That favourite of the media, "research" today tell us that "the average Briton will spend half their paypacket on Christmas".
Unsurprisingly, I've just run a very back of the envelope for what I think we are likely to spend at it comes out at about 7% absolute tops. And I'm sure it will be very nice, as always.
Where do you think you'll be?
home.bt.com/news/uk-news/half-of-december-pay-packet-spent-on-christmas-research-shows-11364114589712
|
|
No idea tbh, I've not really started thinking about Christmas presents yet. I doubt I'll start til next month.
|
Perhaps I could be considered a tad scroogey being I'm sitting here without any heating on even though I have 2 m2 of well-seasoned hardwood logs waiting to go up in smoke.
Christmas? - I totally ignore it, and have done for years. I might take more interest in it if it was staged in July.
|
>> I AM GRINCH!
>>
According to Mrs HM I out-Grinch the Grinch.
Bah Humbug!
|
Christmas costs me four second class stamps, plus 4 specific family cards. All other cards are electronic. No presents for anyone, nor do I expect any. For my old Mum & Aunt I give them my time.... Help Spring Clean, take them for a drive out when the weather is more clement.
I got jaded when working in retail for many years. Bought Christmas stock in April/May. Delivered Sept/Oct. Boxing Day was spent bookkeeping and sorting stock. Business as normal on 27/12.
A lovely time for children & some adults love it. I don't. Obviously. No decorations, tree or lights. Sometimes I don't even put my received cards up. Had my annual Xmas dinner yesterday. That's it until 2017.
Last edited by: legacylad on Mon 21 Nov 16 at 22:12
|
|
John Lewis today. Bought new tree and lights. Some were sold out already. Won't put it up until the middle of December though. Bought my grandson's present too. Quite like Christmas really and you have to remember that for small children its just as magical as it ever was.
|
I love Christmas, mainly because the family spend even more time together than normal, which I very much enjoy, although this year being the first without my mum will be strange.
I spend maybe £150 across my immediate family ( 6 people ) and send my little lad £20 as he likes to save up for things.
The highlight last year was my brother-in-law who after a copious amount of Jim Bean is a one man comedy show, especially when playing board games which we do on xmas eve - his Indian-Australian accent combined with alcohol makes him even funnier and better company than normal and the kids love it too.
I save my Scroogey bit for the rest of the year.
|
My family calls me Darth.
Actually, we may push the boat out this year. Normally we have a few bits of holly and fir from the garden for decoration but I noticed last year that the little wreath we always put on the front door was going brown. In the January sale at Lidl I picked up a huge string of little lights that were two euros because the 24v transformer was missing. Back along I found one at a car boot sale for an euro fifty. Ho ho ho...
|
|
I've just remembered - a couple of years ago I wrote a piece defending Scrooge and the disgraceful way he was portrayed by Charles Dickens for the edification of my family and friends. I might just dust it off and show it the light of day again.
|
>>I save my Scroogey bit for the rest of the year.
When you spend 1000 times on yourself what you spend on your child for Christmas...
That redefines Scrooge!
|
>>When you spend 1000 times on yourself what you spend on your child for Christmas...<<
If you think love can be bought and all that matters is money, I suppose so.
|
>> If you think love can be bought and all that matters is money, I suppose
>> so.
You certainly seem to try to buy your own love with money.
|
I've hated the naked consumerism/materialism of Christmas for as long as I can remember. But ever since I split up with my then wife many years ago (moving out, leaving the kids behind) I've found the whole Christmas thing incredibly difficult. I never enjoy Christmas Day. I just feel uneasy the whole time.
My way of coping is to ensure we have as many guests as possible, though the number is usually quite small, and I get stuck into cooking. By the end of the day I've had little time to think of anything else and am tired out.
I spend nowhere near half my monthly income on it all. Maybe a bit more than 5%, at a rough guess. A bit extra on food and drink, presents for kids and grandkids. Nothing, usually, on decorations - we bought a bit of stuff last year and it will do for this.
|
Throughout the year I watch what I spend -never cut corners on the goods or services I buy BUT look for "value for money"
Come Xmas the same rules apply but the budget for Sons, DiLs & 6 grandchildren is around £1200.
Then there are some other people a lot worse off than me. often through no fault of their own so Local Charities for Elderly, deprived kids & others might be £2-300.
For SWMBO & I we buy each other very little - if we need something @ any point in the year we would buy it then. But then again I can walk through any store & any High Street & really see very little to buy.
Mind you Glass Palace Emporiums selling new 4 wheelers hold some attraction to me but ZERO to SWMBO!
|
>> Mind you Glass Palace Emporiums selling new 4 wheelers hold some attraction to me but
>> ZERO to SWMBO!
>>
And what's she done to deserve him? :-)
|
£200 to £300 for the kids (2 of them) same for the girlfriend.
I will get about £100 back in gifts but as the kids and girlfriend don't work it'll be my my money buying my presents!
Not to hopeful on getting a present from the lad though. He still has the Father's Day present that he got me still in his room not given!
|
No one get any pressies here 'cept the five grandnippers. Our kids have jobs and do all right financially. We've just slipped them £3K each anyway to treat them. Two are going with their kids to in-laws. We're going to youngest daughters in Stockport and will enjoy seeing her 2 boys getting their presents.
Then it's a buffet here for all of them on Boxing day. SWM's a good kook and it's her hobby but I've helped this year by going to Lidl and buying their boxes of frozen Indian nibbles to add to the feast. A dozen bottles of red are already in stock...as is the beer.
Deccies and tree..no expense there...all brought forward from previous years. I might throw some flashing lights on the Youclippedus in the front garden but if I do, they'll be staying up there 'til next year...off, of course !
|
>>I've helped this year by going to Lidl and buying their boxes of frozen Indian nibbles to add to the feast. <<
Avoid future disappointment and give 'em to the dog now.
Is it me being my usual self or am I just alone in thinking that talking in public about cash presents and spending levels is somewhat distasteful?
|
I'm no scrooge never have been.My wife sees to the presents and sorts it.
I haven't got the patience Christmas is about family and presents for the children.
Our daughter is the most generous she always gives to much.The lad from London and his girlfriend is stopping at our house over Christmas.
People tend to go over the top over the Christmas period.
|
I think you are quite right Dutchie. Xmas is all about family, and most children like it. Apart from JWs who don't celebrate Xmas I think. Seeing as I only have my old Mum, and very little to do with another family member, I always make sure I spend time with her on Cmas Day.
Many is the time I have been invited to join friends for a slap up meal ( which doesn't actually bother me. I'd be happy with poached eggs on toast) but declined. Likewise always staying at home instead of with my overseas friends. I would feel dreadfully guilty about not seeing her, but still enjoy a small meal for two and time watching some carp TV.
Otoh I know people with family who just go overboard with presents. Literally piles & piles of presents, the vast majority of it unwanted. Adults & children alike.
The best present is giving someone your time
|
>> The best present is giving someone your time
>>
+1
and not just at Christmas
|
>>Seeing as I only have my old Mum, and very little to do with another family member, I always make sure I spend time with her on Cmas Day.
Do you have any brothers or sisters LL. My ole mum had 5 children, and me :) so she always spent xmas with one or the other. She actually didn't enjoy xmas in her final years as she had severe hearing problems which was made worse in a crowd of merry makers.
Although I'm quite happy ignoring xmas, I have had many, many happy Christmas's in years gorn by.
I do though feel quite sad for "all the lonely people" at the Christmastime (where do they all come from?)
|
No, you're not alone, I agree with you.
Pat
|
|
Me and the missus generally don't bother with presents unless it can be eaten or drunk. We are of an age where we don't want any more clutter in our lives. She was complaining that the ironing board wasn't as stable as before so I might make an exception this year.
Last edited by: The Melting Snowman on Thu 24 Nov 16 at 20:26
|
"the ironing board wasn't as stable as before "
any chance that's related to
"unless it can be eaten or drunk"
:-)
|
>>any chance that's related to<<
It's very closely related to wanting to sleep in the shed on Christmas night.
Pat
|
I have bought all the presents I intend to give. The cost amounts to about 1% of my gross income. This does not include my charity budget, which is equivalent to my winter fuel allowance. Last year I gave all £200 to a children's hospice.
|
Well done ambo. Fortunately I have no children ( is it PC to say that?) and renew my will every few years with a few tweeks. Should I be unfortunate enough to croak before I can fritter away my estate, or at least reduce it below the IHT level, then two children's hospice, plus an adult hospice, are getting the lions share. Several other smaller charities, run primarily by volunteers will also do ok.
I need to check up that if I croak and my estate ( that's not a Mondeo Runfer) is over the IHT limit, will any tax be payable as 95% of it is left to charities.
Glorious sun here so domestic duties done I'm away over the hills for a few hours....doubtless finishing my walk in the dark ( as usual).
|
|
I don't think any inheritance tax is payable in respect of bequests to charities.
|
IHT allowance is £325,000. Clk Sec is right, see here for the benefits of gifting to charities.
This page has useful info
www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/the-tax-benefits-of-giving-to-charity
about how to reduce tax on any non-charitable bequests by donating to charity, also on what you should lay out in your will to bequest to a charity.
Last edited by: smokie on Sat 26 Nov 16 at 15:18
|
Blow the lot, would be my recommendation. I've seen so many people work and save hard to build up assets including their house only to lose most of it with nursing home fees.
Also I've seen many couples save hard to pass money down to their adult children only to see them squander it on nonsense such as expensive holidays and cars, the sort of things the parents went without so they could pass money down the line!
Spend it before the Govt does. The only problem is knowing when one is going to croak.
|
Also I've seen many couples save hard to pass money down to their adult children only to see them squander it on nonsense such as expensive holidays and cars, the sort of things the parents went without so they could pass money down the line!
Usually because of their parents attitude to money they develop exactly the opposite attitude. A natural sort of counter reaction. Money is there to be spent, taken to an extreme attitude of saving it's pretty pointless.
|
I think it's simply just a generational / societal shift. For us oldies, we didn't buy something until we had saved up for it. The only exception was taking on a mortgage to buy a home. Apart from that, my missus and I have never borrowed a penny to buy anything. We have never owed anything on a credit card. If we didn't have the money, we went without. I think that made us appreciate things when we did eventually buy them, since a lot of effort had gone in before the purchase even started.
These days it's more a case if you can't afford it, you borrow. I don't completely blame the younger generation since consumers are constantly bombarded with credit offers. Of course the Govt. sets a bad example with its colossal debt-spending. When debt-fuelled spending ends I think it's all going to get very messy.
However, there's a young man we know (the son of someone I used to work with, aged 32) who's as tight as the tightest duck's whatsit you could imagine. He's single, a fact his Mother is concerned about. I think there might be a correlation there!
Last edited by: The Melting Snowman on Sat 26 Nov 16 at 20:16
|
> These days it's more a case if you can't afford it, you borrow. I don't
>> completely blame the younger generation since consumers are constantly bombarded with credit offers.
No doubt if the attitude from banks etc to lend money had changed 50 years ago, it would seem completely normal to you. I don't say that to be clever, i just mean we are all products of our time. Although I wonder if it might change, i read the other day the under 30s are the first generation poorer than their parents.
|
>>However, there's a young man we know (the son of someone I used to work with, aged 32) who's as tight as the tightest duck's whatsit you could imagine. He's single, a fact his Mother is concerned about. I think there might be a correlation there!<<
On the contrary, he may be coming into his prime. I know many women in their late 20's and into their 30's who wish they could locate a man who was reliable, both personally and financially, having had bad experiences in their younger years with men who didn't look beyond tomorrow financially.
Of course, if he is too tight, he should join a couponing club and look for a soul mate there...
|
>>Blow the lot, would be my recommendation. I've seen so many people work and save hard to build up assets including their house only to lose most of it with nursing home fees
So how, or who, will you fund your own nursing home fees?
|
>> So how, or who, will you fund your own nursing home fees?
>>
A very pertinent question Ambo. I rather think that those who believe the State is in a position to provide such care for all those who need it are in for disappointment Even if care is provided by the Stated it is unlikely to be at a level that you would like your loved ones to receive.
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Sun 27 Nov 16 at 10:45
|
My 98 yo Aunt is in a Bupa home. I take my soon to be 89 yo mum to visit her weekly... It's a full day job as she is some distance away, and I am her nearest living relative. The staff are nice, what little food she eats is uninspiring but palatable for her. It's clean but utilitarian. I wheelchair her out to my car, wheel chair her into Asda, push her round ( last week in one hour she bought a TV guide and pack of ginger nuts). Then take her for a drive before back to the home by 5pm, then an hour + drive home.
Her room is clean, just one awful cheap print on the walls, a nasty green carpet, flat pack furniture and a small wall mounted TV she has to sit 3' away from in order to see it. I offered to put a 32" tv in her room to improve her life quality but it wasn't allowed.
She will never return to her 2 bed flat which I check fortnighly for mail etc, and after 8 months in the home, her life savings of almost £30k are gone (32 weeks @£850 a week plus extras). Obviously she still receives her state pension, and a small private pension to offset these costs, but sometime in the New Year I will have to sell her flat.
That's why I'm spending my private pension now whilst I can enjoy it. The idea of my hard earned being spent at that rate on a pokey little room appals me.
|
That's why I'm spending my private pension now whilst I can enjoy it. The idea of my hard earned being spent at that rate on a pokey little room appals me.
>>
I suppose it's not something anyone is very keen on paying, but it still needs paying for.
|
|
What would the local authority pay and how much more pokey and utilitarian would be room at that rate.
|
Come the day I can't look after myself physically and/or financially, well, let's put it this way, I won't be sitting in a poxing care home with nothing much to look forward to other than Countdown and a sing song.
Some version of a short pier and a long walk will no doubt be available, and in my case, infinitely preferable.
|
|
Runfer, I took you for a 'Thelma & Louise' on a mountain bike sort of person...
|
|
I'd bet good money plenty say that, I wonder though how many actually do it?
|
>> I'd bet good money plenty say that, I wonder though how many actually do it?
>>
>>
You can do it slowly, a bit at a time.
Who was it said "There's no vice I would give up for the sake of two extra years in an old people's home" ?
|
"No pleasure is worth giving up for the sake of two more years in a geriatric home"
~Kingsley Amis
|
>> Come the day I can't look after myself physically.......
>>
>> Some version of a short pier and a long walk will no doubt be available,
>> and in my case, infinitely preferable.
>>
I understand your thoughts today but will you still have any thoughts left in the future and the mobility to carry out your present intentions.
I am now a carer and am getting to understand a bit better the problems.
|
"Some version of a short pier and a long walk will no doubt be available, and in my case, infinitely preferable."
But of course you won't. Very, very few people do. I very much doubt you will be an exception. The will to live is very strong and decline is gradual.
See you in the care home Runfer. And don't eat all the the custard creams :-)
|
>>Come the day I can't look after myself physically and/or financially, well, let's put it this way, I won't be sitting in a poxing care home with nothing much to look forward to other than Countdown and a sing song.
>>Some version of a short pier and a long walk will no doubt be available, and in my case, infinitely preferable.
You and me both guvnor. I used to visit 'old peoples homes' in my mobile car tuning days. A strong smell of urine + the old folk sitting around in the day room either watching day time TV or nodding off.
My friend the leather craftsman ended up in a nursing home down here when his prostate cancer spread to his bones - I've been in bigger police station cells (Shhhh!) than his pokey little room.
Thinking back, I reckon he actually preferred the nursing home to his isolated moorland cottage - 3 meals per day, always some characters to have a chinwag with. We (all his friends) used to regularly turn up and take him out on trips/meals to various parts of Cornwall. Course, it wouldn't be like that for a no-one like me ;)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5jdxUduXw4
|
>> So how, or who, will you fund your own nursing home fees?
Won't have to, all the males in our family croak of heart attacks or other fairly rapid life-shortening illnesses. The missus on the other hand her family do seem to last longer but she's very well catered for when then need arises.
|
>>I need to check up that if I croak and my estate ( that's not a Mondeo Runfer) is over the IHT limit,
Say someone leaves £500,000
He/she gives £200,000 to Registered Charities - have to be registered!!!
The estate is then regarded as £300,000 for Inheritance Tax purposes
£325K is limit for IHT so no tax on the remaining £300K
|
Thanks for clarifying. Much appreciated. I have apportioned my estate percentage wise to the registered charities, and financial bequests to friends barely run into five figures in total.
It's reassuring to know that in a worst case scenario I won't be liable to IHT then.
I cannot remember who I have bequested my current wheels to at the the of death....
|
|
I think as Smokie pointed out earlier in his link, there is an additional exemption on the remainder of the estate if charitable gifts exceed 10% (?) of the net estate.
|
If I finish up in a "care" home, I hope I'm doo-lally enough by then not to know, or care.
Peaceful pill anyone?
(If I could, legally or illegally, get hold of one, I certainly would)
Last edited by: Roger. on Mon 28 Nov 16 at 14:54
|
|
As far as money is concerned, I'd give all I had to family - the rest of the world can go hang.
|
How Scroogey are you? - sooty123
