes for under £20 for one of the girls and it looks almost brand new. I do like Vinted for presents, but find people try to charge a lot these days.

I’ve also bought the girls things like fidget toys, arts and crafts sets, a wooden coffee machine, a toy microwave, a jumper, a watch, clothes and a clock. I got some real make-up for my eldest and pretend make-up for my youngest.

We won’t be spending money on gifts for friends or most family members. At this time of year I always say people should keep their money and spend it on their kids or themselves.

We also won’t be spending any money on new Christmas decorations. We have them already and tend to make a few out of paper ourselves. We’ve made Santa faces and stuck on cotton balls for the beards. The girls love them.

We definitely spent more on Christmas in the past and have learned from our mistakes. We used to spend money we didn’t have. Since becoming parents, however, we’ve become much more sensible.

Previously, I have felt under pressure to buy a lot at Christmas, particularly because I’m on social media. I’d always felt that I hadn’t purchased or budgeted enough for presents. Comparing myself to others has definitely been the worst thing about Christmas for me in the past, but now I recognise that Christmas isn’t about presents. It’s about who is there around you and enjoying time off together.

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