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Christmas on a Shoestring

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The Lloyds Money For Life challenge has funded the residents of Barking & Dagenham foyer to create this booklet to help fellow residents and those in the wider community to enjoy their Christmas without spending a fortune. We recognise that many people live on a tight budget, but with a bit of imagination, we can all celebrate the Christmas festivities without getting into debt. The average family in the UK spends £820 on Christmas, but we have come up with ideas that will help you to have a great time for a fraction of the cost.

Setting and sticking

to a Christmas budget

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Money saving tips• Ask yourself ‘How much can I

afford to spend on Christmas?’

• Make a list of everyone you have to buy a present for, decide how much money you have to spend and stick to your budget

• Make a list and stick to it when shopping

• If you must buy for friends, agree to only spend a max of £3 on each other or arrange a ‘secret Santa’

• Don’t be fooled by Christmas offers and discounted goods as they might not be cheaper

• Go to money saving websites for vouchers

• Compare your food shopping with www.mysupermarket.com website to make sure you are getting the best deals

• Make your own Christmas decorations and cards

• Go for a classy minimalistic Christmas look

• Look out for magazines and catalogues in the run-up to Christmas with features on Christmas décor for inspiration and look for similar decorations in cheaper shops

• Buy Christmas cards, wrapping paper, and decorations in January when the sales are on and keep them for next year

• Use festive images from magazines and catalogues as Christmas stickers

• Contact shops to find out when the for pre-Christmas sales are

• Don’t buy gift cards without checking the expiry. Some gift cards cost more to use than cash so check the terms and conditions.

• Save up your supermarket points or supermarket stamps to even out the cost

• Sell old toys and unwanted items on eBay to make money for presents

• Don’t use your credit card for Christmas shopping – you could be paying it back until the following Christmas – especially if you are paying a high interest rate.

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Gift ideas • Give framed pictures to family

for Christmas. You could use a photograph of your family or a picture your children have drawn.

• Buy less expensive perfume and pour it into a pretty bottle or box

• Buy gifts from charity shops – look around for special bargains

• Go to the £1 shop for stocking fillers and other bargains

• Make chocolates / sweets / biscuits and put them in a jar with a Christmas stickers or ribbon tied around it

• Buy inexpensive bath salts in packets and put them in pretty jars – or plain jars with your own added Christmas sticker or glitter

• Buy some cheap baskets and make your own Christmas hampers. You could fill them with food or toiletries.

• Buy an inexpensive plain plate, glass, mug from the £1 shop or charity shop and decorate it with ceramic paint

• Decorate an old biscuit tin with glitter or ceramic paint. Buy some inexpensive biscuits, place them in the tin and wrap in tinsel.

• Personalise plain wooden hangers with friends’ names or special sayings.

• Get your children to help with making gifts. Spending time with children is more important to them than buying expensive presents

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Christmas food• The most expensive food is not

necessarily the nicest. Blind taste tests often show that people enjoy budget brands just as much.

• Only buy what you need to avoid wasting food.

• Eat your Christmas leftovers on boxing day, you could make a turkey curry or bubble and squeak.

• Make your own mince pies

• While making your own mince pies, get the children to help decorate them

• Make your own pigs in blankets, which will be much cheaper than shop bought

• Buy frozen vegetables. They can be cheaper than fresh, are just as nutritious and you only use what you need

• If you are inviting friends or family to Christmas dinner, ask them to each bring a course of their own

• Download a recipe from the internet and make your own punch or mulled wine

• Make your own Christmas pudding and cake – involve children – they will love helping

• Use economy mixers to mix with drinks

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Christmas decorations• If you have children – make

Christmas decorations with them.

• Purchase from the £1 shop: glue, wool, glitter, paint, scissors and stickers

• Buy a large roll of plain brown paper, some string and glitter to make your own wrapping paper

• Recycle last year’s ribbons and bows

• Collect evergreen leaves, cut a hole in the top and thread some string through it and hang on the tree

• Dip leaves in silver or gold paint

• Pick ivy and drape it around your home

• Go to the park and collect acorns or pinecones and spray them silver or gold

• Thread popcorn onto cotton and hang it around the house as a garland

• Pick up twigs from the park or forest and paint gold, silver or red

• If you can’t afford a Christmas tree, find a branch, paint it white and hang Christmas decorations on it

• Buy plain Christmas baubles and personalise them

• Cut out pictures of your children and paste them onto plain Christmas baubles

• Cut out snowflakes from plain paper and glue these to coloured card

• Buy value envelopes to put homemade Christmas cards in.

• Use small match boxes wrapped up like presents, tied with ribbon and hung on the tree to make inexpensive Christmas tree decorations

• Make salt dough decorations for the Christmas tree.

• Stick pictures of Santa on plain balloons

• Buy candles and decorate them yourself – make sure that you do not use flammable materials

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Chocolate truffles recipe• 16 digestive biscuits

• 6 heaped tablespoons of drinking chocolate (plus 2 extra tablespoons for dusting)

• 1 can (395g) of condensed milk

1. Place the biscuits in a large plastic bag or bowl, bash with a rolling pin or anything heavy until the biscuits are crumbs

2. Add the can of condensed milk and stir

3. Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes

4. Divide into small round balls

5. Put 2 tablespoons of drinking chocolate in a bowl & roll the balls around in it

6. Put the balls into a see through bag and tie with ribbon

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Christmas dinner

Product Shop Price2 x 1.65 kg turkey breasts with Lincoln style stuffing

Asda £6.00

2.5kg ‘smart price’ kilo British potatoes

Asda 99p

85g ‘smart price’ sage & onion stuffing mix

Asda 15p

1 kg ‘savers’ Brussel sprouts Morrisons 75p

1 x ‘savers’ packets of 6 mince pies Morrisons 60p

1 x ‘smart price’ 454kg Christmas pudding

Asda 98p

850kg ‘savers’ frozen parsnips Morrisons 70p

1 kg ‘savers’ frozen carrots Morrisons 55p

170g ‘basic’ gravy granules Sainsbury’s 18p

200g ‘savers’ brandy butter Morrisons £1.00

750ml bottle of Three Mills white wine

Asda £2.50

750 ml bottle of Three Mills red wine Asda £2.50

WITHOUT WINE £11.90 divided by 6 people =£1.99 per head

WITH WINE £16.90 divided by 6 people = £2.82 per head

* Prices correct at time of printing: December 2014

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Christmas Quiz1. What is a Secret Santa?

A) Father Christmas disguised as a telly tubby

B ) Father Christmas’ secret address

C) Where a group of people agree to buy a secret present for each other

2. How long does Christmas officially last for?

A) 12 days

B) 2 days

C) 7 days

3. What are pigs in blankets?

A) A type of farmyard insulation

B) Bacon wrapped around a chipolata sausage

C) New born piglets snuggled under a duvet in the barn

4. What are pinecones?

A) The seed of a fir tree

B) A type of mincemeat flavoured ice cream

C) A Christmas candle holder

5.What is a popcorn garland?

A) A home made Christmas decoration

B) A new cinema flavoured sweet

C) A string of sweet corn that you have with your Christmas dinner

6. What country do turkeys cone from?

A) Turkey

B) Iceland

C) Mexico

7. How long was the biggest Christmas stocking in the world?

A) 106 feet and 9 inches long

B) 23 feet long and 4 inches long

C) 215 feet and 10 inches long

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8. If Father Christmas visits everyone under the age of 18 in the world, how fast would he have to travel?

A) 2,000 miles per hour

B) 650 miles per second

C) 9,235 piles per minute

9. In 1999 the world’s largest snowman was built, how tall was he?

A. 113 feet tall

B. 213 feet tall

C. 186 feet tall

10. What are the chances of white Christmas in England?

A) One in hundred

B) One in ten

C) One in thousand

11. Where did ‘boxing day’ get its name

A) Because there was always boxing matches the day after Christmas

B) The council collects the empty boxes the day after Christmas

C) From all of the money collected in church alms-boxes for the poor

12. What colour are the berries from the mistletoe plant?

A) Red

B) White

C) Blue

13. How many points does a snowflake have?

A) Six

B) Four

C) Twenty

14. The song White Christmas was first performed in the film ‘Holiday Inn.’ What year was this?

A) 1942

B) 1952

C) 1985

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15. Which country gives London’s Trafalgar Square its Christmas tree every year?

A) Sweden

B) Norway

C) Finland

16. What is new year’s eve called in Scotland?

A) Auld Lang Syne

B) Hogmanay

C) Happy new year night

17. How many wise men came to give baby Jesus presents

A) 6

B) 4

C) 3

18. Which reindeer was NOT one of the original eight reindeer from the ‘Twas the night before Christmas’ poem

Comet, Cupid, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Donner, Blitzen, Brazen

Answers:

1A, 2A, 3B, 4A, 5A, 6C, 7A, 8B, 9A, 10B, 11C, 12B, 13A, 14A, 15B, 16B, 17C, 18 BRAZEN